Maximizing Internet Connectivity for Education

• David Olson, Network Architect, MOREnet• Elwood Downing, VP Member Relations, Merit Network• Mike Richardson, Director, REMC 1/

Copper Country Intermediate School District, Michigan• Sheri Prupis, Director

Educational Technology Initiatives, NJEDge.Net• Matthew Conforth, Director Educational Technology

Passaic Valley Regional High School, New Jersey• Kathy Menake, Social Studies Teacher, Passaic Valley Regional

High School, New Jersey

• Network Infrastructure• Leveraging Resources and Lowering Cost

Statewide and Regional Collaborations • Local Collaborations

Using Internet Connectivity for K-12• Collaboration, Resource, and Knowledge

Sharing in Action! Passaic Valley High School

MOREnet

MOREnet operates a 1200-mile dark fiber backbone with 4 major hubs and 30+ access nodes in the state. Our 700+ members with 1,100+ sites are connected using T-1, NxT-1 IMA, DS-3 and Ethernet services from carriers.

Our challenge: Member bandwidth demands constantly increase (48% from Jan ‘11 – Jan ‘12); funding is flat or decreasing…carriers still charge by the bit…and E-Rate makes us do the cheap thing, not the smart thing.

MOREnet

MOREnet operates a 1200-mile dark fiber backbone with 4 major hubs and 30+ access nodes in the state. Our 700+ members with 1,100+ sites are connected using T-1, NxT-1 IMA, DS-3 and Ethernet services from carriers.

Our challenge: Member bandwidth demands constantly increase (48% from Jan ‘11 – Jan ‘12); funding is flat or decreasing…carriers still charge by the bit…and E-Rate makes us do the cheap thing, not the smart thing.

How are we solving the problem?

• Invest in network facilities– Build fiber, wireless networks– Overprovision – cheaper to limit bandwidth use

now than build more capacity– Targeting 10/100/1000M connections– However, E-Rate rules make this financially

difficult

How are we solving the problem?

• Forge alliances with alternate providers– Build new service models that are mutually

beneficial• Look at alternate/regional providers; municipal

fiber…whoever has assets• Network growth will become a patchwork quilt

of providers – necessary to manage cost while providing needed bandwidth

MOREnet Fiber Collaborations

• Municipal fiber: If they’ll build it, we’ll use it– MOREnet is often the ‘anchor tenant’

• BIP/BTOP funded providers– Very mixed bag

• Regional aggregation– Get the traffic on-net sooner– More access to regional/local providers

Pursuing projects that enhance the value of our investment

• Expanding the MOREnet backbone– Looking to add ~1600 miles, 40 more nodes– Get traffic on-net as quickly as possible

• Using WiMax, LTE, and digital microwave as last-mile technology– Costs have dropped, reliability has gone

up– Can install 100M PtP radio for ~2xT-1

circuit cost over 3 years…

Pursuing projects that enhance the value of our investment

• More net-centric services– Hosted servers, remote backup, remote storage,

colocation– Access to more content/databases (Ebsco, etc.)– Peering with content providers to our members• SIS, library automation, etc.

– Digital Learning Environment• Moodle, Content Repository, BigBlueButton/Vidyo

Michigan Geography• Only state with 2 Peninsulas

– Joined by 5-mile Mackinac Bridge

• 83 counties in MI– 70% are rural

• Creates challenges with middle-mile and last-mile infrastructure

• MI Department of Ed – decentralized education network

Michigan – Merit Network• Limited resources and

quality of life created an appetite for hungry collaborators

• Came to the table as a community to share resources

• Merit Network operates and manages Michigan’s statewide R&E network

• The conversation begins….

• Leaders at the table are individuals that want to create a solution that is a winning combination with options.

“A Geographical Community Partnership is a regional section of Michigan that is comprised of leaders interested in the quality of life within their community. Downing”

• 10 Gbps Backbone with 1 Gbps to CAIs/Members

• Creativity & Possibilities– Statewide Collaborations• UP, REMC1• Alpena• Hillsdale• Escanaba, others…

• C3Communication, Cooperation, Collaboration

Upper Peninsula -- MichiganBefore

After

REMC 1

• 5 rural counties of the UP, 5000 sq miles, >10K students, 2 ISDs, 23 school districts

• ~ 350 miles leased fiber-based circuits (10-1,000 Mb/s)• Current limited bandwidth, collaboration and

centralization due to limited capacity - $$$$$$• Future fiber IRU with Merit leads to virtually unlimited

expandable WAN bandwidth, increased collaboration, lower costs, and control of the future - $$$

Infrastructure

• Currently leveraging Merit to share services beyond our own 5 county fiber footprint, utilizing Merit’s backbone to extend to other counties and ISDs– MARESA 2 county fiber ring, with single connection back

to Merit, tunneled to REMC– DIISD (2 county ISD) individual connections to Merit, with

backhaul to REMC• All share the same firewall and network services as

the REMC1 connected WAN, and share costs

Shared Services• Cascaded bandwidth reservations with bursting

– Unencumbered access• Shared firewall with 35 school districts

– Higher quality, more features, lower cost– Unified Threat Management (IDS, IPS, ssl content filtering, application control, SPAM filtering,

AV, malware, etc)• Shared local cloud services (WAN cloud)

– 25TB video repository mirror, live statewide video streaming mirror– Network backup/disaster recovery services– VMware hosted centralized server cluster in our data center

• Redundant A/C, power & network, generator, HA, SAN– Regional & statewide server/service hosting– Higher quality services, with capacity and failover– Local cloud storage – compartmentalizing services

Shared Services (continued)

• Video conference services– Gatekeeper, Gateway, MCU, and VCR– Shared classes, video meetings, field trips

• Shared tech support services– Natural fit with ISP services - single point of contact, full-time

helpdesk, full integration and resolution• Regional standardization – Hardware, software, management

• Becoming the regional data network hub

Transforming IT Infrastructure in Education

K20 Learning Community

Instructional Commercial

Locally produced

Digital Video RepositoryDigitized, Cataloged +

Indexed

API

Secure Streaming

Blogs & websites

LMS

NJVID or Institutional

Portals

Highly scalable, Always availableRedundantArchitecture

New Jersey’s Digital Video Repository

NJVid

Empowering High School StudentsPassaic Valley Regional High School• Contemporary Issues through Video

Conferencing• Around the World• Science in Cinema

http://www.merit.edu/http://www.more.net/

http://www.more.net/cosn-presentation

http://Njedge.nethttp://academicinternet.orghttp://njvid.net

http://pvhs.k12.nj.us/http://www.remc1.org/http://citvc.org/

Matthew Conforth pvmconforth@yahoo.com Elwood Downing ejd@merit.edu Kathy Menake menakek@pvhs.k12.nj.us David W. Olson dolson@more.netSheri Prupis prupis@njedge.net Michael Richardson mike@remc1.org