Title: A looking-out portal (LOP) approach to enhance qualitative aspects of bandwidth utilisation in academic networks

Authors: Zahid Ansari; Johannes Herrmann; Matin Abdullah; Waseem Ahmed

Addresses: P.A. College of Engineering, Mangalore 574 153, India. ' Curtin University of Technology, G.P.O. Box U1987 Perth, 6845, Western Australia. ' BRAC University, Dhaka 1212, Bangladesh ' P.A. College of Engineering, Mangalore 574 153, India.

Abstract: Campuses of educational institutions periodically need to increase network bandwidth to keep up with increased demand and this decision is based on the quantitative aspects of the network bandwidth utilisation. The qualitative utilisation of the bandwidth is seldom looked into. Improving the qualitative utilisation of the bandwidth may not even necessitate a network upgrade. Although blacklist-based access control techniques help to a certain degree, the findings of this research indicate otherwise. A multi-tier, whitelist-based, looking-out portal (LOP) approach is presented that promises to improve the qualitative utilisation of the network while positively impacting pertinent resource identification and location of sources on the internet. The authors draw on their years of experience serving as students and staff in various campuses of universities and colleges in various countries while making recommendations.

Keywords: network bandwidth utilisation; network access control; academic networks; web portals; search engines; looking-out portals; LOP; qualitative network utilisation; virtual organisations; whitelist; universities; colleges; higher education.

DOI: 10.1504/IJNVO.2011.043802

International Journal of Networking and Virtual Organisations, 2011 Vol.9 No.4, pp.317 - 330

Published online: 21 Feb 2015 *

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