Middle of the Country Regional Optical Networks, Part 2 Jay Ford network engineer University of Iowa Internet2 member meeting Sep 29,

outline 1. CIC Chicago metro fiber 2. uiowa situation 2

CIC: basic idea Coordinate purchases of metro Chicago fiber to get more function & better prices. Triggered by immediate needs of: ● University of Iowa: extend lit GigEther service from McLeod (472 S. LaSalle) to StarLight (710 N. Lakeshore) ● University of Michigan, Michigan State University, Wayne State University: extend long-haul fiber from 2 landing spots to StarLight & Equinix (350 E. Cermak) ● University of Wisconsin: extend long-haul fiber to StarLight 3

CIC: function Enable cheap & easy access among various interesting places: ● exchange points: StarLight, Equinix, Switch & Data... ● carriers: Level3, WilTel, McLeod, ATT, Qwest... ● ISPs: Cogent, Level3, Qwest, Global Crossing... ● academic/research: universities, federal labs... 4

CIC: challenges Coordination: ● CIC provided existing framework with good history ● CIC (namely Karen Partlow) provided essential support ● tons of , weekly conference calls, side calls, & meetings, many led by Scott Gerstenberger (Michigan) Money: ● had to sell value for ~$150k cost per member ● turned out not too hard for owning 8 strands of fiber for 20- years 5

CIC: challenges Different goals among members: ● point-to-point extension of long-haul dark or lit transport ● real ring of fiber ● nothing immediate because already have problem solved ● nothing immediate => pure speculation ● co-location ● diversity 6

CIC: challenges Different locations: ● clear common interest: 710 N. Lakeshore (StarLight) 111 N. Canal (NLR) ● interest varied for others, but there was enough overlap & willingness to cooperate to settle on a list of places Legal/contract issues: ● among participating CIC members: fairly simple Memo of Agreement ● between CIC & carriers: full IRU/maintenance contracts ● used "IRU specialist" attorney 7

CIC: places Final list of interesting places: ● 710 N. Lakeshore: StarLight at Northwestern University ● 111 N. Canal: Level3 Chicago gateway ● 350 E. Cermak: Equinix exchange point ● 600 S. Federal: carrier hotel & data center ● 427 S. LaSalle: Switch & Data exchange point ● 155 N. Michigan: carrier hotel ● intersection of Lake & Garvey: Adesta fiber access 8

CIC: places Notes: ● most within or close to "loop", with Lakeshore & Cermak further out ● required new construction to 710 N. Lakeshore to get lateral diversity ● other places were considered & can be added in the future at tolerable cost & nuisance levels 9

CIC: fiber facility Rings: ● most Chicago metro fiber was in rings, whether we wanted it that way or not ● we considered several carriers, with input gathered via live RFPs (mainly Michigan, also uiowa) ● ended up with fiber from: Looking Glass Networks: long & short rings Level3: 1 short ring interconnected at 710 N. Lakeshore & 600 S. Federal ● diverse laterals to all locations (after new cable to StarLight) 10

CIC: fiber facility Reasons for going with 2 carriers: ● Looking Glass covered a few more places a bit more flexibly ● Level3 best option for access to NLR ● new diverse lateral into StarLight was tricky & sort of helped by having multiple carriers involved ● general carrier diversity 11

CIC: fiber facility Final fiber count of 94 strands: ● 9 members: 8 strands each => 72 ● 2 members: 10 strands each => 20 ● CIC common: 2 strands => 2 13

CIC: time line Activity time line: ● individual efforts started fall 2002 or earlier ● CIC group effort started Feb 2004 ● strategy & details hashed out between Mar & Aug 2004 ● documents signed Sep 2004 ● fiber expected to be available Sep-Nov

University of Iowa: right now University of Iowa current access to Chicago: ● no good options for fiber to Chicago; some cable exists, but getting at it is another story ● have 2 McLeod lit GigEthers to Chicago: 1 to StarLight for MREN/Internet2 1 for commodity Internet, currently to Cogent ● shaky start, but settling down ● not protected, but get diversity other ways 15

University of Iowa: future Have ~2.5 years to get fiber access: ● ATT next gen build (passes within 20 miles) ● regional ring (Chicago-WI-MN-IA-Chicago) ● creative deals with regional carriers (McLeod...) to light (sometimes sparse) fiber in exchange for lit waves ● other less likely options include MCI... changing policies to allow access to existing fiber or such fiber getting sold to more cooperative carriers ● always looking for new options 16