Get Connected - April 2008 - (Page 12)

FROM THE CTO Pervasive High-Speed Connectivity for ENA Network Members In 2006, I presented ENA’s vision of achieving high-speed, better-than-broadband connectivity for all of our schools and libraries in the next three to five years to a number of technology and leadership groups in our core states, including our Tennessee Advisory Council and Indiana Network Leadership Team. We strongly believe now, just as we did then, that flexible, high-speed connectivity at speeds of at least 10 megabits per second (Mbps) to every school and library is critical to support your mission. Recent reports on broadband coverage have highlighted the need for additional residential service coverage to meet the demand for connectivity in homes, but they often leave out the fact that these coverage reports are based on the FCC’s definition of broadband connectivity of 200 kilobits per second (Kbps) in any one direction. Most businesses, schools, libraries and even residences would hardly consider 200 Kbps connectivity as adequate given that most schools and libraries are already connected at 1.544 Mbps (T-1) or better in both directions and often consider their T-1s as inadequate despite providing 672 percent more bandwidth than the FCC’s broadband definition. Clearly, it’s time for a new definition of what constitutes broadband and ENA is leading the charge. High-speed access for schools and libraries is truly no longer a luxury, but rather a requirement. Over the past seven years, ENA has experienced between 45 and 75 percent annual traffic growth on our backbone as our network members have requested and used higher capacity connections. Libraries, in their role as community centers with points of access to the Internet for patrons that may not have adequate connectivity or a computer at home, require connectivity that does not slow down during the middle of the day. Schools are finding that more and more of the content that teachers and students use in their classes is no longer found in static textbooks but rather found dynamically online. Full participation for schools in Internet2 and emerging research and education networks demands capacity in excess of 10 Mbps. ENA’s strategy for high-speed connectivity to our member sites is based on both the need to deliver increasing amounts of capacity quickly and to provide that additional capacity at a competitive cost. In the last three years, we have made considerable strides towards achieving our vision and in doing so have learned the following important lessons: 1 We can no longer meet the ever-growing demand for bandwidth by simply installing additional T-1s at our member sites. T-1s (and multiple T-1s) may be temporarily effective and adequate at smaller schools, library branches and administrative sites, but it is simply not efficient to continue to install additional capacity in the relatively small, 1.544 Mbps increments provided by T-1s. ENA has found that making the investment to install 100 Mbps fiber-optic connectivity allows us to provide a service that can quickly scale as your needs increase. Much of the investment we incur to install 100 Mbps service can be leveraged to increase speeds to 1 Gbps and beyond by changing out equipment on either end of the connection. It is our objective to upgrade all our network members to infinitely scaleable fiber-optic connectivity solutions. 2 No one carrier (phone, cable, utility, cellular/wireless and municipal fiber) can cost-effectively deliver service to all sites in a state or county, as we have found in a growing number of our member libraries and districts. Each carrier has an existing service footprint and extending that footprint can cause them, and you, to incur significant costs, meaning that serving three of your five sites can be cost-effective but when the last two are factored in, the total service price increases significantly. ENA is able to deliver cost-effective service and drive increased service availability only through collaborating with a large number of carriers and using a mix of technologies to serve our customers. Currently we work “High-speed access for schools and libraries is truly no longer a luxury, but rather a requirement.” Bob Collie Senior VP of Technology/CTO, ENA 12

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Get Connected - April 2008

The End of a Bottleneck: OCPS’ New Network Contents A Letter From the President Not Your Average Library: New Carlisle, IN New Consortium Program Launches May 1 Hands-on Education Education Leaders Decry EETT Cuts Much More Than E-mail: Gaggle’s Other Apps Notes From the CTO

Get Connected - April 2008

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