RedNeT:

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RedNeT the advanced Internet comes to town
Netspeed 2001 Edmonton - October 13 Dan Newton,
Manager IT Services, City of Red Deer Dean Frey,
Director, Red Deer Public Library
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Agenda

• Background
• The partnership
• Building the network
• Governance
• Applications
• RedNeT Supernet
• Futures

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Background

• Regional IT planning 911, Y2K
• Industry Canadas Smart Communities Demonstration
  Project 1999-2000
• http//smartcommunities.ic.gc.ca/
• Developing a regional Information Highway strategy

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Smart Communities Planning

• Encouraging partnerships in the region
• Central Alberta Economic Partnership
• K-12 community
• Municipalities City of Red Deer
• Colleges, Health Region, Social Services agencies
• Red Deer Public Library
• Private sector

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Smart Communities Planning

• Network infrastructure identified as a major
  issue
• Need for High Speed Data Communications
• Recognition that High Speed High Cost
• Need to cost share
• Building on the City IT Dept-RDPL partnership

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The original RedNeT partners

• City of Red Deer
• Red Deer Public Library
• Red Deer Catholic Regional Division
• Red Deer Public School Division

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The partners network needs

• City of Red Deer
• High speed connection to City facilities
• E911 integration
• Industry Canadas Urban Community Access Program
  in Red Deer - 23 public Internet access sites in
  the City

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The partners network needs

• Red Deer Public Library
• High speed public staff Internet access
• High speed network between the Downtown and Dawe
  (North Red Deer) branches

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The partners network needs

• School Divisions
• High speed network for curriculum delivery,
  including the use of the Internet in the
  classroom and in computer labs
• High speed network between schools and central
  offices for administration
• Establishing high points for expanding wireless
  networks

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RedNeT Mission

• Partnership established in early 2000
• The mission is to provide the Red Deer Community
  with a multifunctional network infrastructure.
• This infrastructure is built on trust and on the
  premise that each participant wants to achieve
  connectivity for the entire community, not just
  for its own jurisdiction.

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Building the network

• Summer 2000
• Fibre links 13 sites amongst the original
  partners
• The network is brought out of the river valley,
  allowing extension of the School Divisions
  wireless networks
• 1.5 million largely from the City

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Network build partners

• Shaw (south leg)
• ATT (north leg)
• Telebyte (construction, fibre terminations)
• Nortel Networks (electronics)
• City of Red Deer ELP (duct, pulling), Parks
  Public Works (reclamation)

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RedNeT Governance

• A moving target
• Joint management team
• Joint Technical Operations Team
• User group to guide development
• Agreements between each partner and the City
• A significant investment of time, expertise
  money by each partner

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Growing the Partnership

• Expanded user base
• David Thompson Health Region
• Red Deer Regional Hospital
• Community Health facility
• Corporate facility
• Chinooks Edge School Division
• River Glen high school

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RedNeT

• Facilities Connected
• Collicutt Center
• Notre Dame
• Hunting Hills
• Dawe (2 schools, Library, Pool, RCMP)
• Fire Station 2
• Fire Station 3
• City Hall
• Catholic School Central
• Public School Central
• DTHR - Hospital, Admin, Community Health

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Network Configuration
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RedNeT applications

• Gigabit-per-second network
• More reliable, more secure
• Extending the partners networks through V-LANs

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RedNeT applications

• Library applications
• Voice over fibre, Voice over IP
• Shared Public Internet Gateway
• Lower costs
• Much higher capacity
• Much more secure

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RedNeT future applications

• Shared applications and shared servers
• Outsourcing and joint applications development
• Mail serving, web serving, shared ERP
• Training
• Network management
• Business and classroom video conferencing

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RedNeT the region

• Regional needs of the partners
• DTHR
• RDCRD
• Chinooks Edge
• Possible future partners
• County of Red Deer
• Red Deer College
• Supernet-RedNeT gateway

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Future Goals

• Redundant loop
• Connect additional facilities
• Get out of the White Space - Formal User
  Agreements
• Bell/SuperNeT Negotiations

Proposed Optional
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RedNeT Supernet

• Supernet build 2001-2004
• Axia Netmedia Bell Intrigna
• http//www.supernet.axia.com
• Red Deer one of 27 base network communities
• Red Deer-Rocky Mountain House link the first to
  be lit (in late 2001)

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RedNeT Supernet
Rocky Leslieville Condor Eckville Benalto
Sylvan Lake Red Deer
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RedNeTs Future

• The Citys role
• Leadership in community networking IT Master
  Plan
• Utilities models
• Network services provider wire provider
• Regulatory issues - CRTC
• Municipal Access Agreement City-Bell
  negotiations
• Balancing the partners agendas

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RDPLs network future

• Utilizing the network that we have now
• Centralized management lower cost of ownership
• Increased security in a FOIP environment
• More rapid deployment of new applications and
  services
• RDPL-Red Deer College partnership
• Balancing regional provincial projects
• Training opportunities
• Extended Urban CAP opportunities

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Libraries the Advanced Internet

• The Next Internet Broadband Infrastructure
  Transformative Applications CANARIE, January
  19, 2001
• Transformative Applications?
• E-content or Advanced Content
• Horizontal cuts across different sectors
• Learning repositories the public library
  community
• http//broadband.ic.gc.ca/english/resources/next_i
  nternet.pdf

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Advanced Internet partnerships

• The business case
• Soft benefits soft costs
• The library in the community
• Social network facilitates cooperation
• Profile and positioning
• Enhanced service vs. cost savings
• Focus on content partnerships
• The white space - governance issues
• The first step

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Comments Questions

• Dan Newton dann_at_city.red-deer.ab.ca
• Dean Frey dfrey_at_rdpl.org