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Merit Network, Inc. presentation at A Gathering of State Networks April 30, 2001

Merit Network, Inc. presentation at A Gathering of State Networks April 30, 2001. www.merit.edu. Greg Marks - gmarks@merit.edu Andy Rosenzweig – andyr@merit.edu. Merit Background. Private, not-for-profit, 501(c)(3), Michigan membership corporation

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Merit Network, Inc. presentation at A Gathering of State Networks April 30, 2001

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  1. Merit Network, Inc. presentation atA Gathering of State NetworksApril 30, 2001 www.merit.edu Greg Marks - gmarks@merit.edu Andy Rosenzweig – andyr@merit.edu

  2. Merit Background • Private, not-for-profit, 501(c)(3), Michigan membership corporation • Founded in 1966 by Michigan State University, the University of Michigan, and Wayne State University • Member/owners now include all 13 public universities in Michigan • Each member has a seat on the Board of Directors • 100 employees • $23M annual budget

  3. Merit Services Overview • MichNet is the name of Merit’s network • Michigan GigaPOP and MichNet backbone • Internet2 Affiliate Member • Internet2 Sponsored Educational Group Participant (SEGP) for Michigan • MichNet dial-in service • Center to Support Technology in Education • Web and email hosting and support services • USF (E-rate) educational activities • Performance analysis and security consulting

  4. MichNet Dedicated Services • MichNet backbone • Michigan GigaPOP and Internet2 Affiliate Member • See map for connectivity • IP only • Abilene Service • Michigan State University • Michigan Technological University • Northern Michigan University • UCAID/Internet2 Ann Arbor offices • University of Michigan • Wayne State University • Western Michigan University • Internet2 Sponsored Educational Group Participant (SEGP) for Michigan

  5. MichNet Shared Dial-in • Coverage • 13,500 dial-in lines • 162 POPs in Michigan plus New York, D.C., Windsor • 98% local coverage in Michigan (est. 250,000+ users) • “Shared” dial-in • Services sold to organizations in units of dial-in lines • Lines placed at cities where organization has users • At each city, multiple organizations own lines, but all users call same number • Customized RADIUS software moderates access • Owners’ lines are are reserved for their users, but sharing is allowed during lighter-user periods

  6. Teacher Technology Initiative • State project to provide laptop computer and Internet access for all public school teachers • Governor, with support from legislature, allocated $110M • RFP process run by Michigan Virtual University chose 5 vendors (Apple, Compaq, Dell, Gateway, IBM) to sell approved system bundles to districts • See http://www.mivu.org/ for details • Laptop or desktop with full suite of software • 3 years repair • Dial-in Internet access from any teacher’s home or school, at 17:1 ratio (users:dialin lines), for 1-3 years • Merit is ISP supplier for all vendors • Systems began shipping in March

  7. TTI User Support Challenges • Registration and authentication • Scale too great (92,000 teachers) to do via paper • Developed user-initiated, Web-based registration system • User enters serial number and school district; if match, able to register and select userid and password • Involves receiving data from manufacturers • Perhaps difficult for users • Helpdesk • No Merit end-user helpdesk • Helpdesk provided by manufacturer or by Michigan State University

  8. Provision of Dial-in Access • Installation at existing sites • 120+ physical locations: lots of travel • Unknown when/where/how many users will emerge • Some lines added on speculation, but must wait for registrations and add lines in response • Construction of new sites • 90 new sites needed to reach 100% coverage • Unknown where new sites will be needed • Populations could be very small • Doing prep work to find locations; building first sites

  9. What Next? • 17:1 ratio of users to dialin lines • Will it be adequate? • How to improve if inadequate? • Possible technical solution to allow upgrade to ratio • What happens to accounts after 1-3 years? • Planning ways to extend accounts, by district or by user • Possibility of more state money • Will dial-in be desirable in 1-3 years?

