SURA RII Architectural Working Group General Call For Participation

From: Gary Crane (gcrane@sura.org)
Date: Mon Apr 02 2001 - 14:08:32 EDT

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    SURA RII Architectural Working Group General Call For Participation

    The SURA Regional Infrastructure Initiative has reached the stage where
    we need to quickly begin more detailed discussions regarding the
    technical and business models that we will use to guide our interactions
    with potential partners that are identified during Phase 2 of this
    project. To that end, on Tuesday, April 24, 2001, SURA is planning the
    first SURA Regional Infrastructure Initiative Architectural Working
    Group (AWG) meeting. Ron Hutchins, from Georgia Tech, has agreed to
    facilitate the activities of this group on behalf of SURA.

    Because of the timing involved, this call for participation has already
    been sent to the set of individuals listed at the end of this message
    who have been involved in past collaborative network initiatives and
    have shown interest in the vision and goals of the SURA RII. The intent
    of this general call for participation is to extend the call for
    participation beyond this initial group to include others from the SURA
    region who are in a position to contribute to this effort. This general
    call for participation is being sent to the SURA IT Committee email
    list. If you would like to nominate someone for participation in the
    AWG, we ask that you respond to this call for participation as soon as
    possible, but no later than Friday, April 6.

    The April 24 planning meeting is designed to bring together individuals
    from the SURA community that have expertise and insight into how the
    concepts of the SURA RII could be implemented. It is our intent to also
    invite several interested and knowledgeable individuals from outside the
    SURA region to provide us with national and international perspectives
    to help inform our work. The list of individuals invited to participate
    on this external review committee are also listed below.

    The work involved in creating an operational fiber based transport
    service for the SURA region is a complex and difficult task. It's
    critical that we begin to work on the practical issues involved in
    making the concepts of the RII real as soon as possible. We need your
    help in beginning to move the SURA RII from concept to reality.

    Please use the following guidelines when considering individuals who
    could participate in this effort:

    - not every SURA member institution should feel compelled to send a
    representative to this group

    - we anticipate the need to bring the group together for three
    face-to-face meetings over the next six months

    - face-to-face meetings will be augmented with bi-weekly conference
    calls and the use of dedicated group email lists and web pages

    - individuals recommended for this working group should be highly
    motivated individuals who have in-depth knowledge and experience in at
    least one of the two areas:

    1) architectural specification and implementation of multi-campus, state
    or regionally aggregated (Gigapop) network services, especially
    utilizing fiber optic facilities

    2) development of business case and economic models for multi-campus,
    state or regionally aggregated (Gigapop) network services across
    multiple administrative domains

    We are asking all interested participants to think about the following
    issues and document their current thoughts (a page or two would be fine)
    in advance of this meeting:

    1) What technologies are likely to be available for use in the
    deployment of a fiber based SURA regional infrastructure within the next
    12-18 months?

    2) What physical and logical network architectures should be considered
    in attempting to deploy a phased implementation of the concepts embodied
    by the SURA RII?

    3) What types of governance and decision making should SURA employ in
    developing an operational shared fiber infrastructure for the SURA
    region?

    4) What charging schemes and funding sources should be considered to
    assure the equitable distribution of costs and benefits of a regional
    fiber infrastructure?

    We plan to use these papers as a starting point for our discussions at
    the planned April 24 meeting so we are asking that all participants in
    this effort submit their contribution via e-mail to gcrane@sura.org no
    later than April 18. All papers will be posted on the SURA RII website
    in advance of the meeting.

    The initial AWG Planning Meeting will be held from 9:00am to 5:00pm on
    Tuesday, April 24. Information on the location of the meeting and a
    draft agenda will be developed over the next two weeks. Again, we ask
    that you respond to this general call for participation as soon as
    possible, but no later than Friday, April 6. Please send your response
    to Gary Crane, gcrane@sura.org.

    Gary Crane and Ron Hutchins

    Initial invitee list:

    Dave Pokorney -Fla
    Mark Johnson - NC
    Jerry Sobiesky - Md
    John Nichols –Va
    Dewitt Latimer -Tn
    Doyle Friskney -Ky
    John Watters - Al
    Jed Diem - La
    Mike Rackley - Ms
    Larry Flournoy - Tx
    James Deaton – Ok
    Robert Zimmerman – AR
    Daniel Grim – Delaware
    Ken Orgill – West Virginia
    Troy Travis – South Carolina
    Ron Hutchins - Ga
    Gary Crane -SURA

    Invited External Review Group

    Michael Krugman - BU
    Dave Reese - CSU system
    Steve Corbato - UCAID
    Rene Hatem – Canarie
    Bill Wing - ORNL

    _____________________________________________________

         Gary Crane
         Southeastern Universities Research Association
         Director IT Initiatives

         Phone: 315-597-1459
         Fax: 315-597-1459
         Email: gcrane@sura.org
         www.sura.org



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