Utah Education Network - Interactive Video Conferencing (IVC)

Internet, WAN, & IVC Three key services UEN provides to it’s stakeholders. Internet access and research network access via the Front-Range Gigapop, Nat’l Lambda Rail, & I2 Backbone and WAN connectivity for all higher education, school district offices, secondary schools, and many city & county libraries. Statewide IVC network connecting 400 higher education and public education classrooms.

UEN’s IVC Network 400 higher education public education classrooms throughout Utah Seven 48 Port RADVision ViaIP 400 MCUs deployed regionally providing 336 ports at 768K. UEN operates all events at 768K. Two Codian IPVCRs enabling UEN to record up to 20 conferences/classes at a time. 1 Tandberg Border Controller for firewall transversal. UEN launches approximately 1000 events per week.

IVC’s Solid Network Foundation One of the key elements to UEN’s successful implementation and support of it’s IVC network is the WAN. Gigabit Ethernet backbone with a ring topology in key regions of the state. Gigabit to all higher education and most public schools. With a minimum of a dedicated T1 per classroom if broadband is not available.

Technical Support Two Video Operations Centers providing seamless IVC support from 6:00 AM to 11:00 PM Monday thru Saturday. UEN Field Operations and Network Operations Center support UEN Scheduling – Coordinates the scheduling of events statewide. Works directly with higher education counter parts Schedules all public education events

Support Challenges Campus and District Firewalls Open required ports Implement secure video VLAN Firewall transversal appliance Last resort Scheduling and management solution for large enterprise.

Next Generation Setbacks and restarts First test and implementation of next generation platform unsuccessful. New evaluation underway of Big 3 contenders Tandberg/Codian 4200 & 4500 RADVision Scopia Polycom RMX

NextGen Requirements Carrier Class N+1 configuration Hot-standby or load balanced management servers Redundancy when possible 99.99% Reliability – May be a challenge for venders Scaleable – Enterprise solution MCU must support transparent cascading

NextGen Requirements A portion of the solution must support high- definition. All high definition solutions must work seamlessly in a standard definition environment. Solid management suite. UEN’s approach to video is scheduling intensive and the performance of the management application directly affects the performance of the IVC network as a whole. Large database High number of users accessing application entering schedules, changes and deletions.

NextGen Requirements Desktop solution that supports H.239 Transcoding Local control of event to enable manual switching. Non-Meshed infrastructure – must be able to control each MCU manually if necessary. Reliability is the most important requirement of all Scaleable event recording and archiving with access from the desktop and end point.