  10. Additional MichNet Services • Center to Support Technology in Education • Develops online K-12 resources and training materials • Often involves state level K-12 partnerships • Activities generally either grant funded or for-fee • Michigan Teacher Network • A clearinghouse of 4500 internet resources • 13 professional selectors review for inclusion, annotate • http://mtn.merit.edu/about/index.html • Teach for Tomorrow • “Constructivist” way for teachers to learn about how they can use the internet in their teaching • A toolkit for use by school trainers • http://tft.merit.edu/about.html

  11. Other MichNet Services - 2 • Web and email hosting and related services • Build and support Internet servers • Provide streaming media services • USF (E-rate) educational activities • Popular email forum and in-person activities • See http://www.merit.edu/usf/ • Performance analysis and security consulting

  12. State Educational Environment • Very decentralized • 13 universities are all independent of each other • K-12 and community colleges also decentralized, “local control” • No state-provided network for education • No explicit state funding for networking • No state-imposed networking standards for K-12 or higher education • Merit has no formal relationship with state government, but lots of informal contacts

  13. Merit’s Funding Model • No state funding • The 13 members pay annual sliding membership fees that cover uncapped connectivity wherever they need it • Fee based on bandwidth and Board voting rights • Affiliates pay for services based on service, bandwidth, location, and organization type • K-12 technology training is grant or fee funded • R&D is grant funded or funded by licenses • Consulting services are fee-based

  14. MichNet Customers • Merit’s 13 owner-member universities • 275 other affiliated organizations • Approximately 90% of the state’s K-12 districts • Approximately 95% of the state’s public libraries • Most of the state’s community colleges and private 4-year colleges • Various governmental, health-care, and non-profit organizations • Over 50 commercial organizations and ISPs

  15. Merit’s R&D Activities • Active in networking software and standards development for many years • Lead partner with IBM and MCI in managing the NSFNET, 1987-1995 • Current activities: • AAA (RADIUS) Consortium – Interlink Networks, Inc. created as spinoff • GateD Consortium – NextHop Inc another spinoff • Multithreaded Routing Toolkit (MRT) • Internet Performance Measurement & Analysis • North American Operators Group (NANOG)

  16. Challenges for Merit • Network capacity management • Forecasting bandwidth requirements • Buying commodity service and telco circuits • Good news – new providers, prices are dropping • Bad news – new providers, erratic lead times, unmet due dates • Sharing infrastructure for Abilene and commodity • Looking for less expensive last mile connectivity • Using CLECs • Installing dark fiber • Co-locate POPs with carriers • DSL • Wireless

  17. Challenges for Merit - 2 • Working with K-12s and libraries • Decentralized environment makes this time consuming • No one can represent or speak on behalf of the Michigan community with any authority, because so decentralized • Struggling with professional development, new learning approaches and materials, new technologies such as IP video, etc. • Uneven understanding of technology, funding • Role and direction of state government has often been unclear • Rollout of Internet2 Sponsored Educational Group Participant (SEGP) activities opens up new opportunities

  18. Challenges for Merit - 3 • Sustaining grant-funded K-12 training • Have learned that teacher training is not something for which most school districts have money available • Evolved to relying on grant funds • Grants are often fairly short term and time consuming to obtain

  19. Challenges for Merit - 4 • Promoting Internet2 • Signing up additional participants • SEGP activities • Participating in demos and other Internet2 promotional activities • Demos can be expensive and/or hard to arrange • Applications not yet abundant • Devising equitable ways to use shared infrastructure to support both Abilene and commodity traffic

  20. Challenges for Merit - 5 • Sustaining R&D activities • Staff moved to commercial world spin-offs • Changes in NSF priorities makes funding harder • Merit R&D activities less related to operation of MichNet than they once were

  21. Challenges for Merit - 6 • Being a non-profit in an increasingly commercial world • Is Merit a technology partner or just another vendor? • Sometimes viewed with skepticism by organizations that haven’t used our services • Hard to retain staff (pay rates, stock options), but good working environment and high quality of current staff helps • No deep pockets when major capital needed

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