UKERNA Strategic Drivers & Implications for RNOs

Robin Arak

Chief Executive, UKERNAR.Arak@ukerna.ac.uk

Agenda

• Strategic Drivers

• Change to UKERNA’s corporate structure

• Issues for RNOs

Drivers – JANET stakeholders

• Higher Education• Further Education• Research+ Partners and collaborators

• Funding bodies

Funding Flow (UK)

JISC

Institutions

Funding Bodies

UKERNA & JANET

Regional Networks

IS/IT support

Network support

Government

Regional/National

Taxes

Customers

CustomersCustomers

Strategy Flow

JISC strategy

Institutional strategies

HE & FE Funding Councils missions and strategies

UKERNA corporate plan

& strategy

Regional Network strategies

IS/IT strategy

Network strategy

Government objectives

Regional strategies

Research Councils’ Strategies

Drivers – JISC Funding

HEFCE 48% TOTAL HE 59%LSC 35% TOTAL FE 41%SHEFC 7%SFEFC 3%ELWa HE 3%ELWa FE 2%DELNI HE 1%DELNI FE 1%

Common Themes

• Widening & increasing participation• Lifelong Learning

– More options for learning and modes

• Partnerships and increased collaboration• High quality education• Increased use of ICT• Improving the “wealth” of the UK

Drivers – DfES Priorities

• Improving primary education• Transforming secondary education• Increasing and broadening participation in HE• Developing the skills of the workforce –

particularly the basic skills of some adults.• Opening up learning- eLearning,

– UK online centres– Digital TV

Drivers – funding bodiesHEFCE

• Promote and support productive interaction between HE and business and the community

• Encourage institutions to increase access to support lifelong learning

Drivers – funding bodiesLSC

• Extend participation in education, learning and training (80% 16-18 year olds in structured learning by 2004)

• By the end of the decade 2010 half of 18-30 year olds should be capable of accessing higher education

Drivers – funding bodiesSHEFC

• Look for other opportunities for increased integration with other public sector networks

• Promote the increase of effective collaborations and strategic alliances among higher education institutions, with other parts of the education sector, and with other users of HE.

Drivers – funding bodiesSFEFC

• Create a sustainable funding platform to deliver lifelong learning and wider access

• Improve students’ learning experience, by developing an integrated quality improvement framework, supporting learning innovation, and investing in information technology

Drivers – funding bodiesELWa

• Promote collaboration between the further and higher education sectors

• Reduce number of working age adults who don’t have qualifications from 1 in 4 to 1 in 8 by 2004

Drivers – funding bodiesDELNI

• Develop a piloted approach to enhanced linkages between the further education sector and SMEs.

• Introduce an FE/HE MAN (develop e-learning)

Drivers – funding bodiesResearch Councils

• Advancement & dissemination of knowledge • Promotion and support of high quality basic,

strategic and applied research• Promoting the transfer of knowledge from

scientific research into practice to benefit the UK

• World class collaborative research• E-Science

JISC Strategy

• High quality network• Managed IP bandwidth

– Flexible automatically bookable network resources between 384Kbs and 20Mbps for teaching

• Interoperability (GEANT, Internet 2)• High bandwidth for research (GRID)• “Last mile” technologies for student learner

and researcher access

JISC Strategy

• SuperJANET 5 (100’s of Gbps)• Upgrades to MANS

– (In place by 2005)

• 750 primary connected sites @ 200Mbps = 150Gbps

• 750 primary connected sites @ 1Gbps = 750Gbps

JANET Backbone Bandwidth

1

1000

1E+06

1E+09

1E+12

1E+15

1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010

Year

Ban

dwid

th in

bps

Backbone BW Backbone BW/site Site BW

JISC Strategy – content delivery

• Network Management– Traffic management

• Caching• Mirroring

• Security & Authentication– Access to content– Access to network resources

UKERNA Strategy Drivers

• Increased collaboration– For learning and teaching– For research

• Lifelong Learning support• Widening participation• Support for research- E-Science

