Case Study – Building A Regional Optical Network

(RON)The Quilt Fiber Workshop

June 21-23, 2004

Presentation Objective

• To share the issues involved with implementing a RON and the associated container corporation with The Quilt Fiber Workshop participants

• To provide workshop participants with examples of how SLR dealt with and continues to deal with these issues

The Vision

• Southern Light Rail (SLR)– Regional access to Atlanta National LambdaRail

(NLR) node– International Connectivity – O&M of National Science Foundation (NSF)

Atlanta Extensible Terascale Facility (ETF) hub– Southern Crossroads (SoX) operations

GT Campus

56 Marietta

345 Courtland

SLR

Southern Light Rail (SLR)Spheres of Influence

Getting Started – Governance Issues

• Board Directors of vs. Board of Trustees

• Advisory Board– Non-voting – Voting– Hybrid – Advisory Board elects Board seats

Getting Started – Business Plan

• Budget– Pro-forma– Detailed

• Leadership– Sponsor (champion)– Directors & officers

• Source of Funds (especially seed funding)

Getting Started - Business Plan

• Bandwidth Pricing Models– Costs

• Marginal vs. Market based

• Equipment replacement - fully loaded

• Cost center – rate study

– Other telecom services

• New service offerings

• Marketing

Getting Started – Business Model

• Affiliate or cooperative corporation vs. independent corporation (i.e. LLC)

• Sources of funds

• Flow of service and charges

• Capture total costs

National LambdaRail (NLR)

Southern Light Rail (SLR) Georgia Tech

Vendors

Fee

for

serv

ices

Georgia Tech and SLR

Participants 1 - N

Non - SLR Participant

(government agency)

Non - SLR Participant

(private sector corporation)

6/7/2004

Business Operations Functional Diagram

Southern Light Rail (SLR)

Ser

vice

s (c

ollo

catio

n, IS

P &

I2)

Tra

nspo

rt B

andw

idth

Svc

s.

Pay

men

t for

Ban

dwid

th

PS (mgt., admin. & technical)

Non-PS (equip., fiber, NOC and O&M)

Contract for Svcs. w/ GT

Contract for Svcs. w/ GT

Usage Charge C

Bandwidth Utilization

Bandwidth Utilization

Bandwidth Utilization

Usage Charge B

Participant Fee + Usage Chg A

NOTES:

Usage Charge A = NLR Bandwidth Cost A + SLR Bandwidth Cost A + Distant Regional Optical Network Cost

Usage Charge B = NLR Bandwidth Cost B + SLR Bandwidth Cost B + Distant Regional Optical Network Cost + Non-Participant Assessment

Usage Charge C = NLR Bandwidth Cost C + SLR Bandwidth Cost C + Distant Regional Optical Network Cost + Non-Participant Assessment

NLR Bandwidth Cost A, B or C = NLR Marginal Cost x A, B or C%

SLR Bandwidth Cost A, B or C = SLR Marginal Cost X SLR Marginal Cost x A, B or C%

NLR/SLR Marginal Cost = NLR/SLR Direct Costs Associated With Bandwidth (interface cards, installation, DC power, maintenance, NOC engineering, administration + contribution to equipment replacement costs)

GT Affiliate (Cooperative) Agreement

Next Steps – Fiber Acquisition

• IRU / Lease / Trade / Donation– Metro– Rural

• Strategic Alliances– Private sector – I/CLEC / IXC / CATV / utilities– Public sector

• State Board of Regents

• Education and Research Consortiums

Next Steps – Equipment Procurement

• SONET

• Ethernet

• CWDM

• DWDM

Other Issues

• Politics (the science of relationship building)– Multi-level selling (top-down and bottom-up)

• What do I get for my money?

• What, no vote?

• Paradigm Shifts– Shared network infrastructure vs. dedicated point-to-

point connectivity

– Sales & Marketing (Business Development)

• Campus Network Infrastructure– Dedicated fiber connectivity to the lab

Other Issues (paperwork, paperwork & more paperwork)

• Organizational– Articles of Incorporation & Bylaws– IRS 501(c)(3) filing

• Procurement (pre-selection)– Fiber & Equipment RFP (Mandatories / Desirables)

• Vendor relations (post-selection)– Contracts

• MSA (Collocation & IRU)• Vendor

• Members (Participants)• MOUs / MOAs

SLR Distributed GigaPOP

• Georgia Institute of Technology - Atlanta

• 56 Marietta – Carrier Hotel– Abundance of fiber– Carrier neutral

• 345 Courtland Street– NLR Atlanta node

SLR Distributed GigaPOP

SLR - NLR Access• Georgia – Access Network #1

– Emory– Georgia State University– Morehouse School of Medicine

• Georgia – Access Network #2– University of Georgia - Athens– Medical College of Georgia – Augusta– Georgia Tech Savannah

• SoX Universities – Access Network #3 – South Carolina– Access Network #4 - Alabama

SLR - NLR Access Network #1

SLR - NLR Access Network #2

Strategic Alliance Proposal• The Deal

– SLR or educational entity provides optronics– NOC / O&M

• To be negotiated / contracted with fiber provider– Bandwidth

• Shared between both parties to the deal in direct proportion to their financial contribution

• Current Status– Fiber Providers Approached (CLECs, Cable Providers,

Utilities, etc.)– Utility has agreed in concept that proposal is feasible –

next steps vendor involvement & technical issue assessment

Other Regional Locations – SLR-NLR Access Networks #3, 4…#N

• Southern Crossroads (SoX)– South Carolina

• Qwest fiber?

– Alabama• Level 3 fiber?

– Tennessee / Kentucky• Qwest fiber?

• Leased Waves? (commercial or private network)

NLR Access Network #3 & #4

Thank You

Questions & Comments