BOREAS-Net : Broadband Optical Research, Education and Sciences Network David Farmer Joint Techs February 12, 2007

National RON Map

What is BOREAS-Net? Boreas is the Greek god of the north wind BOREAS-Net stands for: Broadband Optical Research Education And Science Network (yes, the acronym was reverse-engineered!) A consortium formed to build a RON See web page at

What is BOREAS-Net? Connects members to the national research nets in Chicago and Kansas City Connects to other RONs especially in Chicago with CIC OmniPoP and StarLight Also connects to more affordable and diverse commercial Internet services

Who belongs to BOREAS-Net? The founding members of BOREAS-Net are:  Iowa State University  University of Iowa  University of Minnesota  University of Wisconsin – Madison

BOREAS-Net Design

Access Sites

Kansas City – Colo in I2 Suite at Level3  Same facility as NLR Chicago – Colo in StarLight and in I2 Suite at Level3 (900 N Kinsbury, AKA 600 W Chicago)  NLR is at 111 N Canal (facility was space and power limited)  CIC has dark fiber between sites

Access Sites Two Access Nodes on each participating Campus  Diverse fiber paths to campus and diverse Nodes on campus Extra Access Nodes  Eau Claire, Milwaukee, St. Paul

Multihaul Network A single network collapsing traditional Access, Metro, Regional, and Long-haul requirements and technologies Hay!!! That’s us…

Transport Services 10G Ethernet Wave Transport 10G SONET Wave Transport 1G & 2 X 1G Ethernet Sub-Wave Transport SONET Sub-Wave Transport (by special request only)

Creating BOREAS-Net CIOs agreed in principle on Nov. 1, 2004 to create a RON A technical team was tasked with issuing an RFP for dark fiber Fiber RFP was issued June 17, 2005 CIOs agreed to an MOU on Dec. 19, 2005, formally creating BOREAS-Net

Buying Fiber Wisconsin and Minnesota already owned fiber along the I94 corridor BOREAS-Net purchased 455 miles of fiber from Wiltel(Level3) on Dec 21, 2005 BOREAS-Net purchased 391 miles of fiber from FiberLink Mar 2, 2006 Some laterals were also purchased for Ames,IA from McLeod and ICN

Buying Hardware Optronics RFP released Mar 3, 2006 Contract with Infinera signed Oct. 9, 2006 First hardware shipped Dec 4, 2006 First segment install started Dec 13, 2006 All segments accepted Jan 24, 2007

Current Status 1,544 miles of fiber are lit with Infinera DWDM gear 14 add-drop nodes and 22 amplifiers Fiscal Agent University of Minnesota NOC services by WiscNet Field service contract with Level3

Costs Capital Costs: $6.3M  Dual nodes on major campuses added about 10% Annual Operating Costs about $1.0M

Next steps Get Lab running  Includes; Terminal Node, Add-Drop Node, Three-Way Node, and Amplifier Node Finish Maintenance Network Build circuits Determine procedures for operation

Lessons Learned Fiber Connectors Fiber Cleaning Fiber Testing

Fiber Connectors Frequently older fiber on campuses has hand-polished connections. Don’t even try using these. Either splice through them (if possible) or at least splice on new UPC pigtails.

Fiber Cleaning Be prepared to become obsessive about fiber cleaning. A dirty connection can cut transmitted power in half. That’s more than the design tolerance for most DWDM installations, and even a dB or two can matter a lot in many cases.

Fiber Testing Hire a professional fiber testing outfit to test your fiber BEFORE you order your hardware. They know more about fiber than you will ever hope to know. They can be an enormous help in finding and eliminating problem spots.

Future Directions Work with Northern Tier  Maybe eventually all the way to Seattle  Maybe to Winnipeg Fiber option to Omaha  Maybe some day a ring to Kansas City Expand foot print within Primary States  Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin

Technical Team Pat Christian (Project Mgr) Robert Davis Frank DiGravina David Farmer Jay Ford Bill Jensen Paul Lustgraaf Mike McQuiston UW–Madison UIowa UMinn UIowa UW–Madison IAState

BOG – BOREAS Operator Group (the CIOs) Steve Cawley Steve Flaegle John Kingland Ron Kraemer UMinn UIowa IAState UW-Madison

Thank You Questions?