OARnet Update Linda Roos

1. OARnet UpdateLinda Roos Gathering of State Networks February 4, 2004

2. Today’s Presentation • OARnet background • OARnet current network • Third Frontier Network

3. OARnet Background • Founded 1987 as part of the Ohio Supercomputing Center • 90+ higher ed member institutions • Board of Regents funding • OSTEER advisory council • Internet2 gigapop

4. OARnet Background • Over 2 million users downstream • 1.8 Gigabits of commodity internet • Ohio Valley Gigapop (Internet2) 2.5 Gbps • Maintain over 4000 interfaces • IP over ATM

6. Third Frontier Network • Project Rationale • History • Backbone Acquisition and Funding • Project Implementation

7. Project Rationale • Started with a Bold Vision • The Ohio Plan: a $900 million research and commercialization effort • Now Ohio’s $1.6B Third Frontier Project • A Dark fiber network was essential to the plan • Ohio has a diverse and distributed array of research universities • The state needs to use all its resources effectively • Universities need to be connected to business & industry • Goal: “researcher in Athens and colleague in Cleveland could work together as if labs next door to each others”

8. Rationale, continued • Network Plan was Built on a Strong History • Ohio Supercomputer Center and the Ohio Academic Resources Network (OARnet) were created in the mid-1980s • SchoolNet created in the mid-1990s

9. Rationale, continued • Why was Dark Fiber essential? • Cost and cost structure • Ability to manage the network to ensure: • Quality of Service • Smooth scalability

10. History • Given these circumstances, Ohio started to look at how to create a dark fiber network. • In 2001, OARnet made a tentative commitment to a start-up, Mission Networks, that proposed to deploy a new fiber network to Tier 2 and 3 cities in Ohio. • In early 2002, Mission Networks was unable to complete the financing for its project and did not build the network.

11. History • It created the idea of a project structure where • Phase 1 would be replacing OARnet’s backbone with dark fiber • Phase 2 would connect Ohio’s public universities, private research universities, and federal labs to the network with dark fiber • Phase 3 would be connecting other universities and colleges to the network. • Recommended moving forward with an RFP for Phase 1

12. New Network

13. Backbone Acquisition • In Summer of 2002, an RFP was issued • Dark fiber was strongly preferred, but vendors were invited to propose alternative leased services. • Vendors who bid dark fiber were required to offer a minimum of a single pair of fiber over their network.

14. Backbone Acquisition, cont. • Statewide dark fiber committee decided • leased lambdas were too expensive and not widely available. • Selected a bid from Spectrum Networks that offered a package of fiber from • American Electric Power • Williams Communications (Wiltel), and • American Fiber Systems (AFS)

15. Backbone Acquisition, cont. • Bid offered • Single pair of fibers • Connecting all of cities where OARnet had a POP. • City rings in Cleveland and Columbus • A public ring was already in place in Cincinnati • Rings offering redundant routes to major cities.

16. Backbone Acquisition, cont. • Fiber Purchased • More than 1600 route miles • $4.6 M for 20 year IRUs (Indefeasible Right of Use) • $342K/yr for maintenance • Multiple types of fiber • SMF-28, Teralight, and Truewave Classic • Aerial and buried

17. Backbone Financing • Financing from Ohio State University • Long-term financing to pay for fiber ($7M) • To be repaid by what OARnet had spent on its previous backbone • Short-term financing ($2M) • To cover cost of running both networks in parallel and other start-up costs. • Financing from state capital budget • ($8.5M) • To pay for equipment and last-mile connections for public universities, private research universities, and federal labs (17 institutions).

18. Project Implementation • Guiding the project development • Multi-agency policy committee • SchoolNet, DAS, OBR, OSC, and OARnet • OARnet Advisory Committees • Lighting and Architecture; Price Modeling Committee; Last Mile Committee; Implementation Committee • OARnet Internal Staff Responsibilities • Project Management • Site Preparation • Network Management

19. Implementation, cont. • First Two Tasks: Integration and Conversion • Integration of purchased fibers • Additional IRUs and Right of Ways are required • Fiber cannot be characterized until fibers are connected • Equipment can not be specified until fibers are characterized. • Preparation for Conversion by connecting new POPs to old POPs. • Reduces the time required for conversion from old network to new network • Decreases the time needed to run both networks concurrently.

20. Implementation, cont. • Lessons learned • With multiple types of fiber, fibers will have different core sizes and splices will create inevitable core mismatches increasing attenuation. • You want to minimize the number of these splices if you want to support high-speed bandwidth. • Integration can be as or more legally complex process than purchasing the backbone fiber. • There are many more fiber purchase, right-of-way, and maintenance agreements required.

21. Equipment • Architectural choices • DWDM at the transport layer • So we can have multiple private networks each with its own lambda • Ability to provide Lambda for individual research project • MPLS rather than SONET • Does not use as much bandwidth for overhead • Provides equivalent fail-over times.

22. Equipment • Equipment Selection • Cisco selected for both Optical and Switching Gear • Cisco 15454 DWDM • GSR 12000 Routers • Equipment bought through SBC • SBC will do fiber characterization, configure, pretest, and install equipment. • OARnet Team responsible for site preparation

23. Equipment • Status • Equipment staged and tested at SBC facility • Installation commencing following site surveys and fiber characterization • Equipment being installed currently

24. Other Events • RFP has been issued for last-mile connectivity to all higher education and K-12 telecom aggregation sites; vendors responded, proposals being reviewed. • Setting policies on connecting to the network • Including business use of the network.

25. Next Steps • Light and test backbone in April/May/June • Connect first 17 institutions in June/July

26. Contact Information Linda Roos OARnet lroos@oar.net