In Telecom Eireann (TE), I started working on data services in 1990-91 with X.400 messaging. TE was involved in X.400 standardisation and in developing X.400 software along with Jutland Telephone and Baltimore Technologies, but my main involvement was in implementing an X.400 solution for automated customs clearance. This was the basis for the service offered by Irish National Electronic Trading Agency, a joint venture between TE and An Post. The X.400 software was supplied by a UK company called SD Scicon and ran on systems from Digital. The service went live in April 1991.
Working on X.400 we were aware of alternative messaging solutions based on TCP/IP, but X.400 was seen as the telco solution with the official imprimatur of the CCITT. It had a complex, hierarchical addressing scheme that implicitly saw the messages going through the PTT system near the top of the hierarchy, much like the role of the Post Office in the postal system. Another notable aspect was its complexity, with the standard running to around 500 pages, not to mention the OSI lower layers. The underlying network used X.25 packet switching. This was quite a contrast to IP networking with the idea of making X.25 ‘calls’ that could be billed for, much like telephone calls.
We also deployed an X.400 system within our own internal corporate network and, from what I remember, most of the external mails came from the internet through a gateway – with only a very occasional native X.400 mail.
From 1992 to 1994 I worked on the Dublin Metropolitan Area Network (MAN). This was a pilot high speed network designed for LAN interconnection that initially covered the Dublin area. Despite the ‘metropolitan’ qualifier, it was later extended to Northern Ireland (through the Trans-Ireland Optical Network project) and to BT in the UK. It operated at speeds of 140Mbit/s and 34Mbit/s and used the, now obsolete, Distributed Queue Dual Bus protocol, standardised as IEEE 802.6. These were very high speeds at the time, when Ethernet LANs were implemented on shared co-axial cables at real speeds well below 10Mbit/s.
Connected to the MAN were the Dublin universities, Beaumont and St James Hospitals, Broadcom, Digital, IBM and TE. These entities piloted various applications, including medical imaging and remote diagnosis, along with a range of video and file transfer applications. The sites connected with Cisco routers (AGS+ for the larger sites) and we ran a range of protocols including AppleTalk, DECnet, Novell and of course IP.
With the involvement of the universities, IP became the dominant protocol and through this we started to get a lot of exposure to IP networking. The MAN pilot was a major catalyst in developing our technical awareness of internet technologies, and the internet was gaining in prominence generally all through this period. It was through this project that we got our first internet addresses through IEunet and our first Autonomous System Numbers for connecting to the internet. Bit by bit we were getting more familiar and more enthused by the potential of the internet.
One of our problems on the MAN was that we needed dedicated software for each pilot application; we could see how things could be accelerated if we had a standardised way of viewing information across the network. We got our answer when Karl Jeacle from Broadcom showed us the Mosaic browser and the ‘World Wide Web’.
We started to discuss, informally, the potential to offer internet services and this built up to a point in the summer of 1995 where intensive meetings started with our commercial product development areas. By this time there was no real doubt about developing an internet service, the main question for us was whether to offer a wholesale and business service only, or to develop a full retail/consumer offering. In the end we decided to start with the former option with TE’s subsidiary Eirtrade marketing the business services.
Mike Norris from HEAnet was very helpful in providing advice on joining RIPE, becoming a Local Internet Registry (LIR), getting IP addresses and so on. By September 1995 we had signed up with RIPE to start the process and by November 1995 we had a Cisco 7507 in place with a 2Mbit/s transatlantic link to MCI, using Autonomous System Number 5466. The intention was to complement this with a dial access network with local call rates nationwide which we would wholesale to interested ISPs.
The speed of this link was significant at the time and compares with c. 10Mbit/s from Ebone to the USA for all of their European network and 3Mbit/s that Pipex, the largest UK ISP, had at around this time. MAE-East, the major internet exchange on the US East Coast, and popularly seen as the ‘centre of the internet’ at the time had a traffic level of 85Mbit/s.
Indigo launched its service at around the same time and in early 1996 we started to implement a national dial access network for them using Cisco dial access servers and frame relay backhaul links.
By this time telcos everywhere were launching internet services and in the summer of 1996 we decided to go for a full consumer internet service with the initiative led by Noel Herrity. Technical support was outsourced – this had been one of the main concerns around our ability to deliver a retail service initially. We built on our wholesale service and implemented a dedicated dial access network using equipment from Ascend (MAX4000). By this time we were able to use ISDN primary rate connections and modems implemented on chips in contrast to the older approach with large banks of physical modems with individual PSTN connections and a tangle of wires. Telecom Ireland Software developed the Customer Management System, its descendant still in use today, and we used Digital systems for the various applications including DNS, email and Usenet, later to be replaced by open source.
Inside and outside views of Telecom Internet’s customer pack
The service was branded Telecom Internet and we used the domain name tinet.ie – market surveys had shown that consumers valued the Telecom Eireann brand so this was reflected in the name. We also had a software pack which our marketing group packaged elaborately, like a CD album. The service was launched in December 1996, in time for the Christmas market and we completed the network rollout to deliver nationwide coverage with a single telephone number by early 1997.
The Irish Neutral Internet Exchange (INEX) was also established during this period. The activity on this started in early 1996 out of the need to establish a neutral internet exchange to allow ISPs in Ireland to exchange traffic locally. Another exchange, called Dublin Internet Exchange (DINX), had been set up in late 1995. This was hosted by PostGem, already an active ISP, and so was not seen as being neutral by some of the other ISPs. The main participants in the early meetings were Mike Norris from HEAnet, John Clancy from Indigo, who largely developed the memo and articles of association for the company formation, along with Karen Kinsella and myself from Telecom Eireann. The INEX name had been decided by April 1996 and incorporated the idea of a nexus along with an emphasis on neutrality.
The company formation meeting took place in July 1996. The first INEX meeting proper was held in September and at that we elected the company officers – David Mee from EUnet Ireland as chairman, Mike Norris as vice chairman and myself as secretary. Des McLaughlin from Indigo was elected as treasurer at a later meeting.
Cara won the tender for hosting the equipment, a simple 10Mbit/s Ethernet hub. The membership fee for the first year was set at IEP2,000. The first peerings were set up in April 1997 between HEAnet, Indigo, EUnet Ireland and Telecom Eireann. Peerings with PostGem/Ireland On-Line followed in August 1997. We could then say that INEX was established, and accepted, as the internet peering point for Ireland.
I have continued to work with IP networks in Telecom Eireann, subsequently eir, and I’m currently responsible for core network development. Internet technology has become the basis for all modern telecoms services including voice and video, and we are now starting to retire the telephony networks that were dominant when the internet services were emerging. There has been enormous growth in traffic over that period from our initial internet connection of 2Mbit/s in 1995 to multiple 100Gbit/s link speeds today. In that time access speeds have gone from c. 30Kbit/s to c. 100Mbit/s and more.
Last edit: May 2016
© Denis Curran 2016