State-Wide Networking in New Jersey Higher Education Joseph Sanders University Director of Telecommunications - Rutgers, the State University of NJ David F. Ullman Associate Provost for Information Services and Technology - NJIT

Long History of Higher Education Technology Collaboration in NJ §The 70’s and 80’s l New Jersey Educational Computer Network (NJECN) Timesharing Group Licenses (e.g. IA Administrative software) §The 80’s and early 90’s l New Jersey Inter-Campus Network (NJIN) Application Services, Training, all sectors of Higher Ed. Organized and funded partially by State Department of Higher Education

The 90’s § Major Change in Higher Education Governance l “quasi - deregulation” of Higher Education l Commission on Higher Education l New Jersey Presidents’ Council l Includes 45 Public and Private Institutions with public mission: 3 senior Public Research 9 State colleges and universities 19 2-year community colleges 14 independents (with public mission)

State-wide Planning § CHE and Presidents’ Council adopt “New Jersey’s Plan for Higher Education” stressing importance of technology. §Establish Technology Advisory Committee, chaired by President of NJIT. § Governor and Legislature establish Higher Education Technology Infrastructure Fund (TIF)- $50 million, with institutional match.

State-wide Planning - contd. §TIF includes $5 million set-aside for inter- institutional connectivity. §Initial Project: l Funded NJ Vale (Virtual Academic Library Environment).

State-wide Planning - contd § : Outside consultant surveyed all institutions on current state of “readiness” for state-wide network. §1998: Researched activities in other states. § Released RFQ - pre-qualify vendors §March RFP §December Amended RFP (BAFO)

The RFP/ARFP: §Connect 45 institutions and “partners” today…. (the future….). §Connections distance/geography neutral. §Base Services l Data transport - TCP/IP l Video transport on varying degrees of QoS: broadcast (MPEG-2/DVB), D/L or meeting (HX3xx), personal (Real, NetMeeting, etc.) l Video MCU’s l commodity Internet l Network Security l No Voice over IP

The RFP/ARFP (contd.): §Optional Services l DNS, firewall, /web hosting, remote access, proxy services, Internet2 §Members and Partners choose “link” connectivity at ranges: l OC-12 l OC-3 l DS-3 l Fractional DS-3 l N by DS-1 l DS-1

The RFP/ARFP (contd.): §Key considerations: l Connectivity to other networks l Capacity Management vendor provides component upgrades at 70% of peak utilization of any components. l Economy of scale as overall # of links increases. §Basic Goal: Raise the bar for all participants. §FYI - NJ has 3 distinct LATA’s

Where are we today? §30 - something vendors expressed interest at pre-qualification. Vendors encouraged to “partner”. §Nine vendors pre-qualified as Lead Vendors. §Three submitted proposals, and amended proposals. §One has been selected to “develop” a “Master Services Agreement”

Today…. §Creating a Network Management Structure l Network Board (13 members) l Searching for Executive Director l Incorporate Application Services into single structure. l Possible (c) §Concurrently - working toward transferring New Jersey Virtual University under Presidents’ Council.

Today…. §Hope to sign Master’ Services Agreement this spring. §Network is “alive” with 20 links. §Current details available at: l

Questions….