National LambdaRail/ Florida LambdaRail/ Tallahassee Fiber Loop TalTech Alliance Presentation Larry Conrad Associate VP and CIO, FSU Chair, Florida LambdaRail, LLC

December 4, Background Became aware of the NLR initiative the fall of 2002 Goal was to leverage depressed telecom market to pick-up distressed assets Initiative came out of CA and WA They were looking at San Diego to Seattle to Denver to Chicago to Pittsburg to D.C. Others got involved to “nationalize” the initiative to include D.C. to Atlanta to Dallas to San Diego Network footprint was being finalized, but still “pliable”

December 4, Background In just 3 working days we garnered a commitment from 6 FL universities to invest $5M over 5 years That commitment secured extension of the NLR to Jacksonville......and a seat at the table to define the NLR Realizing none of the 6 universities were IN JAX, so we would have to build comparable FL network A tribute to the strategic insight of the leaders at those 6 FL institutions to make this kind of commitment in these difficult fiscal times!

December 4, Network Drivers & Motivations Improve networking costs…”disruptive pricing!” Control of our networking destiny Flexibility in responding to future needs Responsiveness to the needs of higher ed Innovation and support for corporate research partners End-to-End networking Eliminate “place” as an issue for collaboration

December 4, Science Drivers & Motivations Growing demand for “application empowered” networks Support for high performance e-science projects High-energy physics, astronomy, earth science, bioinformatics, environmental Study very complex micro to macro-scale problems over time and space Remote access to instruments, streaming high-definition video, specialized visualization displays, data mining, high-performance distributed supercomputing systems and real-time collaboration To optimally make use of these technologies, scientists want high-bandwidth connectivity with known and knowable characteristics

December 4, Science Drivers: Examples New CERN facility in Switzerland comes on line in 2005— will distribute petabyte (PB) files to multiple institutions Jefferson Lab to distribute PB files by 2006 FSU is a managing partner for the Oakridge National Laboratory—ORNL wants 10 Gb connectivity SURA Coastal Oceanographic Observing Platform (SCOOP) program to distribute PB files by 2006 NSF sponsored supercomputing centers in San Diego, CA; Champaign, IL; and Pittsburg, PA presently have 10 Gb connectivity and are moving to 40 Gb to support GRID computing applications Oakridge has recently been awarded an NSF GRID computing grant to establish a new “science ultranet” with Gb connectivity

December 4, Why Fiber? Capacity needed is not otherwise affordable Capabilities needed are not otherwise available Flatten out the expense growth curve......cheaper in the long range Provides leverage with the telco carriers Insurance against “monopoly behavior” Stable and predictable anchor points Higher Ed can’t be held hostage to what industry thinks the market wants

December 4, National Lambda Rail Sparse dark fiber National footprint Serves very high-end Experimental and Research Applications Gb Wavelengths (or networks) initially Capable of 40 10Gb wavelengths at build out Leverage industry shakeout: distressed vendors are very interested in selling a National footprint Disruptive pricing Partnership model

December 4, NLR Participants Equity owners: –CENIC (CA) –PNWGP (U of WA) –Internet2 –Virginia Tech –Duke –Georgia Tech –Florida LambdaRail –CIC Group—Big 10 (IU lead) Other: –Carnegie Mellon/PSC (purchase services) –NCAR/UCAR—CO (potential) –Texas Group (potential, UT Austin lead) –New Mexico (potential, UNM lead)

December 4, NLR Goals and Uses Research! (including Network Research) Experimentation in networking and in education Education Support of GRID computing Academic Medical Center driven Clinical activities Development & implementation of network & computing technologies not otherwise likely to be generally available commercially as early as needed in R&E

December 4, NLR footprint and physical layer topology Terminal OADM Regen Fiber route Leased waves Note: California (SAN-LAX-SVL) routes shown are part of CalREN; NLR is adding waves to CalREN systems. Also the CENIC SVL- Sacramento (SAC) ELH route will become part of NLR SVL-SEA in exchange for a SVL-SAC LH route NLR is building (not shown here). ATL POR RAL MEM NAS PHO OLG CHI CLE KAN OGD BOS NYC WDC STR DAL DEN LAX SVL SEA SAN PIT JAC BOI

December 4, NLR footprint and physical layer topology – Phase 1 ATL POR RAL CHI CLE KAN OGD WDC DEN LAX SVL SEA SAN PIT JAC BOI Terminal OADM Regen Fiber route Leased waves Note: California (SAN-LAX-SVL) routes shown are part of CalREN; NLR is adding waves to CalREN systems. Also the CENIC SVL- Sacramento (SAC) ELH route will become part of NLR SVL-SEA in exchange for a SVL-SAC LH route NLR is building (not shown here).

December 4, NLR Partners and Costs NLR technology partners –Cisco Systems (electronics/optronics) –Level 3 (fiber) ~$80 M over 5 Years

December 4, NLR Status 1 st link from Pittsburg to Chicago brought up mid- November Phase 1 build-out to be completed by July 2004 NLR has recently been designated the largest, fastest scientific network in the world NLR is negotiating with SURA on a partnership for Phase 2 to complete the southern route back to Atlanta...that could come right through Tallahassee!

December 4, FLR: The NLR Build Out In Florida FLR, Florida LambdaRail FLR equity participants are all public corporation or 501(c)(3) entities Current members: FAU, FIT, FIU, FSU, Nova SE, UF, U of Miami, UCF, UWF Expect FLR build out to be in the $20M range over the next 5 years FLR is a LLC with plans to seek 501(c)(3) status

December 4, FLR Goals and Uses NLR connectivity Build a high-speed FL network for education and research Put FL universities on an equal footing with the best research institutions in the nation Initial services: 10 Gb shared IP fabric with –Commodity ISP aggregation –Internet2 aggregation Potential for corporate partnerships and economic development

December 4, FLR Goals and Uses For the first time, Florida has a node on the leading edge Research and Education networking infrastructure –Was not true with Internet2, NSFNet, or SURANet –Supports nominally $1B in research funding at Florida’s research universities

December 4, One FLR Build Out Option

December 4, FLR Status Still in start-up mode –Company formed –Initial equity participant solicitation closed –Will submit 501(c)(3) application shortly –Negotiating with fiber and optronics vendors –Establishing initial contracts for support services

December 4, FLR Timeline Dec. 2003: Order finalized for FLR backbone fiber Jan. 2004: Order finalized for FLR optronics March 2004: Build and lab test Layer 2/3 transport equipment April 2004: Order commodity Internet and Internet2 aggregation services July 2004: NLR Phase 1 build-out of completed Aug. 2004: Begin testing Layer 2/3 infrastructure Sept. 2004: Begin connecting participants to the FLR infrastructure Nov. 2004: Production operation

December 4, Tallahassee Fiber Loop Tie together local education entities Provide FLR/NLR connectivity Potential participants: DOE, CCLA, FAMU, FSU, NWRDC, TCC Managed by NWRDC Status: negotiating with potential providers

December 4, In Summary… Many details yet to be worked out, e.g., inter-city fiber, optronics, and metro fiber solutions Expect members will provide connection to other entities For FSU, will provide a nominal 100-fold improvement in network speed! …which will fundamentally redefine our ability to collaborate and compete!

Questions?