The State of Uttar Pradesh recently achieved a landmark with the setting up of DAMA based Videoconferencing by NIC, connecting all its seventeen Divisions. The historic event was inaugurated by Hon’ble Prime Minister Sh Atal Bihari Vajpayee at a special function on the Occasion of Gandhi Jayanti. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Shri Raj Nath Singh extended his heartiest wishes to the Hon’ble PM on the occasion and said “The state is grateful to you for your inspiration and guidance. The state has finally made a major breakthrough in the field of IT with all its divisions interconnected through Video Conferencing.” It was not a telephonic conversation or a closed door meeting between the Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee and the U.P. Chief Minister but a “Virtual meeting”, between the PM and the Uttar Pradesh CM and Divisional Officers of all the 17 Divisions of U.P.
PM uses the VC setup
The facility had a live use on the inauguration day itself, when the PM enquired from the Agra Divisional officials about the unfortunate plane crash involving the late Shri Madhav Rao Scindia near Mainpuri under Agra Division. At the request of the CM, the PM also sanctioned the total expenditure to be incurred on expanding the VC setup to all the remaining 53 districts of UP by 25th December 2001. The CM and his officers also conferred with the Secretary, MIT, Government of India Mr. Rajeev Ratan Shah who participated from NIC’s New Delhi studio. The CM later reviewed the Law and Order situation in the state with his Divisional officers in the 17 divisions.
U.P. Chief Minister’s enthusiasm for VC facility.
The Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, Mr. Rajnath Singh and senior officers are actively using the VC facility around the state. The CM is particular in monitoring the development schemes running in the state, esp. the “Antyodaya Scheme” and other development schemes. The facility almost had around 30 hours of usage by CM alone since the inauguration. On the inaugural day itself, the CM held a marathon 6 hour meeting with his divisional officers to review the law and order situation in the state. The event provedto be a mega event, as it turned out to be a live show, watched by Secretaries to the Govt. of U.P., other senior bureaucrats and media persons in all the 17 divisions of U.P. and the state capital. Earlier the U.P. Chief Minister inaugurated “NIC Videoconferencing Studio” at Yojna Bhawan, Lucknow. NIC has provided the technology, equipment and the expertise through installation, training, and operation of state-of- the-art DAMA based Videoconferencing facility. This Video-Conferencing network initially links all the 17 divisional headquarters of Uttar Pradesh among themselves, and also to the state capital. With the commitment made by the Chief Minister before the Prime Minister, NIC has taken upon itself to interlink all the 70 districts of Uttar Pradesh by 25th Dec’2001.
What is DAMA ?
A Demand Assigned Multiple Access (DAMA) system is typically a single hop satellite transmission network which allows direct connection between any two nodes in the network among many users sharing a limited “pool” of satellite transponder space DAMA supports full mesh, point-to-point or point-to-multipoint communications — any user can connect directly to any other user anywhere within the network. The result is economical and flexible bandwidth sharing with any mix of voice, FAX, video and data traffic. DAMA optimizes the use of satellite capacity by automatically allocating satellite resources to each active node upon demand. In a DAMA system, the network allocates communications bandwidth to each call from a pool of frequency channels on a demand-assigned basis. When a caller at a remote terminal requests service (e.g. picks up the telephone to make a call) the request is made to a Network Control System (NCS) over the shared DAMA common signaling channel. The NCS functions as a “switchboard in the sky”. The NCS determines if the call is valid and then establishes the channel (including bandwidth) between the originating site and the called number. Circuits remain active only as long as needed, then are broken to free bandwidth for other users. When the call is completed, the NCS is informed by the remote terminals and the freed bandwidth is returned to the frequency pool. By using a DAMA system a single transponder can support several thousand subscribers. Any remote unit can be configured to perform as the Network Control System with the addition of some hardware and Network Management System (NMS) software. The hardware, together with the NMS, serves as the single focal point for system level control within the satellite communications network. The NCS can be located anywhere within the satellite footprint.
What are the benefits of using a DAMA system ?
DAMA systems quickly and transparently assign communication links or circuits to users on a call-by-call basis. After use (hang up), channels are immediately returned to the central pool, for reuse by others. By using DAMA, many subscribers can be served using only a fraction of the satellite resources required by dedicated, point-to-point Single- Channel-Per-Carrier (SCPC) networks.