kansas research and education network

Kansas Research and Education Network

Doug Heacock, Executive Director

Gathering of State NetworksFebruary 8-10, 2005

KanREN History

• Established in 1993 as a non-profit membership consortium

• Initial funding from NSF Connections program

• Self-funded since 1996• Organized initially as a service unit

of the KU Center for Research, Inc.• Not-for-profit incorporation in 2002

KanREN Membership

• All Kansas Board of Regents universities (6)

• Community colleges (5)• Private colleges and universities (5)• K-12 school districts (38)• Public libraries (25)• Other non-profit organizations (6)

KanREN Governance

• Board of Directors, elected by the membership

• Every member has a vote on major matters of business and policy (annual meeting)

KanREN Services

• Connectivity– KanREN backbone network– Kan-ed backbone network– Great Plains Network– Internet2/Abilene– Commodity Internet

KanREN Services

• Technical support, troubleshooting, diagnostics

• Consulting, network design• Network monitoring• Systems support• Training• DNS, Web hosting, etc.

The KanREN Network

• “Forklift upgrade” in 2004– Backbone redesigned--replaced DS-3 and

OC-3 connections with GigE connections– OC-12 connection to GPN gigaPoP in Kansas

City

• Adding redundancy in commodity Internet service, first quarter 2005

• Internet2 SEGP• IPv6, multicast, QoS

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Network Geography

Kan-ed

• Created by state statute in 2001; funding from KUSF in 2002; administered by Board of Regents

• Cooperative effort between multiple vendors and organizations

• Private backbone network• Large statewide footprint• Initial primary application: interactive

distance learning (video)--more to come

KanREN and Kan-ed

• At least four relationships:– Collaborative relationship from the

beginning– Kan-ed is a member of the KanREN

consortium– KanREN manages the Kan-ed network

and NOC under contract with the Kansas Board of Regents

– KanREN is a Kan-ed “peering partner” network

Challenges

• Rapid, sweeping change over the past year– Adjustments related to increased staffing– Adjustments related to our relationship

with Kan-ed

• Funding and politics• Meeting the needs of a diverse

membership

Contact information

Doug HeacockKanREN, Inc.1405 Wakarusa, Suite BLawrence, KS 66049(785) 856-9800heacock@kanren.net

For more information

http://www.kanren.net/~heacock/statenets/

– Presentation slides (.ppt)– KanREN information sheet (.pdf)– Network maps (.pdf)