The National Information Infrastructure Development project of Hungary 1998-2000

Abstract

The NIID project came to a milestone by Ihe end of 1997. In the past ten years the NIID and its predecessor, the IID project had established and developed continuously the computer network infrastructure and services of academic and library communities in Hungary. The system's services and applications that had been evolved up to 1997 have reached a level almost equal to that of an average developed country in Western Europe. They provide communication and information access capabilities for about 200 thousand Hungarian users that are almost identical to those of network possibilities in highly developed countries. The number of internet hosts within the NIID project is about 80% of all hosts in Hungary. The domestic backbone network called HBONE of the NIID is the most extended network in Hungary covering all regions of the country. Within the framework of the project Hungary was the first to join the TEN-34 network of the European Union. Several hundreds of organizations in the country operate WWW servers offering now the best opportunity for internet utilization, and their users can easily access similar information services throughout the world. The plan to continue the NIID project for 1998-2000 has set the goal to keep pace with the development of European network transmission speed in international connectivity, to increase domestic network capacities up to the levels according to actual needs and international practice, to fully cover extended service of advanced technologies, including real-time multimedia applications, and to correspond to any application option set by research communities. The advanced infrastructure according to the scenario of the next two-year period renders possible our participation in new European and other international projects, like Internet2, EU 5th frame program etc.