The Florida LambdaRail (FLR) A Research and Education Network for Florida Veronica Sarjeant

1. The Florida LambdaRail (FLR) A Research and Education Network for Florida Veronica Sarjeant Chief Operations Officer Community College CIO Meeting April 21, 2004

2. The Florida LambdaRail (FLR) • Part of a larger national fiber optic network, the National LambdaRail (NLR), linking research institutions around the country with connectivity to international research networks • Establishes a foundation for the next-generation networks needed to support large-scale research, education outreach, public/private partnerships and IT infrastructure essential to economic development

3. FLR • Nine Florida universities financially committed • Participating universities are: FAU, FIT, FIU, FSU, NSU, UCF, UF, UM, and UWF • November 2002 – Formed consortium • May 2003 – Incorporated as the Florida the Florida LambdaRail, LLC (non-profit limited liability corporation) • February 2004 - Applied for 501(c)(3) tax-exempt recognition

4. Governance & Organization • Members are accredited investors • One, two, three or four Units of ownership • Based upon level of interest in participating in the NLR and other national research activities • Centralized authority and oversight and invested in a Board of Directors • Setup to operate as a highly outsourced company - there are no employees

5. Governance & Organization • Contracted services provided by member institutions • Three primary sets of services: • Business leadership, management & operations • Technical leadership, operations, & services • Financial management & procurement

6. Initial Infrastructure • Dense wave division multiplexing (DWDM) based optical footprint • Capacity of 32 wavelength per fiber pair. • To be deployed over 1,540 routed miles of dark fiber • 20 years irrevocable right to use. • At startup only one wave to be installed • Support transmission at 10 billion bits per second (10 Gbps). • Operated and maintained by the FLR

7. Initial Infrastructure

8. Initial Infrastructure • Shared IP fiber backbone • Links Jacksonville (NLR node), to Orlando, to Melbourne, to Ft. Lauderdale, to Miami, to Tampa, and to Tallahassee with spurs to Pensacola, and Gainesville • Member campus to have a single, 10-Gbps connection • Further subdivided as needed into 1-Gbps dedicated circuits. • Initial services to include both dedicated and switched (bandwidth on demand) 10-GE or single GE circuits

9. Implementation Status • Vendor negotiations for the dark fiber and optical and transport equipment completed • Final contracts not signed • 4th Quarter, 2004 target date for production network

10. Services • Operating agreement allows for Non-equity participants • Considered customers purchasing services • Identified services: • IP connectivity to NLR • IP connectivity to Internet • IP connectivity to Internet2 • Share IP transport between member institutions • Share Peering between the FLR network and other state networks (e.g., FIRN2) • Dedicated wavelengths between FLR members and other FLR or NLR institutions

11. Opportunities • Collaboratories – researchers & work teams in multiple locations sharing work and interacting in real time through video, audio, shared whiteboards and shared laboratory notebooks available to all collaborators online • Interactive distributed simulations – linking high-powered computational resources with remote users and other computers • Processing and visualization of large data sets – distributed computation • Distance Learning – delivery of courses and programs over the Internet extending the reach of education to wider geographic areas and demographic populations

12. Opportunities • Access to digitized databases – researcher accessing supercomputing resources across the country without leaving their offices • Video teleconferencing – bridging time and place for geographically dispersed work teams via transmission of video via high-speed connections

13. Expected Outcomes • 100-fold improvement in network speed • Scalable network solution that meets long-term requirements • Aggregation of Internet and Internet 2 connectivity • Lower costs due to collective purchase of bandwidth • Future cost avoidance through the reduction of network-related costs and combined network capabilities • Growth and development in innovative teaching approaches and techniques • Ability to collaborate and compete redefined!

14. Questions? Board of Directors Larry Conrad, Assoc. VP Tech Integration and CIO, FSU, Chairman Dr. Jeff Schilit, Assoc. Provost and CIO, FAU Dr. J. Richard Newman, Assoc. VP and CIO, FIT Dr. Joel Hartman, Vice Provost, UCF Stewart Seruya, Chief Security & Network Officer, UM Michael F. Dieckmann, Associate VP for IT and CIO, UWF Dr. George Hanbury II, Executive VP for Administration, NSU Dr. Charles E. Frazier, Vice Provost & Sr. Assoc. VP for Academic Affairs, UF Julio Ibarra, Director, Center of Internet Augmented Research & Assessment, FIU Contracted Agents Veronica Sarjeant, FSU, Chief Operations Officer Steve Haring, UM, Chief Financial Officer Dave Pokorney, UF, Chief Technology Officer http://www.flrnet.org