1 The Quilt G.L. Huntoon Executive Director October 2, 2001

2 Outline Introduce The Quilt. Describe the organization and participants. Overview of the current Quilt projects.

3 What is The Quilt ? Collaboration of 17 leading advanced regional networking organizations in the U.S. Aim is to promote consistent, reliable, interoperable and efficient advanced networking services that extends to the broadest possible community.

4 Goals Assist participants in providing a broad range of networking services to constituents. Facilitate innovative and successful technical projects. Promote end-to-end continuity and delivery of advanced network services.

5 Who are the Participants ?

Initial Participants CENICCorporation for Education Network Initiative in California FRGPFront Range Gigapop GPNGreat Plains Network MAXMid-Atlantic Crossroads MeritMerit Network, Inc. MRENMetropolitan Research and Education Network North Carolina GigapopNorth Carolina Gigapop NetWork VirginiaNetWork Virginia NoXNorthern Crossroads NYSERNetNYSERNet OARnetOARnet PNWGPPacific Northwest Gigapop Pittsburgh GigapopPittsburgh Gigapop SoXSouthern Crossroads TexasGigapopTexas Gigapop SURASoutheastern Research Universities Association EDUCAUSEEDUCAUSE

7 Participation Requirements Participation in The Quilt is open to: –Non-profit network aggregators –Committed to advancing networking services in the U.S. –Serve 4 or more attachments to Internet2 regular members. –Other organizations invited by the Quilt Steering Committee Must demonstrate on-going interest, support, commitment and leadership to advanced networking activities.

8 Organization Organized under UCAID Independent project within UCAID, parallel to I2 and Abilene. Base support is provided by UCAID - all Quilt projects must be self-supporting. Memorandum of Understanding between founding participants and UCAID.

9 Organization Committees Executive Committee - 6 members, provides guidance to the Executive Director. Steering Committee - 1 representative from each participant. Staff –Executive Director, only staff member. Manages and coordinates Quilt projects and activities. Ensures coordination with UCAID.

10 Projects Project support –Provided by technical staff from participating organizations. 3 Initial Projects have been identified: –Commodity Internet Service (CIS) Project –Regional Optical Networking Project –Measurement Infrastructure Project

11 Commodity Internet Service Goal Lead: Tom West (CENIC), Brenda Lesko (OARnet) –Aggregate and leverage buying power of Quilt participants to get best value, lowest pricing and best performance on commodity internet service. –Progress to date Survey Quilt for commodity network requirements. Draft and release RFP to commodity service provides. Responses due by October 2.

12 Regional Optical Network Regional optical network coordination project. Lead by Ron Hutchins (SoX) and Gary Crane (SURA). – Determine who is doing what and where. E.g., CENIC ONI, SURA RII, Chicago CivicNet. –Understand technologies and business practices associated with implementing fiber optic network infrastructure. Developing best practices, facilitate meetings with vendors.

13 Measurement Goal is to coordinate a measurement infrastructure across The Quilt. –Lead: Rick Summerhill (GPN). Support end-to-end performance by: –Survey Quilt to understand existing measurement infrastructure. –Collect and disseminate common set of network measurements across Quilt participants.

14 Other Activities Document The Quilt –Lead: Jim Brennan (NYSERNet) –Best practices and business models. Preliminary survey issued, results compiled and reviewed. –Understand Quilt related K-20 activities.

15 Contact Information WWW site: