Building a Backbone Network with Community Owned Fiber

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Building a Backbone Network with Community Owned
Fiber

• Robert Duncan
• Merit Network, Inc
• September 20, 2007

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• Synopsis
• Merit Network is a non profit company that
  provides Research and Education (RON) network
  services within the State of Michigan.  In the
  Merit Network service area are many small
  communities with local fibers builds that are
  under utilized or unutilized.  Merit is
  undertaking projects to link these communities
  together and make them loops on the Merit
  backbone network.  This extends the reach of the
  Merit Research and Education network and provides
  high performance connections to national and
  international networks to otherwise inaccessible
  schools, libraries and research organizations.

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Merit History

• Founded as a not-for-profit network services
  company in 1966 by three large Michigan
  universities
• University of Michigan
• Michigan State University
• Wayne State University
• Merit is a member organization, includes
  colleges, universities, K-12, libraries and
  government institutions
• Merit established networking in Michigan long
  before the term Internet was invented
• From 1987 until 1995 Merit managed the
  original NSFNET, which led to the
  modern Internet

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A Past of Innovation and Development

• A focal point for networking development
• Participant in IETF
• Ran the NSFNET Regional Techs meetings,
  precursor to NANOG (North American Network
  Operators Group)
• Leader in economic development in the state with
  spin-offs including
• Advanced Network and Services (ANS), sold to AOL
  in 1996
• Interlink Networks in 2000, AAA software, with
  Nokia and Siemens as major investors
• NextHop Technologies in 2000, focusing on
  GateD routing technologies,
  with VC
  investment from New Enterprise Associates

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Backbone Network

• Backbone Fiber
• Red line, Michigan Lambda Rail (MiLR), is member
  university owned fiber on which Merit has usage
  agreements
• Blue line is fiber that Merit owns outright or
  has a long term Indefeasible Right to Use (IRU)
• Green line is fiber that Merit is currently
  building out
• Portions of the upper peninsula are already lit
  and functioning
• Fiber is supplemented with gig or DS3 circuits to
  off-fiber members

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Community Owned Fiber

• Over the last 10 to 15 years individual
  communities have built fiber for various uses
• Connecting school districts together for
  interactive television and distance learning
• Connecting government buildings together for data
  center access
• Traffic monitoring and signal control
• Most are low to moderate fiber counts (6-18
  strands)
• Many use fiber strands for single use
• Analog or digital TV
• Shared Internet Service provider (ISP)
  connectivity
• Internal IT services
• Command and control of equipment (HVAC, Traffic
  lights)
• Typically not built for IP

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Community Owned Fiber (continued)

• Many builds are isolated fiber plants with
  circuit based ISP service
• Single connection to an ISP with no redundancy
• In many cases Internet connectivity is limited
• 1-10 mb ISP access
• No Internet2, GEANT2, ESnet, etc.
• High cost ISP services, 30-50 mb/month
• Sub-standard monitoring and reporting

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Bringing Merit Network Services to Community
Owned Fiber

• Merit, in partnership with the community, has
  developed a business model that assists the fiber
  owner in connecting to the Merit network
• By bringing together several communities and
  sharing build costs
• Merit services are brought to the community with
  access agreements for Merit
• Ring topology provides high availability
• Build costs are amortized over 3-5 years
• Based on current leased circuit costs to existing
  customers
• Costs then fall dramatically
• Bandwidth is no longer throttled by ongoing costs
• Expands to a new range of available services
• Reduces bandwidth upgrades to capital equipment
  costs, not MRC
• Strategic benefits appear

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Alpena Area

• Alpena is a remote rural area of Michigan
• Multiple community groups owned segments of fiber
  (total of 110 miles)
• City ? Community college
• County ? Public schools
• NOAA needed connectivity, they became catalyst
  for Merit to bring groups together
• Merit and community groups met and initiated
  builds to interconnect fiber
• Merit lit the fiber network and provided
  operations of the IP network
• Currently, a 100mb circuit provides connection to
  Merit backbone
• Plans underway to connect adjacent communities to
  reach Merit backbone with fiber

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
100meg circuit to backbone
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Mid-Michigan Area

• MMnet began in 1993 as an interactive television
  (ITV) network between schools
• Network is 200 miles of 6-strand fiber to 12
  locations in a 4 county area
• Initially used analog TV and ATM to transport IP
  at OC-3 rate
• Merit obtained an IRU to pass through fiber
  network
• Build to Lansing to the south
• Build to Alma college to the north
• Two attachment points has brought redundancy
• Now in process of replacing ATM with WDM to
  expand services to multiple gig wavelengths

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Ottawa and Muskegon Area

• Merit backbone long haul fiber was within 3,600
  feet of Muskegon Area Intermediate School
  District (MAISD) fiber
• Fiber build to MAISD connected 8 schools and two
  community colleges in Muskegon
• Additional build of 0.8 miles connected two Grand
  Valley State University research sites
• 8 mile build to Ottawa Intermediate School
  District (OAISD) fiber
• Second attachment to Merit backbone provided a
  ring
• Redundancy for all members involved

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Lower Central Michigan Area

• Several existing Merit members located in
  lower-central Michigan area own fiber
• Hillsdale ISD
• Calhoun ISD
• Jackson ISD (fiber currently connected at a
  single point)
• Each have fiber connecting schools, libraries and
  government buildings
• Each using circuit based services to connect to
  Merit
• Three builds of 3-7 miles required to connect all
  together
• Currently in process, expected to complete Spring
  2008

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Summary

• Single use or little used fiber can be found in
  many small communities
• Most community private fiber owners do not have
  the expertise or resources to fully utilize the
  fiber assets
• Both Merit and the community benefit by increased
  utilization of fiber assets
• Owned infrastructure insures control of future
  growth
• All communities can benefit from higher
  performance access to Research and Education
  networking
• Non profit organizations working together save
  costs

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Email

• robert.duncan AT merit.edu