Architecture of an Education and Research Network: Case of TogoRER

Abstract

Information and communication technologies (ICTs) have integrated all fields of activity today with a real effect on research and education. Thus, this has led the education and research community to build a global network of standards to take full advantage of the related benefits. Indeed, to propose an architecture of a solid education and research network especially for our country is to give a preliminary basis that would help in an efficient realization when our governments decide to support the creation of a national research and education network to stimulate the research. It is in this perspective that the education and research networks (RERs) have emerged. Through a study on the level of Internet coverage of the different public and private structures of higher education and research, based on national data collections and revealing a lack of adequate bandwidth, our investigations allowed to define a network architecture that can be implemented for the needs of education and research in Togo. This allows researchers, teachers and students to share information online, quickly and reliably. Its users are thus able to cooperate more effectively and have easier access to the best available resources. For this study, which concerns the case of Togo, the objective of this paper is to define and implement a better architecture of Togo's education and research network (TogoRER), which will be interconnected to the education and research network of West and Central Africa (WACREN) according to the national technical realities while drawing on the experience of certain countries, hence the problematic of this theme.