Wide Area Network is an advanced telecommunication infrastructure, which is used now-a-days extensively, for exchange of data and other types of information between two or more locations, separated by significant geographical distances. The medium of connectivity can be copper, optical fibre cable or wireless, as may be found feasible. Such wide area networks, in a way, create a highway for electronic transfer of information in the form of voice, video and data. Department of IT in Government of India is implementing an approved Scheme known as State Wide Area Network (SWAN) Scheme, envisaged to create such a connectivity in each State / UT, to bring speed, efficiency, reliability and accountability in overall system of Government-to-Government (G2G) functioning. When fully implemented, SWAN would work as a converged backbone network for voice, video and data communications across each State / UT. SWAN is designed to cater to the governance information and communication requirements of all the State / UT Departments. When fully implemented, SWANs across the country are expected to cover at least 50000 departmental offices through 1 million (10 lacs) route kilometres of communication links.
Department of IT obtained Government approval in March 2005, for the SWAN Scheme for an overall outlay of Rs. 3334 Crores. This outlay has a Grant In Aid component of Rs. 2005 Crores, to be expended by Department of IT in five years. The Scheme has a State / UT share of balance Rs.1329 crores, which has been provisioned by the Department of Expenditure, Govt. of India, under Additional Central Assistance (ACA). Under the SWAN Scheme, Wide Area Networks are being established in 27 States and 6 UTs across the country. The State of Goa and UT of Andaman & Nicobar Islands have implemented Wide Area Networks in the respective State / UT, outside the SWAN Scheme.
Implementation of the SWAN Scheme is in full swing in 33 States/ UTs and the Department of IT has so far approved an outlay of Rs. 1965 Crores of GIA for this purpose.
A wide area network deployed in a State or UT would have two components viz.
The vertical component of SWAN is implemented using multi-tier architecture (typically, three-tier) with the State/UT Headquarter (SHQ ) connected to the each District Head Quarter (DHQ) which in turn gets connected to the each Block Head Quarter (BHQ). Each SHQ, DHQ and BHQ point of connection is called a Point of Presence (PoP), which is a point of bandwidth aggregation for several network links getting connected at this point. The bandwidth provisioning for network connectivity between all the above PoPs is a minimum of 2 Mbps. Presently, the connectivity provisioning between every SHQ and DHQ is for 4 Mbps and DHQ to every BHQ is 2 Mbps. For the horizontal component, the government departments at each tier are connected to the respective PoPs.
The SWAN aims to create a dedicated Closed User Group (CUG) network of minimum speed of 2 Mbps by connecting around 7500 pops, providing Data, Voice & Video connectivity to more than 50,000 govt. offices. The networks aim at increasing the efficiency of the government delivery mechanism and optimizes the performance. The backbone thus created would provide reliable, vertical and horizontal connectivity within the State / UT administration and would facilitate electronic transactions between all the government departments.
To ensure desired Quality of Service (QoS) by the Network Operator and the Bandwidth Service Provider, a Third Party Audit mechanism has been created in the SWAN Scheme which would monitor the performance of the SWAN network in each State / UT. The Third Party Audit (TPA) agency shall perform for a period of five years from the date of final acceptance test of the network and primarily monitor the compliance of the Service Level Agreement (SLA) which the State / UT would enter with the Network Operator and also with the Bandwidth Service Provider.
There are two Options for SWAN implementation; the PPP Model and the NIC model. In the PPP model the State / UT identifies a suitable PPP model (e.g. BOOT) and selects an appropriate Network Operator agency through a suitable competitive bid process for outsourcing establishment, operation and maintenance of the Network. In the NIC model the State / UT designates NIC (National Informatics Centre) as the prime implementation agency for SWAN for establishment, operation and maintenance of the Network. NIC in turn would identify a Facility Management Service (FMS) agency for the State / UT concerned, to manage day-to-day management and operation of the network. Majority of the States / UTs have opted for the PPP model for the implementation SWAN. BSNL has been identified as a preferred Bandwidth Service Provider for SWAN Scheme across the country.