Collaboration

• Between HE, FE, research communities and other organisations

requires

• Peering arrangements• Connections to other networks

- connection policies- acceptable use policies

• Support for network applications for collaboration e.g. multi-cast video

Lifelong Learning

• Providing services “off Net”– Home– Workplace

• Peering arrangements• Last mile outreach services (e.g. ADSL)• Support implications

– Working with partners

Widening Participation

• Delivery of “broadband” JANET services to learners at home and at work

• Links to other networks used by learners e.g. NHSNet, schools, SMEs

• Outreach centre connections e.g. adult education and community centres

• Links to entertainment networks e.g. Cable TV.• Authentication and security “issues”

E-Science - definition

“Science increasingly done through distributed global collaborations enabled by the Internet, using:

• very large data collections, • tera-scale computing resources,• and high performance visualisation.”

E-Science support

• IP Multicast- “Access GRID”• Support for QoS

– Videoconferencing – Remote visualisation and control– Shipment of large volumes of data (requires timely delivery without affecting other

production services)– Distributed processing via the network (databases)

E-Science implications

• Interoperation with other NRENS• Interoperation with regional networks• Move towards automatically setting up

network resources to support authorised applications– Authentication– DEN– Middleware

Common Requirements

• Reliability– Resilience, redundancy, topology

• Easy to manage, use and support!• Interoperability• Guaranteed Application Delivery• Ability to deliver new applications as they are

required• Scalability (more bandwidth)

Conclusion

• UKERNA is indirectly driven by government policies

• As policies have changed UKERNA has provided network services to support government policy and strategy implementation

Summary

• To ensure that services are aligned to stakeholder needs stakeholders need to be represented:– Membership– Board

Why a review?

• UKERNA’s adoption of a wider remit to deliver services to education and research– FE, Lifelong learning communities, schools?

• JISC review conducted by Sir Brian Follett– UKERNA to remain the network service provider– Review UKERNA’s role, governance,

management

The review

• Funding Councils commissioned the UKERNA Review

• Chaired by Fred McCrindle

• Review panels met over Summer 2001

• Report issued January 2002

Corporate Restructuring

1. Articles of association of UKERNA were altered to create classes of membership.

2. Built in flexibility for the future to allow new stakeholders to be represented

3. Membership of the Board restructured in order to reflect all current stakeholder communities.

Classes of Membership

1. HE and Research institutions

2. FE institutions

3. Individuals interested in networking issues

Nominate an elect 3 board members for period of 3 years (RNOs?)

Classes of Membership

4. Education, learning & research institutions not eligible as HE, Research or FE institutions

5. Public Body Members (UK HE, FE funding councils and OST)

6. Representative organisations representing education, learning & research in the UKNominate board members, change M&A, vote on AGM and General meeting business

New Board

Chair (non executive)

Executive directors

UKERNA Chief Executive

UKERNA Finance Director

• Appointed by members in classes 4 –6

• Appointed by the Board

New Board (cont)

Non executive directorsNominated by members

in classes 4 – 6

Elected by the members in classes 1 -3

• HEFCE• LSC• SFC• ELWa• OST and research

councils• DEL(NI)• Three community

members

Issues affecting JANET and the Regional Networks

Some Issues affecting JANET

• Supplier Stability & Performance• JANET was designed to a price

– Bandwidth vs Resilience

• Regional Networks– Resilience to regional networks?– Resilience to end institutions?

