PREGINET is the only REN in the Philippines, which interconnects and catalyzes research among academic, government, and research institutions. PREGINET has links to several overseas RENs including the Asia-Pacific Advanced Network (APAN), Asian Internet Interconnection Initiatives (AI3), and Trans-Eurasia Information Network 3 (TEIN-CC).

Prior to PREGINET, no identifiable contiguous and wide coverage REN exists in the Philippines. The academic, government, and research institutions are connected through commercial Internet Service Providers (ISPs) for the access of online information and references for their research and education activities. With this set-up, links to the Internet became congested and networks became vulnerable to line outages. To address some of the shortcomings of the situation and at the same time, focus on the requirements for a national research and education network as a strategy to develop the vision of a networked Philippines, PREGINET was conceptualized.

Compared with commercial ISPs, PREGINET provides value to academic, government, and research institutions in four (4) primary areas:

• direct connectivity to international RENs;
• enhanced communication through its value-added services which include videoconferencing, video streaming, and Voice over IP (VoIP);
• access to local and foreign content and applications via conduct of Research and Development (R&D); and
• facilitating formation of user-communities in areas of agriculture, bioinformatics, disaster mitigation, distance education, network technologies, telemedicine, among others.

Upon joining PREGINET, partners are provided the platform to pursue collaborative research and initiatives with leading universities and research institutions abroad.

For more details on the guidelines on the usage over the network, here is PREGINET's Acceptable Use Policy 

HISTORY

PREGINET started as the primary part of the Virtual Center for Technology Innovation in Information Technology (VCTI-IT), one of the components of the Comprehensive Program to Enhance Technology Enterprises (COMPETE) program of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST).

The use of PREGINET in the country continuously grows up to now. From small number of partners when the network started its operation, PREGINET captured a significant niche in the research and education community gaining more than a hundred different government, academic, and R&D partners in the country.

SERVICES

PREGINET provides an array of services to its partners. These services are made to fulfill PREGINET’s role in the R&D arena by allowing its partners to access local and foreign content, enabling real-time interaction, and facilitating formation of user communities.

To avail of these services, visit the Connect to PREGINET section. For inquiries about these services, please go to the Contact Us Page.

NETWORK CONNECTIVITY

By becoming a part of the PREGINET network you will have:

• 10/155 Mbps connections to the commodity internet;
• 155 Mbps connection to international research and education networks; and
• Faster access to large amount of data and databases through PREGINET’s strong partnership with major telecommunication providers in the country.

INTERNET PROTOCOL VERSION 6 (IPV6)

IPv6 is a network layer protocol for packet-switched internetworks. Because of the foreseeable exhaustion of the Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4), IPv6 is created to be its successor.

IPV6 DEPLOYMENT

• PREGINET supports native IPv6 to all core routers, Border Gateway Protocol IPv6 peering to full IPv6 internet routing table, and IPv6 traffic with the same performance as IPv4.

IPV6 TUNNEL

• A manual tunnel broker can be arranged for a non-production network.

ADDRESS ALLOCATION

• The Asia-Pacific Network Information Center (APNIC) allocates 2001:D18/32 IPv6 address space for PREGINET partners.

IPV6 MULTICAST

• PREGINET supports native IPv6 Multicast, Multiprotocol Extensions for BGP IPv6 Peering, Multicast Listener Discovery, and Embedded RP.
• You can send your request for IPv6 address space to ops@pregi.net. Kindly include your approximate deployment date, network diagram, domain name server of IPv6 delegation and service plans. Contact us if you want to know how you can be a partner.

MULTICAST

Multicast is the simultaneous delivery of information to a group of destinations using the most efficient strategy to deliver the message over each link of the network, creating copies only when the links to the destinations split.

PHILIPPINE OPEN INTERNET EXCHANGE

PhOpenIX is the Exchange in the Philippine Internet industry operated by a neutral institution that allows that exchanges of Internet traffic in a free-market environment among local internet and data service providers.

SERVER COLOCATION

Server colocation at PREGINET facilities is offered to its partners.

VIDEO STREAMING

Video streaming, sometimes called video-on-demand, is one of PREGINET’s ways to broadcast events and lectures to its partners online. The PREGINET Team transfers to its partners the knowledge on the technology if its partners are already capable of setting up their own streaming events.

VIDEO CONFERENCING

Videoconferencing is a communication technology that allows interaction via simultaneous video and audio transmissions. It has been advocated by PREGINET because of its cost-efficiency and at the same time, achieving the same results as with a face-to-face meeting.

We welcome more partners to the PREGINET network!

If your institution is:

• a government, academic, or research and development organization;
• interested in collaboration in any of the following fields – agriculture, telemedicine, bioinformatics, disaster management, or advanced network technologies; and
• interested in participating in distance learning initiatives, locally and abroad.

Then we encourage you to be a part of the only REN in the Philippines, and be a part of the global R&E community!

The process in becoming a PREGINET partner is easy:

1. Submit a Letter of Intent (LOI) addressed to:
   Franz A. de Leon, Ph.D.
   Director
   DOST- Advanced Science and Technology Institute
   ASTI Building, U.P. Technology Park Complex, C.P. Garcia Avenue, Diliman, Quezon City 1101
2.  Upon receipt of the LOI, the PREGINET Project Manager will set a meeting with prospective partner to discuss the institution’s requirements.
3.  DOST-ASTI (PREGINET) will submit a proposal (with indicative costs), as well as a network diagram to prospective partner.
4.  If the proposal is agreeable to the prospective partner, an authorized representative signs the Conforme. The signed Conforme will be sent back to DOST-ASTI.
5.  DOST-ASTI then proceeds with the bidding process to determine which telecommunications company will provide the last-mile connection.
6.  In line with no. 5, DOST-ASTI will submit the final costing of PREGINET Connectivity to the prospective partner.
7.  Prospective partner will sign the Conforme on the final proposal and again, the same will be sent back to DOST-ASTI.
8.  DOST-ASTI will process the final and signed MOA.

DOST-ASTI will now proceed with the implementation or installation of the link. Prospective partner can now enjoy the services and benefits of the PREGINET Connectivity!