Do ’ s & don ’ t ’ s regarding managed dark fiber

1. Do’s & don’t’s regarding managed dark fiber TF-MSP meeting Amsterdam, 9/10 November 2010

2. Expertise sharing • Invest in developing expertise regarding acquisition and operations of managed dark fiber within NREN’s • Invest in sharing experience as NREN’s: • Standardization of fibers, technology etc. • Compare prices • Tender procedures (e.g. competitive dialogue) • Set up a repository within TERENA with documents like Calls for Proposals, SLA’s, best practices etc.

3. Housing & colocation • Housing equipment at customers is preferred to commercial colocation • trust relation • neutrality from carriers • providing services (lightpaths) is easier • higher availability (direct connection to backbone) • less expensive • more flexibility in operations But: use contracts, pay for services and monitor/audit the quality of the housingservice periodically

4. Suppliers • Prefer fiber from telco’s/carriers for primary routes and use fiber from other suppliers (e.g. power supply companies with less service guarantees) for redundancy • Using various suppliers is not necessarily a problem but monitoring and analyzing the impact of maintenance, fiber cuts etc. becomes crucial for the NREN • Use an additional fiberpair on important routes (emergencies, transitions etc.)

5. Contract models • Take into account the impact of a long-term IRU contract with major up-front capital investments (use excellent lawyers) • Don’t assume that the concept of an IRU is standardized (different per carrier, NREN etc.) • Don’t expect too much from SLA’s (penalties related to O&M fees don’t have a lot of effect) • Take into account that most SLA’s exclude scheduled maintenance & fiber cuts…

6. Payment model • Long term projects should invest in long term IRU’s whereas short(er) term project may chose “capital lease” • Available budget and cash flow requirements are dominant deciding factors for NREN’s • Don’t assume that periodic payments are the best guarantee for good service-levels: a contract with performance guarantees (% of the contract value deposited at a bank) leads to same result

7. Infrastructure/architecture • Use cross border fibers for reasons of: • Efficiency, costs & user experience (delay for certain applications) But: - responsibilities must be clearly defined - business/tariff model is required • Standardize on a single fibertype (G.652) • Experiment with alien wavelengths • Rather invest in redundancy (backbone & local loops into buildings) then in an operations team

8. Operations • Extend responsibility for operations on fiber level from backbone to local loops (upto CPE) • Invest in documentation of fiber routes (ODF – ODF, so including local patches) • Invest in obtaining information regarding the physical routing of fibers (street level) • Be transparant towards suppliers, housing providers etc. regarding documentation

9. Miscellanious • Try to secure structural funds (EU) where possible and learn from NREN’s that have succeeded in getting access to these funds