The Florida LambdaRail FLR

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The Florida LambdaRail (FLR) A Research and
Education Network for Florida Veronica
Sarjeant Chief Operations Officer Community
College CIO Meeting April 21, 2004
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The Florida LambdaRail (FLR)

• Part of a larger national fiber optic network,
  the National LambdaRail (NLR), linking research
  institutions around the country with connectivity
  to international research networks
• Establishes a foundation for the next-generation
  networks needed to support large-scale research,
  education outreach, public/private partnerships
  and IT infrastructure essential to economic
  development

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FLR

• Nine Florida universities financially committed
• Participating universities are FAU, FIT, FIU,
  FSU, NSU, UCF, UF, UM, and UWF
• November 2002 Formed consortium
• May 2003 Incorporated as the Florida the
  Florida LambdaRail, LLC (non-profit limited
  liability corporation)
• February 2004 - Applied for 501(c)(3) tax-exempt
  recognition

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Governance Organization

• Members are accredited investors
• One, two, three or four Units of ownership
• Based upon level of interest in participating in
  the NLR and other national research activities
• Centralized authority and oversight and invested
  in a Board of Directors
• Setup to operate as a highly outsourced company -
  there are no employees

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Governance Organization

• Contracted services provided by member
  institutions
• Three primary sets of services
• Business leadership, management operations
• Technical leadership, operations, services
• Financial management procurement

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Initial Infrastructure

• Dense wave division multiplexing (DWDM) based
  optical footprint
• Capacity of 32 wavelength per fiber pair.
• To be deployed over 1,540 routed miles of dark
  fiber
• 20 years irrevocable right to use.
• At startup only one wave to be installed
• Support transmission at 10 billion bits per
  second (10 Gbps).
• Operated and maintained by the FLR

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Initial Infrastructure
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Initial Infrastructure

• Shared IP fiber backbone
• Links Jacksonville (NLR node), to Orlando, to
  Melbourne, to Ft. Lauderdale, to Miami, to Tampa,
  and to Tallahassee with spurs to Pensacola, and
  Gainesville
• Member campus to have a single, 10-Gbps
  connection
• Further subdivided as needed into 1-Gbps
  dedicated circuits.
• Initial services to include both dedicated and
  switched (bandwidth on demand) 10-GE or single GE
  circuits

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Implementation Status

• Vendor negotiations for the dark fiber and
  optical and transport equipment completed
• Final contracts not signed
• 4th Quarter, 2004 target date for production
  network

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Services

• Operating agreement allows for Non-equity
  participants
• Considered customers purchasing services
• Identified services
• IP connectivity to NLR
• IP connectivity to Internet
• IP connectivity to Internet2
• Share IP transport between member institutions
• Share Peering between the FLR network and other
  state networks (e.g., FIRN2)
• Dedicated wavelengths between FLR members and
  other FLR or NLR institutions

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Opportunities

• Collaboratories researchers work teams in
  multiple locations sharing work and interacting
  in real time through video, audio, shared
  whiteboards and shared laboratory notebooks
  available to all collaborators online
• Interactive distributed simulations linking
  high-powered computational resources with remote
  users and other computers
• Processing and visualization of large data sets
  distributed computation
• Distance Learning delivery of courses and
  programs over the Internet extending the reach of
  education to wider geographic areas and
  demographic populations

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Opportunities

• Access to digitized databases researcher
  accessing supercomputing resources across the
  country without leaving their offices
• Video teleconferencing bridging time and place
  for geographically dispersed work teams via
  transmission of video via high-speed connections

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Expected Outcomes

• 100-fold improvement in network speed
• Scalable network solution that meets long-term
  requirements
• Aggregation of Internet and Internet 2
  connectivity
• Lower costs due to collective purchase of
  bandwidth
• Future cost avoidance through the reduction of
  network-related costs and combined network
  capabilities
• Growth and development in innovative teaching
  approaches and techniques
• Ability to collaborate and compete redefined!

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Questions?
Board of Directors Larry Conrad, Assoc. VP Tech
Integration and CIO, FSU, Chairman Dr. Jeff
Schilit, Assoc. Provost and CIO, FAU Dr. J.
Richard Newman, Assoc. VP and CIO, FIT Dr. Joel
Hartman, Vice Provost, UCF Stewart Seruya, Chief
Security Network Officer, UM Michael F.
Dieckmann, Associate VP for IT and CIO, UWF Dr.
George Hanbury II, Executive VP for
Administration, NSU Dr. Charles E. Frazier, Vice
Provost Sr. Assoc. VP for Academic Affairs,
UF Julio Ibarra, Director, Center of Internet
Augmented Research Assessment, FIU Contracted
Agents Veronica Sarjeant, FSU, Chief Operations
Officer Steve Haring, UM, Chief Financial
Officer Dave Pokorney, UF, Chief Technology
Officer
http//www.flrnet.org