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

abilene@internet2.edu

lburns@internet2.edu

corbato@internet2.edu

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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