The Pakistan Educational Research Network (PERN) is another very important project that has been implemented by HEC. PERN is a nationwide educational intranet connecting premiere educational and research institutions of the country. It focuses on collaborative research, knowledge sharing, resource sharing and distance learning by connecting people through the use of the intranet and Internet resources.
PERN is part of the overall vision and objectives of the IT Action Plan that was launched by Dr. Atta-ur-Rahman, Minister of Science and Technology. The project is financed by the government of Pakistan, in cooperation with Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) research and development funds. The network is designed, operated and maintained by the National Telecommunication Corporation (NTC). The project is aimed to be an integral part of the country’s overall education system, and is designed to interlink all public and private sector chartered universities and degree awarding institutes registered with HEC and the government of Pakistan.
HEC is providing all the necessary devices, equipment, technology and technical support to all participant members. Moreover, HEC is also providing high quality internet services (ISDN, DSL, Fibre optics), cheap bandwidth and video conference facilities to all PERN members.
Currently, all the leading and big universities have been a part of PERN. In the first phase of the project, 56 educational institutions have been connected through PERN, and are now doing work online. The rest of the universities in Pakistan will be connected in the later phases of the project.
PERN Architecture
The existing Optical Fibre System of Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited and National Telecommunication Corporation, and the IP/ATM backbone of NTC is utilized for the CORE network of PERN. The network design of PERN consists of three nodal points at Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi. The educational institutions are connected to their respective nodal point by a 256 Kb/s to 6Mbps link from the nearest exchange of NTC/PTCL using OFS, DXX (or better system), DRS or VSAT, whichever is technically feasible. Routers are installed at university premises by the universities to provide connectivity with the access routers from the nearest node. The three nodal locations are interconnected on existing optical fibre systems and terminate the Internet facility in the pool. Currently, the interconnection of three main nodes is on 2x2 Mbps and Internet connectivity is 2 Mbps each for Islamabad and Lahore and 4 Mbps for Karachi. The bandwidth will be increased as per requirement. This architecture allows institutions to pool resources with each other through national fibre network and to access the Internet from the respective nodal points.
Benefits of PERN
With the help of PERN, one participant member shall be able to use other participant resources, if they find better ones. Resources include lectures, assignments, handouts, course material and so forth. According to Director Dr. Tanveer ul Haq, PERN is the network for students and they will definitely student have many extraordinary advantages.
University students will be able to establish strong mutual relationships with other university students to discuss their ideas, thoughts, projects, subjects and assignments. Students will be able to attend or listen to high-quality lectures through video conferencing from other universities. Universities or institutes that lack qualified faculty for specific subjects will not need to worry about it, and PERN will assess the quality of education at all corners of the country equally. PERN can help all participant members to design one unified curricula for different degrees and courses.
I am sure that in the coming future, all Pakistani universities and institutes will be connected with PERN, and there will be only one curriculum. All students will be getting equal, quality education.
I strongly recommended you please visit the PERN official web site for brief and latest information: www.pern.edu.pk
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