Evaluating the performance of NRENs in deploying IoT in Africa: the case for TTN

The growth of the Internet worldwide has been fuelled by the development of the “National Research and Education Networks” (NRENs), i.e., networks of academic and educational institutions. In Africa the establishment of NRENs is more recent. In this paper we analyse the readiness of African NRENs to be part of “The Things Network” (TTN), a network of IoT gateways that has fostered the growth of IoT in Europe by adopting a community network model. We analyse RTT and packet loss toward the nearest TTN network server, in African countries where RIPE Atlas (RIPE - “Réseaux IP Européens”, French for “European IP Networks”) probes are hosted both in academic and commercial networks. Our conclusion is that NRENs and commercial ISPs are on an equal foot in hosting TTN gateways in most countries we considered.