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Merit Dial-in Futures

Merit Dial-in Futures. MJTS April 26, 2005. Quick History. Merit has offered dial-in access since 1970s Began new era with “shared” service featuring Merit-built RADIUS extensions and distributed authentication, summer 1995

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Merit Dial-in Futures

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  1. Merit Dial-in Futures MJTS April 26, 2005

  2. Quick History • Merit has offered dial-in access since 1970s • Began new era with “shared” service featuring Merit-built RADIUS extensions and distributed authentication, summer 1995 • A collaborative effort of Member and Affiliate organizations to accomplish a groundbreaking networking goal • Dial-in industry is now commoditized, but Merit’s service maintains unique aspects that suit usage by educational organizations

  3. Recent History • Reached peak usage and size in approximately spring 2002 • Significant drop in number of lines and usage from that time to now • Extensive consolidation accomplished over past 3-4 years to greatly reduce physical dial-in sites, lower costs • Usage pattern and consolidation path match industry trends

  4. Number of dial-in lines, 12/95-3/05 • Peak line count: 14,333 in August 2002 • As of April 2005: 7262 lines

  5. Sessions/month, 12/95-3/05 • Peak session count: 7,470,987 in Oct. 1999 • December 2004: 2,615,633 sessions

  6. Hours/month, 12/95-3/05 • Peak hour count: 4,265,733 in March 2001 • March 2005: 2,011,428 hours

  7. Minutes per session, 12/95-3/05 • Average session length has consistently grown • Those who use it, use it (about 55,000/month)

  8. Factors Underlying Declines • Availability of broadband options for users (affects both in-state dial-in and roaming services) • Tightening of higher education budgets • Loss of commercial ISP customers due to their consolidation of service provision (WebTV, CoreComm, others) • End of three-year Teacher Technology Initiative project

  9. Actions in Response to Declines • Instituted annual commitment to bring predictability to budget • Pursuing every opportunity to consolidate sites and lower variable costs • Greatly reduced staffing tied to remote access projects (from ~17 in 2001 to ~6 today)

  10. But what about the future? In January, Merit Board discussed various factors: • Financial: Revenues are declining but still significant part of budget • Staffing: “Dial-in” staff also part of many other projects • Customers: Dial-in still important to many Members and Affiliates • Mission: Does dial-in fit with Merit’s mission in high-performance networking?

  11. Feedback from Board • Most Member institutions intend to continue supporting dial-in for the near future • But: all see usage declining and all intend to reduce services as quickly as possible • Most see dial-in as competing with other resources, and as a service that could be dropped in favor of others • Some feel a responsibility to lower-income constituents for whom dial-in is beneficial

  12. Conclusions • Board’s general advice was to anticipate a finite lifetime for dial-in service • End date not specified; Merit staff will recommend and implement • Many different ways to approach end-of-life; some factors still developing • No end of service is planned or imminent

  13. For FY 2006 • Standard approach: • No changes in dial-in structure • Customers will be asked for standard commitment for period through June 2006 • Preparation for changes in following year

  14. For Beyond June 2006 • Key: explore simplifying authentication • Move from customized solution to a more industry standard approach • Reduces a major cost/complexity of the product • Implications: • End of customized sharing system with priority lines and tokens • Likely change to current charging model (Lines and Tokens) • Forming working group • Discuss needs, features, timing

  15. Changing authentication • Keys? • Continue to support distributed authentication • Allow suitable charging models • Advantages: • Customer can select RADIUS server best suited to organization (OS, authentication type) • Greater flexibility for future changes • Disadvantages • Merit doesn’t supply/support RADIUS server • May need to develop means to limit use to provide cost stability for customers

  16. A new option: AccessMerit • Full-service dial-in plan offered by Merit through “sponsoring” organizations • Way for organization to present a dial-in solution without paying for it (or all of it) • Fully Web-based service with online payment • User proves association with sponsoring organization before making purchase • Standard base price of $8.95, including 200 hours of monthly access and helpdesk via toll-free call

  17. AccessMerit transitions • Service is available to any organization • Current dial-in customer organizations may wish to transition from traditional model to AccessMerit • Preferable plan provides some months of service free for users who transition • Organizations can continue to subsidize access, either fully or partially • More details to come

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