The Government of India approved the Scheme for establishing State Wide Area Network (SWAN) on 31.03.2005. Under this Scheme, technical and financial assistance were provided to the States/Union Territories (UTs) for establishing SWANs to connect all the State/UT Headquarters up to the Block level via District, in a vertical hierarchical structure. Tamil Nadu State Wide Area Network (TNSWAN) is one among the e-Governance infrastructure created under National e-Governance Plan (NeGP). Government offices connected through TNSWAN can access servers hosted at Tamil Nadu State Data Centre (TNSDC) through secured and reliable manner. TNSWAN is a shared scheme between the State and the Central Governments

TNSWAN commenced its operations on 01.12.2007 and has successfully entered into the 12th year of operation. Phase-1 operations commenced on the 1st of Dec 2007 and successfully completed on the 30th of Nov 2012. The Phase 2 (3 years) operation commenced on 09.09.2013 and has been extended with the existing infrastructure for another period of 3 years from 14.02.2019. A system integrator (SI) was selected through tender process for operation and maintenance services and a MoU has been signed with M/s. BSNL towards provisioning of Bandwidth. State Government is wholly funding the project from Phase-2 operations.

ELCOT is the implementing agency for the project. E&Y is the consultant for the project and the core network (Vertical) is being operated and maintained by TCS as Operating Agency.

Purpose of TNSWAN

1. 1. To provide a reliable and secure backbone network to interconnect all the administrative establishments of the State Government up to the Block / Taluk office.
2. 2. To provide the network infrastructure for accessing the various e-Governance applications at State Data Center (TNSDC).
3. 3. To facilitate sharing of information among various government departments for prompt delivery of government services.
4. 4. To provide voice connectivity to all offices connected on the network for faster Communication.
5. 5. To enable video conferencing facility across the district headquarters, secretariat and other important centers. This will facilitate communication in remote locations, thereby reducing the travel time and expenditure involved in face-to-face meetings.
6. 6. To provide Internet access to authorized users of the network

Services provided to Government departments through TNSWAN

Secured Intranet Application Access

• TNSWAN provide Intranet services through which Govt. Departments can access the data hosted at TNSDC or NIC DC through reliable and secured network.
• Intranet access also provides flexibility to communicate across Govt. offices for critical file transfers, remote sessions, etc

Secured Internet Access

• TNSWAN provide secured internet access.
• In order to provide a productive internet service, restriction to social websites like Youtube, Facebook, etc are available in TNSWAN.

Closed User Group VoIP Services

• TNSWAN provide VoIP services to the Govt. offices for faster communication over VoIP phone through the same line procured for TNSWAN.

Video Conferencing Services

• TNSWAN provides video conferencing facility across the District headquarters, Secretariat and other important centers.
• TNSWAN is also used for Hon’ble Tamilnadu Chief Minister Video Conferences as well as Department’s Video Conference between Departments offices with respective Head offices.

TNSWAN Vertical Connectivity

The core network of TNSWAN comprises of 821 PoPs (Points of Presence). State Head Quarters PoP is the hub for the other PoPs in the Network. The Network Operation Centre (NOC) is located at ELCOT, Perungudi (SHQ PoP). The other PoPs are located at the Secretariat, Raj Bhavan, Office of Director General of Police, Office of Commissioner of Police, Corporation of Greater Chennai, Government Complexes at Chennai such as DPI, DMS, Ezhilagam, Panagal Building and Kuralagam, District Collectorates, Revenue Divisional Offices, Taluk Offices and Block Development Offices. This network facilitates Government department by providing voice, data and video connectivity for improving the delivery of services to the public, improving the response time and transparency and to enable the Government Departments to access their servers hosted at TNSDC. Strict Service Level Agreement (SLA) is being adhered in vertical connectivity on 24x7 basis.

TNSWAN Network Room at NOC

24X7 Helpdesk at NOC

Integration of TNSWAN and NKN

TNSWAN is integrated with National Knowledge Network (NKN) as per the guidelines of DeitY, GoI towards enhancing Network services. 1Gbps of NKN Link is terminated at NOC of TNSWAN for the entire users. NKN & TNSWAN have been integrated at DHQ level with 34 Mbps / 100Mbps /1 Gbps

Horizontal Connectivity

All the Government departments are connected to this network through a Leased Line to provide voice , data and video connectivity for improving the delivery of services to the public, for improving the response time and transparency and to enable the Government departments to access their servers hosted at TNSDC.

Some of the departments connected to TNSWAN are High Court of Madras, Commercial Taxes Department, Tamil Nadu Health System Project (TNHSP), Treasuries and Accounts Department, Tamil Nadu Water Supply and Drainage Board (TWAD), Public Works Department (PWD), Commissionerate of Employment and Training, Economic and Statistics, etc.,

Redundant connectivity to TNSWAN

At District Headquarters (Tier-1 PoP) bandwidth is being provided by NKN and BSNL. Taking into account the necessity of providing uninterrupted connectivity to the end users of TNSWAN at Tier-2 PoPs (Taluk/RDO/BDO), a redundant connectivity of 2 Mbps MPLS-VPN (1:1) has been provided at 210 locations where there are more number of horizontal connections.

Other bandwidth services such as Internet Leased line connectivity, MPLS VPN and VPNoBB are also being provided to various Government Departments.