Sponsored Educational Group Participation in Abilene
Laurie Burns
Director, Member Activities, Internet2
EDUCAUSE Gathering of State NetworksDenver, ColoradoApril 30, 2001
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Agenda
• Background
• Abilene Expanded Access
• Sponsored Participation in Abilene• Sponsored Individual Institutions
• Sponsored Educational Groups
• Q&A
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Background
• Internet2 is a membership organization
• Internet2 members have access to multiple national backbones (Abilene, vBNS, federal NGI networks)
• Internet2 membership vs. Abilene participation
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Background
Internet2• Began in 1996• Activities in advanced applications development, middleware, advanced network services, end-to-end performance
• 304 members (186 University members, 8 state or regional networking organizations)
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Abilene – April, 2001
Current state• Announced in April, 1998, launched in February, 1999• 50 current and pending connections in 49 states• 185 participants in 47 states and D.C.• OC-48c (2.5 Gbps) IP-over-SONET backbone• Ongoing strong partnership
– Cisco, Nortel, Qwest, Indiana University, ITECs (N. Carolina and Ohio)
Increasing backbone utilization • Characteristic exponential growth• O(OC-12c) peak utilization on some links• Traffic doubling time: 7 months
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Abilene Participation
• Arises from contributions to network development (stakeholder rather than customer model)
• Is characterized by collaborative use of advanced research, instructional, clinical and content applications
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Sponsored Participation• Mechanism to allow non-members to participate in Abilene
• Considered first and foremost a member benefit
• Created in response to expressed member needs
• Corresponds to Internet2’s tech transfer goal and Expanded Access initiative
• Supplements Internet2’s core focus on higher education’s advanced networking agenda
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Abilene Participation
Primary Participation• University Members
• Affiliate and Corporate Members with Collaboration
Site Status**Collaboration Site Status allows Affiliate and Corporate Members to designate a physical
location, such as a research lab, to connect to Abilene
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Abilene Participation
Sponsored• Sponsored Individual Institutions
Individual educational or research-oriented institutions, museums, art galleries, libraries, hospitals, etc. who are sponsored by a Regular University member
• Sponsored Educational Groups State networks of predominantly educational organizations, such as state K-12 networks who are sponsored by a Regular University member in the same state
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Abilene Participation Fees
Primary Participants• $20,000/year
Sponsored Individual Institution Participants• no fees to Internet2
Sponsored Educational Group Participants • $30,000/year, plus $2,000/congressional representative,
paid by the connector to Internet2
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Sponsored Participation (individual institutions)• Introduced in November, 1999
• Over 20 sponsored participants and over 15 sponsors
• Focused on collaborations between an educational or research organization and Internet2 member(s), or with other sponsored participants
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Sponsored Education Group Participation• Introduced in October, 2000
• Designed primarily to accommodate existing and emerging state-based education networks
• Supplements, does not replace, sponsored individual institution participation
• Intended to support regional aggregation
•Focused on supporting advanced application uses by networked aggregates of educational institutions
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Current SEPG Status
Approved:• California• Michigan• Missouri• Ohio• Oklahoma• Oregon• Rhode Island• Virginia• Washington
Applied:• Georgia• Indiana• Pennsylvania
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Sponsorship
• Only University members can be sponsors for individual sponsored participants or SEGPs
• One or more member universities may sponsor a networked aggregate of educational organizations in the same state
• In states with multiple state education networks, one or more sponsors can work with the same Abilene Connector to aggregate these networks’ traffic
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Role of the Sponsor
At the outset, the sponsor(s) works to
• identify an Abilene connector • document the proposed network’s commitment to deploying
advanced networking• describe at least one advanced application • identify any Carnegie Doctoral/Research-Extensive (D/R-E)
institutions within the sponsored network • upon approval of the SEGP, the sponsor retains overall
responsibility for ensuring that the use of the connection is appropriate and supported appropriately, and submits annual updates to Internet2
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Role of the Abilene Connector
A Connector supporting the SEGP(s) must• maintain a 7x24 Network Operations Center (NOC)
that is accessible to the Abilene NOC • register its routing information and that of the
Participant(s) in the Internet2 Routing Registry (I2db) or equivalent
• mediate the Participant’s access to Abilene via at least one router
cont’d…
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Role of the Abilene Connector
A Connector supporting the SEGP(s) must• provide Internet2 with a quarterly report on the
relative utilization of the Abilene connection by the SEGP(s)
• assure compliance with the Abilene CoU by the SEGP(s)
• inform the Participant(s) that Abilene does not provide transit to the commodity Internet
Upon approval, the Connector assumes fiscal and operational responsibility for the SEGP
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Requirements for the SEGP
A Sponsored Education Group must• use a distinct origin Autonomous System Number
(ASN) so that the requirement for characterization of relative utilization can be met
• not use Abilene to transit any intra-state traffic within its own network, in the event that the SEGP is multiply homed to Abilene
• obtain access through a connection also serving at least one Abilene participant that is a University Member of Internet2
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Establishing Connectivity• The sponsor completes the SEGP application, including a description of at least one advanced application project
• Internet2 review the application for completeness and accept or continue work on it
• The Connector completes the Connection Agreement
• The routes are approved by Internet2 and forwarded to the NOC
• Traffic flows!
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SEGP Fee
• Proportional to state population• $30,000 + $2,000 x (Size of state’s U.S. House delegation)• Delegation size provides a readily auditable population metric
• Charged annually on a per-connecting organization, per-state basis• Paid directly by the Abilene Connector on behalf of the Sponsored Participant
• Is not eligible for any discounting under the K-12 Schools and Libraries program of the Universal Service Fund (also known as E-rate)
• Amount and scaling of this fee will be reassessed on an annual basis
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Questions?
Thank you! http://www.internet2.edu/abilene
http://www.vbns.net
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Program Changes• General end of new OC-3c Abilene backbone connections
• Effective November 1, 2000• Existing and pending OC-3c connections will be unaffected
• Revised fee structure for OC-12c and OC-48c connections• Objective is to incent bandwidth upgrades for existing
connectors
• Local connection collaboration• Collaboration on a single backbone attachment for Abilene
participants within the same LATA will be strongly encouraged
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Revised Abilene annual connection fees
Previous New
OC-3c $110,000 ($110,000) SONET & ATM
OC-12c $320,000 $270,000 SONET
$280,000 ATM/1 PVC &
1 BGP peering
$290,000 ATM
OC-48c $495,000 $430,000 SONET
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Abilene Cost Recovery
• New connection fees take effect upon either agreement renewal or upgrade date
• Participation fee for Internet2 members remains $20,000 per annum