REACH-3MC Network Engineering

Michael Milliken, Director Network Engineering and Operations

MAEDSOctober 2011

Merit’s History 1966-Present• The Michigan Education Research Information Triad

(MERIT) formed in 1966 because, “significant benefits might be gained from sharing computing resources via an electronic linkage…”

• 1969 NSF grant for computer networking with only comparable work at BBN (ARPANET)

• Dial-up “Hermes” service in 1973 (!)• Designed, engineered, managed and operated the NSFNET

backbone• Received NSF Cooperative Agreement for Routing Arbiter

in 1994 (2nd Solicitation for NSFNET)• Merit provided dial-in access for educational technology

through 2007• Merit Embarked on a Fiber and Wireless Backbone

Strategy in 2003• 2006 Merit leads other R&E Networks in offering

Converged/Cloud Services to its membership.• 2010 Merit awarded $102 MM grant funding to build 2300

miles of fiber.

Vision

There is equal opportunity to access information and knowledge throughout all regions of Michigan and all sectors of society. Merit’s members are strengthening and growing while Merit is acknowledged as a strategic asset with respect to technology services, collaboration, learning.

REACH 3MC and REACH 3MC II Overview

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) established $7.2 Billion in funding for broadband infrastructure, public computing centers and sustainable broadband adoption programs.

Rural, Education, Anchor, Community and Health care Michigan Middle Mile Collaborative (REACH 3MC)

REACH 3MC and REACH 3MC II are referred to as Round I and Round II

Merit submitted a Round I funding request in August 2009 and a Round II funding request in March 2010

Merit has been granted both awardsl Round I award of $42m in Jan 2010 to build 955 miles of fiberl Round II award of $87m in Aug 2010 to build 1,270 miles of fiberl Construction must be completed within 3 years

REACH-3MC Projects

• REACH-3MC• $41.6 M ($33.3 M Grant)• 955 (now over 1000) miles of fiber in 4 corridors• 3 commercial sub-recipient partners• 72 strands, 15 access points, mostly aerial

• REACH-3MC II• $87 M ($69.6 M Grant)• 1272 (now over 1300) miles of fiber in 3 corridors

and 3 states• 7 commercial sub-recipient partners (2 also in

round 1)• 96-168 strands, 28 access points, half trenched

• Collaboration• Public Universities• Mackinac Bridge Authority• Michigan Department of Education• Michigan Department of Information Technology• Michigan 911 Office

Construction & Implementation

Project statusl Federal, State and Local Regulationl Round I:

l Permits – 66% approved l Changes in process:

l Updating wetland permitsl SHPO reviewl Fish and Wildlife reviewl NTIA review

l Round IIl FONSI – August 1, 2011l 95% of field engineering completedl Permit submission(s)

l MDOT, County Road l Wetlands, Federal Forest, State Forest, DNRl Metro, County Drain, Utilities

REACH 3MC I & II Update Cont.

Round I make ready spendl Approved over 1.5 million with more expected

Permits continue to be received 12 RD I Colo Agreements signed

l Additional Agreements pending

RD II Environmental Assessment l FONSI awarded August 2011

RD II Single Source Justificationl Awarded for Material Supplies & Fiber

REACH 3MC I & II Update

Round I is now 21 months into 36 month cycle RFPs have been tendered and selections made

l Fiber and build materialsl Optical transport hardwarel Construction companies

Outstanding RFP Selectionsl Ethernet Route/Switch equipment RFP closedl Responses under review; Decision to come in few weeksl Consulting & Construction of Central Office Entrance

Facilities Closed October 5th Outstanding RFP

l Consulting and Construction of Telecommunications Huts Closes October 21st

REACH 3MC I & II Update Cont.

The many existing fiber locations will have REACH electronics installed 3/4Q 2011

l ADVA OADM and Optronics Equipment expected by 11/20l Merit & Adva will conduct the installations jointly

Grand Rapids/Muskegon/Big Rapids/Mt Pleasant

l Installation tentatively scheduled Oct 24th – Nov 9th St Ignace/Sault Ste Marie/Marquette/Iron

Mountain/Houghtonl Installation tentatively scheduled Nov 9th – Nov 25th

REACH 3MC II Route Breakdown

Round II Routes are in three corridors:

l Middle Corridor, Grand Rapids to Oscoda

l North East Corridor, Oscoda to Mackinaw City

l Northern Corridor, St. Ignace to Ironwood

Additional spurs from the main path:

l Green Bay spur, connects to Wiscnet and BOREASnet

l Duluth spur, connects to BOREASnetl Houghton spur, connects to MTU

What Vendors Are Involved?

Fiber engineering is being performed by Turnkey and CCI

Construction will be done by Earthcom, Fiberlink, Western Tel, Amcomm and Boardman River

Installation of equipment will be done by Merit and Adva

There are 7 sub-recipients on the projects that will own fiber within the bundle

l Great Lakes Comnet ● Lynxl ACDnet ● PFNl Boardman River ● Packerland l TC3

Connecting to the Network

Focus: Manistee Mackinaw City to

Petoskey Petoskey to

Charlevoix Traverse City to

Kalkaska Zeeland Monroe to Adrian Gaylord to Hillman

[including Atlanta] Gaylord to Grayling Gladwin to Mt.

Pleasant

Regional Member Relations Managers

Director of Member Relationsjrussell@merit.edu734-527-5761

Key Source of Information is on the REACH-3MC web portal:

www.merit.edu/meritformichigan Media Events Photo Archive:

www.merit.edu/meritformichigan/photos/ Stimulus Email List (Updates & RFPs):

www.merit.edu/meritformichigan/stimulusemaillist/

Your Regional Member Relations Managerwww.merit.edu/memberrelations/

Send email to: info@merit.edu

Project Communication

Questions

info@merit.edu