Regional networking update

Jeff CustardCHECO CIO meeting

Denver, Colorado 03-Feb-2009

SUMMIT: The Mountain West Advanced Networking Cooperative

• Goal– Establish a lightweight, nimble collaborative

overlay above the Front Range GigaPoP (FRGP) and the Utah Education Network (UEN) for managing regional connectivity (including peering) and potentially other related regional IT projects

SUMMIT: The Mountain West Advanced Networking Cooperative

• Motivations– Changes in national network topology and

connections– Differences in state-based network governance

within the region

Summit collaboration

• Membership– Initial members• Front Range GigaPop (FRGP)• Utah Education Network (UEN)

– Open to other aggregating members over time

• Governance– Summit Policy Oversight Committee (SPOC)– Summit Technical Operations Committee (STOC)

Policy Oversight Committee

– Scope• Strategic direction, membership matters, governance,

and major capital investment & vendor agreements

– Membership • Six members

– Four members drawn from CIOs in-region and/or VPITs– The two co-chairs of STOC will be voting members

• Balanced between Colorado/Wyoming and Utah/Idaho• Pat Burns (CSU) and Steve Hess (Utah) to co-chair?

Technical Operations Committee• Scope– Producing technical designs, evaluating vendor

options, and overseeing Summit engineering and operations

– Advisory to SPOC, but SPOC can delegate to STOC

• Membership– Up to eight members– Balanced: Colorado/Wyoming and Utah/Idaho– Marla Meehl and Steve Corbató will co-chair

Network topology evolution

Internet2Router

NLR Inc15454

NLR LLCCisco4503

2x10Gbps ports4x1 Gbps ports

10Gbps toDenver

10Gbps

1Gbps

1Gbps – being installed

NLR LLCCisco4503

10Gbps UEN

Level3 PoP - SLC Current TopologyJanuary 2009

I2Router

KC

I2WDM

SLC

I2WDM

Denver

I2WDM

KC

I2Router

SLC

UENSwitch

SLC

UENRouter

SLC

FRGPSwitchDenver

FRGPRouterDenver

10Gbps

Future topology (late spring 2009)1)10Gbps primary IP connection to Internet2 Network (IP) in SLC2)10Gbps backup IP connection from Denver to Kansas City3)10Gbps dedicated wavelength between Denver and SLC for Summit use4)Internet2 DCN connection (2.5Gbps) for Northrop Grumman in Denver (not shown)

Summit cost recovery model• Propose cost distribution between CO/WY and

UT/ID along current split (68%/32%)• Assume I2-provided 10Gbps wavelength between

Denver & SLC and transition to I2 Commodity Peering Service (CPS)

• I2 and NLR changes result in significant cost savings– Current spend for I2+NLR: $1.13M– Annual spend starting 01-Jul-2009: $763k (33%

reduction)

“Western Lights”

• Placeholder name for lack of another term for now

• A parallel discussion going on regarding possibility of a larger Western affinity group

Western Lights• An opportunity to improve network service for

the West:• particularly for FRGP, New Mexico, and Arizona• would use NLR capacity to provide greater (and

diverse) bandwidth connectivity to Internet2 • Proposed redesign would give:• NM opportunity to participate in TransitRail

commodity service (lowering its cost of commodity services

• Idaho: Internet2 at 10Gbps and NLR connectivity

WL Advantages• Intra-region peering• NLR and Internet2 services• Back each other up (provide diverse layer 2 and 3 if on-

network has a failure)• Cheap layer 1 and 2 waves from NLR

• Access regionally to 40Gbps of NLR PacketNet• Access regionally to 30Gbps of Internet2 and CPS

(Commercial Peering Service)• Revenue neutral to Internet2 per 2009-01-01 current

revenue• Costs same as Internet2 at 10Gbps with backup for

FRGP

Questions and discussion