The EduPop Project
Copyright Hubert Daugherty and Julie Cohn, The Center for Technology in Teaching and Learning at Rice University, February,
2002. This work is the intellectual property of the authors. Permission is granted for this material to be shared for non-commercial,
educational purposes, provided that this copyright statement appears on the reproduced materials and notice is given that the copying is
by permission of the author. To disseminate otherwise or to republish requires written permission from the author.
The EduPop Project
Growth of Multimedia Resources at Rice University fosters reflection on the structure of the Internet
Delivering Multimedia to Off-campus Community
Become ISP Not within University Mission Costly to University
Partner with ISP Preferential treatment Non-competitive service
Create peering point between ISP’s and education
Existing Conditions - Texas GigaPOP Network
Links Texas Higher Education Institutions/Internet 2 backbone
Recent policy change to add K-12 institutions
Other efforts underway to fund K-12 links to GigaPOP
Benefits to Commercial ISPs
Access to large customer base
Marketing benefit of affiliation with Rice and others
Technical benefit of shifting local traffic directly to educational Institutions.
Challenges we faced
How to fund the peering site
How to bring the educational institutions together
How to bring commercial ISPs to the project
How to get the project built
Funding the peering site
TIF Board Discovery grant program – natural fit, had to find 10% local cost-share
Bringing Educational Partners Together
Rice UniversityTexas A & M UniversityUniversity of Texas Health Science Center HoustonUniversity of HoustonBaylor College of MedicineAldine Independent School DistrictHouston Independent School DistrictSpring Branch Independent School DistrictTexas Education Service Center Region IV
Bringing Commercial ISP’s to the project
Challenges: Market changes Identifying ISP’s with local aggregation point Conflicting internal policies within RBOC
Opportunities Flexible attitude towards peering The HAL-PC example
Success = marriage of technical benefit and marketing benefit
HalPC
RoadRunner Time/Warner
Internet America
Building It –Technical and Legal Issues
Technical – developed and implemented new policy for networking peering point
Legal – very significant – caused delays in implementation Agreement in principal – enough for one provider Simple agreement in writing – enough for second
provider Lengthy contract requiring months of work by legal
counsel required for third provider
Building It – Logistical Issues
Local – coordination with campus facilities and networking departments
External – problems can be extensive changes in city policy city construction projects literal unknown roadblocks contractor and subcontractor challenges
Building It – Selecting Providers
Selected Provider – pros More service for the money New infrastructure for community
Selected Provider - cons Market conditions and physical
construction problems caused significant delays to project.
Outcomes
EduPop peering site is in place2 of three providers are peeringOther peering groups (e.g. MAGIE) are peering as well
Outcomes
EduPop peering site is in place2 of three providers are peeringOther peering groups (e.g. MAGIE) are peering as wellVPN implemented at UTHSC and TAMU
Outcomes
EduPop peering site is in place2 of three providers are peeringOther peering groups (e.g. MAGIE) are peering as wellVPN implemented at UTHSC and TAMUTexas GigaPOP Network connections to K-12 Institutions in place
Outcomes
EduPop peering site is in place2 of three providers are peeringOther peering groups (e.g. MAGIE) are peering as wellVPN implemented at UTHSC and TAMUTexas GigaPOP Network connections to K-12 Institutions in placeEduPop will become Texas GigaPOP facility
Outcomes
EduPop peering site is in place2 of three providers are peeringOther peering groups (e.g. MAGIE) are peering as wellVPN implemented at UTHSC and TAMUTexas GigaPOP Network connections to K-12 Institutions in placeEduPop will become Texas GigaPOP facilityUnexpected benefit – EduPop has become a critical component of network disaster recovery plan (Tropical Storm)
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