NIRAN: a Vehicle for Internet Service Provision for NI Education & Public Sector Christopher Kelly NIRAN Network Coordinator Website: NIRAN Awareness Day 18th April 2008 Stranmillis University College, Belfast

April 2008Awareness Day2 Talk Structure Network in Context NIRAN and JANET Membership Network Topology Technical Benefits Administration Funding Governance NIRAN-2 Strategic aims Benefits to NI plc Procurement Résumé

April 2008Awareness Day3 Overview Established October 2004 – 23 Sites Core members = Higher & Further Ed inc. QUB, Ulster, 6 FE Colleges Now Connects 30+ sites inc. 7 public sector sites One of 18 regional networks Over 200,000 users NIRAN + JANET  Internet Contract with NTL to Oct 2009 New one needed for Reprocurement to start Aug 2008 More in tender = better VFM for all

4 Connected Sites Higher Education Institutions 1.Queens University Belfast 2.University of Ulster 3.Stranmillis College 4.St Mary's College 5.Belfast E-Science Centre Other Institutions 22.Armagh Observatory 23.Dept of Agric Training Colleges 24.Economic Research Institute of NI 25.NI Common Information System 26.Learning & Skills Dev Agency 27.Edu Guidance Service for Adults 28.North Down Borough Council 29.Derry City Council 30.Alta Systems 31.Interconnect to C2K 32.Interconnect to HEAnet (via Letterkenny) Further Education Colleges Belfast Metropolitan College 6.Belfast Campus 7.Castlereagh Campus North West Regional College 8.North West Campus 9.Limavady Campus Northern Regional College 10.East Antrim Campus 11.North East Campus 12.Causeway Campus Southern Regional College 13.Newry Campus 14.Upper Bann Campus 15.Armagh Campus South Eastern Regional College 16.North Down Campus 17.Lisburn Campus 18.East Down Campus South West College 19.Omagh Campus 20.Fermanagh Campus 21.East Tyrone Campus

April 2008Awareness Day5 Network Topology

April 2008Awareness Day6 Resilience – Internal and External

April 2008Awareness Day7 NI Public Sector Networks Internet Feed NI Public Sector NetworkGross Internet Bandwidth ELFni - Libraries60Mbits/s NHS - Hospitals80Mbits/s Network-ni – Civil Service200Mbits/s C2K – Schools200Mbits/s NIRAN – HE + FE2500Mbits/s (option to 5000M)

April 2008Awareness Day8 NIRAN Services (above Telcos) World-class Bandwidth 12 sites on 10Mbits 8 sites on 34Mbits/s 8 sites on 100Mbits/s 1 site on 300Mbits/s 3 sites on 1000Mbits/s 2500Mbits/s  Participation in NIRAN community and governance NOT Telco Managed Service NIRAN manages IP network via QUB Networks Team Helpdesk with NI human staffing 8am–12pm,363 days per year Network Monitor service to sites DNS services provided Circuits and Routers Bandwidth + routers to each site PoP Routers = Cisco 7609 Site Routers = Cisco 7204, 2600 Future-proofing and scalability Meeting 99.97% uptime - all links IP address space

April 2008Awareness Day9 Netsight: Live Traffic Monitoring [private account per site] Belfast Metropolitan College

April 2008Awareness Day10 Funding Sources NIRAN Ltd  “Not-for-Profit” organisation DO NOT Connect Commercial Sites Department for Employment and Learning JANET (UK) funds – [the parent body] Non Ed institutions: ERINI, Arm Obs, etc Diversify Membership = better VFM for all

April 2008Awareness Day11 Governance

April 2008Awareness Day12 NIRAN-2 Strategic Aims Continuity of Service - Seamless transition to new network Imperative that members get as good as existing service Review infrastructure for 3-5 year projection (to 2014) Institutions + Backbone – bandwidths/routers Explore extra resilient Internet linkage via HEAnet, New NI-US link, Telco peering Collaborate with other NI networks C2K (Schools) – enhance capacity, functionality, applications sharing ELfNI (Libraries) - establish interconnect NHS-net (Health) – explore common gateway Engage with wider public sector ( to facilitate Review of Public Admin ) Local Government, Education & Skills Authority, new Library Authority, etc Exploit uniqueness of NIRAN EU cross-border element ( no other in JANET ) Strategic collaboration between North-South client base + mutual resilience Explore future current network applications/technologies IPv6, Multicast, QoS+ new circuit technologies (e.g. Metro Ethernet VPN)

April 2008Awareness Day13 NIRAN-2 Benefit to NI-plc Regional Network: Local Ownership and Agenda Economies of scale – bulk buying power  Better VFM Regional Development - supporting local economy Coherent Strategy  Cohesive Community Integration of Edu sectors – HE, FE, Schools and Public Sector Broadening of JANET into public sector user base Fosters Intra-regional, Cross-border and Global Links Potential for all-Ireland Ed & Public Sector network Sustainable Vehicle for Internet Service Provision

April 2008Awareness Day14 NIRAN-2 Procurement Talk to members and others in NI Apr-July 2008 Invitation to Tender document July-Aug 2008 Advertise ITT in OJEU Sep 2008 Tender using Competitive Dialogue procedure Preferred Supplier selected May 2009 NIRAN-2 in place for testing Sep 2009 NIRAN-2 operational Oct 2009 Three to five year contract to Oct 2014 і If interested in joining, talk to me ! Chris Kelly OR

April 2008Awareness Day15 Résumé Regional computer network of 30+ Education & Public Sector sites Part of the UK-wide JANET network community World-class future-proofed bandwidth: 10M, 34M, 100M, 1000M Reliability of 99.97% uptime - resilient NI backbone Resilient Dual 2.5Gb Links to Internet 1Gb interconnection to RoI Education network, HEAnet Funded by DEL + JANET (UK) + Colleges + non-Edu sites Network owned + managed by NIRAN Ltd with local agenda Current contract with NTL for 5 Years to Nov 2009 New NIRAN procurement will bring new contract to 2014