1 Merit Network, Inc. presentation at A Gathering of State Networks April 30, 2001 Greg Marks - Andy Rosenzweig –

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 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

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6 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

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8 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 for detailshttp:// –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

9 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

10 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

11 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?

12 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 »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

13 Other MichNet Services - 2 Web and hosting and related services –Build and support Internet servers –Provide streaming media services USF (E-rate) educational activities –Popular forum and in-person activities –See Performance analysis and security consulting

14 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

15 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

16 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

17 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, 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)

18 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

19 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

20 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

21 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

22 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

23 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