1. Feeding the Bandwidth Beast: Addressing Demand and Reducing Cost through a Collaborative Network Redesign Project
Debbie Pepper, Colleges of the Fenway
Sean Philpott, Emmanuel College
Justin Ragsdale, Wentworth Institute of Technology
NERCOMP Annual Conference
March 31, :30 p.m.

2. Overview of session Introductions Session Topics: Lessons Learned
Outline the situation being addressed
Describe the processes followed to identify and execute the chosen solution
Share the results of the project
Lessons Learned
Questions

3. Emmanuel College (est. 1919)
Coeducational, liberal arts,
Catholic college, 1,750 students
Massachusetts College of Art & Design (est. 1873)
Only public college of art in U.S., coeducational,
1,802 graduate and undergraduate students
Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences (est. 1823)
Coeducational, three campuses, two in Massachusetts, one in New Hampshire
3,909 graduate and undergraduate students
Simmons College (est. 1899)
Undergraduate college for women,
coeducational graduate programs
4,700 graduate and undergraduate students
Wentworth Institute of Technology (est. 1904)
Coeducational graduate and undergraduate college, focus on engineering and architecture
3,938 graduate and undergraduate students
Wheelock College (est. 1888)
Coeducational liberal arts college
focus on youth and family,
1,046 graduate and undergraduate students

4. Colleges of the Fenway Total enrollment: approximately 20,000 students
Location: a close geographic area on the Fenway, adjacent to medical and cultural facilities, public transportation, in the heart of Boston
March 29, The COF Principles of Collaboration signed marking the beginning of significant Collaboration. 18 years
Goal: To add value to student’s academic and co-curricular opportunities while seeking innovative methods of investing in services and containing the costs of higher education.
Services : Consortium includes – The Global Education Opportunities Center, Intramurals Program, Performing Arts Program, Training and Development Programs, Center for Sustainability, Colleges of the Fenway Area Network and numerous joint contracts and collaborative purchases, cross registration and Grant Funded Programs such as Emergency Management, Shared positions such as Environmental Health and Safety, and Emergency Preparedness

5. Colleges of the Fenway Area Network
COFAN established 2005
1G backbone
200Mb Internet 2011
2G Internet 2012
COFAN 2.0 designed 2013
40G backbone
4G Internet July 2014
BostonIX Peering
Jan NetFlix Peering
Co-lo space

7. Bandwidth Beast?

8. devices

9. March IDC forecasts that end-user demand for broadband traffic will increase from 9,665 petabytes per month in 2010 to a jaw-dropping 116,539 petabytes per month in HD video content will drive a new level of bandwidth demand, with more than 50% of video and audio streaming destined for a connected TV (either directly or indirectly), an iPad, or another mobile device or tablet.
12X
demand

10. dependancy
36 hours

11. Devices, Demand, Dependency & Design
Limited access to ISPs
Additional bandwidth at a premium
New ISPs only with 'last mile' expenses
Existing Network
10+ years old
Functional limitations
End of Support
design

12. How To Tame the Beast? Replace EOL Equipment
Create a True Diverse Path
Access other ISPs
Improve Usage Monitoring

13. RFP Process and Education
Step Carefully Crafted RFP
Step Specific requirements and must haves with room for creative solutions and options
Step Did not prescribe solution
Step Budget not given
Step Wide net of vendors
Step Systematic dissemination of information
Step Confidentiality and consistency
Step Committed team of reviewers to assess responses
Step Managed Services not in scope

14. RFP Process and Education
12 respondents
Disqualified
Those who withdrew!
Those way off base
3 Formal presentations and debrief sessions for full committee
Best solution rose to the top – creative and forward thinking, respectful of the foundation

15. New Design
Speak to results specific to the problems originally discussed.
Benefits of Markley

16. February - CoFAN ISP Utilization - 95th Percentile
3325 Mbps total

17. March - CoFAN Internet Usage 95th Percentile
3289 Mbps total

18. BostonIX Impact
Pre NetFlix peering
Post NetFlix peering
Limit

20. Resources and Execution
Who are the stakeholders?
Technical Decision makers?
Schedule dependencies?
Unknowns?
School Configurations?
Backbone Capacity?
Internet Bandwidth?
How did we actually get there?

21. Resources and Execution
Lot of time and groups
Network Managers from 6 schools
6 CIOs
6 CFOs
6 College Presidents
2 Facilities Departments
4 ISP Providers
1 Transport Provider including City of Boston, NSTAR
Existing and New Managed Services Providers
Design Team
Co-lo Provider
60+
60+ individuals involved
Lined up the partners needed Debbie help coordinate the meetings and ensure appropriate information reaching right groups​
Already had a working relationship with most of these group

22. Resources and Execution
Equipment finalization
Determining power needs
Weekly meetings internal COFAN Management
Heavily Leaned on our integration partner
Cutover dates
Each school determining their capabilities, what to use links for - inet & private
​backbone 10G or 40G
Would be running old and new infrastructure at the same time.​- power
Management team creation
IPC lead the way having pre meeting with each school and then being with them during cut over
Established date when environment had to be online and school cutovers

23. Resources and Execution
Redesign Internet infrastructure - Move Internet PoPs to 1 Co-lo
Present Opportunities to off-load traffic from commodity internet - Join Internet Peering Exchange (BostonIX), initially Akamai and Netflix
ISP choice discussion high tier providers had to pick
Began negotiations
two 2G links for inet on 10G interfaces​ 

24. Resources and Execution
Creating Diverse path
Had to go digging 1 year time frame
Lit up one side
Closer to carrier connection had weekly and bi-weekly calls
Had two paths where fiber was available needed to make one of them use more diverse path, started to work on getting 2nd diverse path built, used existing fiber that was previously brought onto Wentworth campus  to temp support new 40G connection

25. COFAN 2.0 Impact Doubled the lanes Reduced the tolls
Increased the speed limit
Added HOV Lane
No tolls on HOV Lane

26. Lessons Learned – All Equal ownership and commitment
Executive Project Management
Consultant that is technical and business savvy
The collaboration challenge – Not part of consortium? Our experience can be your experience!
Reduce Costs
Shared Technical Resources
New Opportunities

27. Q & A

28. Thank you
Contact information
Sean Philpott, Emmanuel College
Justin Ragsdale, Wentworth Institute of Technology
Debbie Pepper, Colleges of the Fenway