1. www.SURA.org SURA Perspectives on Regional Technical Outreach Gary Crane, SURA Director IT Initiatives

2. About SURA 501(c)3 consortium of 59 research universities from 16 southeastern US states and DC Founded in 1980 to develop Jefferson Lab, a DOE-funded high energy physics facility Created one of the first NSF funded regional network services, SURANet; sold in 1995 to BBN

3. SURA Mission Foster excellence in scientific research Strengthen the scientific and technical capabilities of the Southeast and the nation Provide outstanding training opportunities for the next generation of scientists and engineers

4. SURA’s IT Initiatives SURA Crossroads Initiative Support for SoX and MAX Gigapop Activities SURA NSF Middleware Initiative (NMI) Testbed Video Development Initiative (ViDe) Continuing Development of Technology Workshops

5. Technical Outreach Coordinated within the context of SURA project areas: –SURA Crossroads –ViDe –NMI

6. SURA Crossroads Initiative Economic and engineering feasibility study to determine possibility of enabling new areas of research and learning collaborations through an improved regional network infrastructure. Focused on gaining control of network transport infrastructure. Several working groups formed around this project.

7. SURA Crossroads Architecture Working Group (AWG) Formed in April 2001 to develop an architectural overview of an advanced academic network service for the SURA region. Included senior network engineers from approximately 25 SURA member institutions. Included reps from outside the SURA membership: –NOX, CENIC, CANARIE, UCAID, ORNL

8. Architecture Working Group Work products –Crossroads Architectural Whitepaper http://www.sura.org/info_tech/infrastructure/i nfrastructure.html –Optical networking cookbook Result of NSF funded Optical Technologies Workshop held in Raleigh, NC last December. Being lead by Troy Travis (South Carolina) and Ana Preston (U of Tenn.) http://opcook.sc.edu