GSWAN-the backbone of Guj Govt

Today I am going to talk about GSWAN project, which is the backbone of all IT (voice, video, data) related projects in Gujarat since 2001 (Including SICN, SICN is for Gandhinagar only). You all have gone through SICN project in previous post.  As per the CISCO (Leader in Networking domain); GSWAN is the second largest IP based network in the ASIA region.

GSWAN stands for Gujarat State Wide Area Network. Network which connects each and every Gujarat Government offices through IP network up to TALUKA level and in today ‘s date almost at the village level(more than 11,000 villages covered out of total 18000 villages in Gujarat).

The most amazing thing here is that GOG (Government of Gujarat) has used single network(GSWAN) to connect all the GOG offices in Gujarat since 2001 itself, while so called advanced state in IT called Andhra Pradesh has used individual network, based on different topologies to connect major Govt. departments. You will really amazed by knowing that the State of Andhra has recently given contract to M/s TCS to do State Wide Area Network just like Gujarat in August-2009. You can judge the difference.

For all technical and non-technical readers some preamble:

Central Government(Government of India) has made one independent body called “National Informatics Centre “ (almost during 1985) having main office in Delhi. It has one state NIC centre in each state which helps individual state Government to fulfil their IT related requirements. Services of NIC are available to all states much before the 1995 and till date.

But as usual to distinguish in each and every field, Gujarat Government has setup “Gujarat Informatics Limited “in 1999 sidelining NIC in Gujarat. After that in 2000 Gujarat Government has started implementing this GSWAN and SICN project under guidance of rare available IES officers in India (Indian Engineering Service….just like IAS,IPS). His name is Shri R. K . Dave. We can say he is the father of both projects. Under his leadership both projects had been operational within a short span of 9 month to 1 year.

Technical detail of GSWAN project is available here.

For your curiosity, central Government has launched SWAN (State Wide Area Network) project/policy in 2004 for state wise uniform network. They have accepted Gujarat as roll model, because Gujarat has already done it way back with IP protocol, while other states had used some other topology and protocol (mostly failed).

Sadly, in today’s date very less number of states has done the same. While in other hand, Gujarat has successfully extended the network up to village level. Out of total 18,000 villages more than 11000 villages have GSWAN connectivity in today’s date.

Structure of GSWAN:

1)     More than 25,000 email user id created with different types of internet/intranet access based on their parent departments.

2)     Each have to login into client first (authorize) and then they can access internet.

3)     Video conferencing facility is made available up to District and Taluka level whenever GSWAN is made available to the Taluka level offices (2-3 instruments in Taluka level office)

4)     In disaster event, OB VAN is there in four zones of Gujarat. Which can easily make available telephone, VoIP and network available in any geographical are of GUJARAT or INDIA.

5)     VoIP phone made available in district and Taluka level offices.

6)     All offices up to Taluka level can communicate with their parent department through voice, video and data. 

7)     Common portal for accessing email & common services. Email is also available in outlook on intranet.

8)     Webcasting can be avail for specific function, Govt program etc on GSWAN network.

9)     GSWAN is common network platform for all departmental application like treasury, IWDMS,HMIS, IFMS etc.

Security of GSWAN:

Security is almost full proof here through software like VLAN, partitioning, CYBEROAM, use of public IP address etc while at hardware level it used firewalls, routers for the same.

In part-II we will cover Various stages of GSWAN from 2001, Usage of GSWAN, Benefit of GSWAN, Future Plan , personal experiences etc. It is true that in the term of IT industry Gujarat is way behind Karnataka, AP and some other states, but it is very much true and fact that Gujarat is the way ahead of same states in the usage of IT in the Governance (E-governance). It is possible due to GSWAN only.

Used for useIt has got many awards nationally and internationally. More than 150 Government portals are hosted on GSWAN servers and network. Nowweb casting, video conferencing, website filtering, VOIP everything is available and optimally utilzed in this network.