Network Reliability

•

Overall Availability

99.10

99.20

99.30

99.40

99.50

99.60

99.70

99.80

99.90

100.00

Ava

ilab

ility

Mean Time Between failure

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

3000

3500

4000

4500

2000-03 2000-06 2000-09 2000-12 2001-03 2001-06 2001-09 2001-12 2002-03

Mea

n Ti

me

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wee

n Fa

ilure

(hou

rs)

Mean Time to Repair

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200

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2000-03 2000-06 2000-09 2000-12 2001-03 2001-06 2001-09 2001-12 2002-03

Mea

n T

ime

To R

epai

r (m

inu

tes)

Top 10 availability issues

Broken lines/line faults 24% (T)Circuit faults 21% (T)Telco equipment faults 12% (T)Power failures 8% (U)Telco Exchange problems 6% (T)Router problems 6% (U)Security maintenance 5% (U)Switching equipment 4% (U)Virus problems 3% (U)Data service unit problems 3% (U)(Issues causing monthly site availability to drop <99%)

RNO issues

• Long term regional network funding– Merger of capital & recurrent funding– More flexibility and stability in funding– Alignment of funding with procurement

cycles– Funding tied to agreed plans/outcomes– Remove funding “micro-management”

RNO Management

• Corporate governance of MANs– Board structure– Management structure– Risk Management– Legal obligations

• Company law, Tax, VAT, PAYE, regulation, etc.

RNO Management

• Operational Management– Technical Management– Financial Management (Billing, Invoicing)– Auditing– Monitoring the SLA

Regional Networks

• Aligning regional network agendas with national and regional agendas?– Regional Network Corporate Strategies

• What does an individual regional network wish to deliver if UKERNA’s remit widens?

• What regional strategies does a regional network wish to support?

Challenges for RNOs

• Managing complexity– Multiple interoperating domains– Relationships with UKERNA, RSCs, etc.– Relationship with “customers”– Account management

• Supplier “management” – telcos• Business Continuity Plans• Move to 24 X 7 support• User expectation

Challenges for RNOs?

• Value added services?– Caching?, Web hosting?– E-mail, Managed router service?– Offsite backup?– Video services?– eLearning services?– Other application services, MIS?– Campus network monitoring and support?– Security services?– Helpdesk? Consultancy?

Challenges for RNOs

• How can RNOs help support the strategies of:– Institutions?– Funding councils?– Research councils?– Regional organisations?

Collaboration with other organisations

Who can connect to regional networks? (1)

• HE, FE & publicly funded research • Non commercial organisations involved with

lifelong learning funded by HE & FE • Broader educational organisations including

private colleges?• Local education authorities ? • State schools • Private schools ?

Who can connect to regional networks? (2)

• Commercial organisations engaged in lifelong learning when JANET is only used for learning ?

• Local councils for lifelong learning?• Local councils for for other public sector

activities for the benefit of the community?

• Public libraries ?

Who can connect to regional networks? (3)

• Organisations conducting collaborative research and/or learning with HE & FE providing JANET is used just for this

• Research partners but using JANET for other activities as well?

• Science parks where there is collaborative research and JANET is used for this

• Science parks (some companies trading with no research interests)?

• NHS requiring delivery of lifelong learning?

Who can connect to regional networks? (4)

• SMEs and other companies who use JANET only for collaborative research or to support learning programmes

• SMEs and other companies who also want to use JANET for commercial purposes as well as for collaborative research or learning?

• Organisations with no link to HE & FE where connections are made for commercial profit to offset costs and future investment by the RNO?

Who can connect to regional networks? (What next?)

• Paper to the JCN

• Consultation with funding councils

• Change to connection policy?– RNOs to offer sponsored connections– Cost recovery models– Tariffs for connection– Tariffs for internet transit bandwidth

DISCUSSION

&

FEEDBACK

NorMAN

YHMAN

EMMAN

EastNet

External Links

LMN

Kentish MAN

LeNSESWERN

South WalesMAN

TVN

MidMAN

NorthernIreland

North WalesMAN

NNWC&NLMAN

Glasgow Edinburgh

WarringtonLeeds

ReadingLondon

Bristol Portsmouth

EaStMAN

UHI Network

Clydenet

AbMAN

University CollegeLondon connectionto test-bed network

ExternalLinks

University ofManchesterconnection totest-bednetwork

10Gbit/smultiplexed4*2.5Gbit/schannels

FaTMAN

Due Summer 2002