All the Islands of Lakshadweep are isolated and stand alone kind of system. By establishing the State Wide Area Network a high bandwidth data communication network for all the Government offices in all the Islands will be in place. All the islands will be provided with Internet/E-mail services. Project it will ensure improvement in education, health awareness, weather information, entertainment and news delivery services and disaster management system etc, State Data Centre, Common Services Centre, Community Information Centre and all the online applications will be interconnected through the State Wide Area Network.

Wide Area Network is an advanced telecommunication infrastructure, which is used now-a-days extensively, for exchange of data and other types of information between two or more locations, separated by significant geographical distances. The medium of connectivity can be copper, optical fibre cable or wireless, as may be found feasible. Such wide area networks, in a way, create a highway for electronic transfer of information in the form of voice, video and data. Department of IT in Government of India is implementing an approved Scheme known as State Wide Area Network (SWAN) Scheme, envisaged to create such a connectivity in each State / UT, to bring speed, efficiency, reliability and accountability in overall system of Government-to-Government (G2G) functioning. When fully implemented, SWAN would work as a converged backbone network for voice, video and data communications across each State / UT. SWAN is designed to cater to the governance information and communication requirements of all the State / UT Departments. When fully implemented, SWANs across the country are expected to cover at least 50000 departmental offices through 1 million (10 lacs) route kilometres of communication links.

SWAN Features

A wide area network deployed in a State or UT would have two components viz.
- Vertical Component
- Horizontal Component
The vertical component of SWAN is implemented using multi-tier architecture (typically, three-tier) with the State/UT Headquarter (SHQ ) connected to the each District Head Quarter (DHQ) which in turn gets connected to the each Block Head Quarter (BHQ). Each SHQ, DHQ and BHQ point of connection is called a Point of Presence (PoP), which is a point of bandwidth aggregation for several network links getting connected at this point. The bandwidth provisioning for network connectivity between all the above PoPs is a minimum of 2 Mbps. Presently, the connectivity provisioning between every SHQ and DHQ is for 4 Mbps and DHQ to every BHQ is 2 Mbps. For the horizontal component, the government departments at each tier are connected to the respective PoPs.
The SWAN aims to create a dedicated Closed User Group (CUG) network of minimum speed of 2 Mbps by connecting around 7500 pops, providing Data, Voice & Video connectivity to more than 50,000 govt. offices. The networks aim at increasing the efficiency of the government delivery mechanism and optimizes the performance. The backbone thus created would provide reliable, vertical and horizontal connectivity within the State / UT administration and would facilitate electronic transactions between all the government departments.
To ensure desired Quality of Service (QoS) by the Network Operator and the Bandwidth Service Provider, a Third Party Audit mechanism has been created in the SWAN Scheme which would monitor the performance of the SWAN network in each State / UT. The Third Party Audit (TPA) agency shall perform for a period of five years from the date of final acceptance test of the network and primarily monitor the compliance of the Service Level Agreement (SLA) which the State / UT would enter with the Network Operator and also with the Bandwidth Service Provider.

SWAN Implementation Model

There are two Options for SWAN implementation; the PPP Model and the NIC model. In the PPP model the State / UT identifies a suitable PPP model (e.g. BOOT) and selects an appropriate Network Operator agency through a suitable competitive bid process for outsourcing establishment, operation and maintenance of the Network. In the NIC model the State / UT designates NIC (National Informatics Centre) as the prime implementation agency for SWAN for establishment, operation and maintenance of the Network. NIC in turn would identify a Facility Management Service (FMS) agency for the State / UT concerned, to manage day-to-day management and operation of the network. Majority of the States / UTs have opted for the PPP model for the implementation SWAN. BSNL has been identified as a preferred Bandwidth Service Provider for SWAN Scheme across the country.

State Implementation Agency:-

National Information Centre(HQ) through Lakshadweep Information Technology Services Society.

Objectives

- SWAN will enable e-Governance projects in all states and UTs. 
- G2C, G2G and G2B services can be delivered through SWAN.
-In Lakshadweep all offices will be interconnected, with the Head Quarters at Kavaratti.
Video Conferencing
- Public Grievance Redressal
- Monitoring the work in the Islands with 10 sub divisional officers.
- Participation of officials of Islands in important functions at Kavaratti.