CENIC Today -- February 2008

Thu Mar 6 11:13:06 PST 2008

[CENIC Today -- February 2008, Volume 11 Issue 2] <http://www.cenic.org/>
CENIC News:

    * President's Message: The Need for a National Broadband Policy <#1>
    * CalREN Update: Network Projects and Activities <#2>
    * CalREN Supports Bio-sensor Collaboration between UCLA and Jordan
      University <#3>
    * CENIC 08: Lightpath to the Stars: Last Chance to Pre-Register! <#5>

	National Networking News:

    * 8th Annual Global LambdaGrid Workshop This October
    * Introducing TRIUMF: Canada's Tier-1 on the Worldwide Grid
    * AT&T Wi-Fi to be Offered Nationwide at Starbucks Locations
    * State Farm Youth Advisory Board Awards Half Million in
      Service-Learning Grants in CA
    * Latest Trend in School Security: Convergence
    * Stevie Wonder to Present Award to CSU Northridge for Work on
      Behalf of Accessibility

  CENIC News:

President's Message: The Need for a National Broadband Policy
by Jim Dolgonas, CENIC President & CEO
------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Picture of Jim Dolgonas] Last month, I commented on the just-released 
report from the Governor's California Broadband Task Force on the state 
of broadband deployment, availability, and adoption throughout 
California. This month I'd like to provide some thoughts on national 
broadband, stimulated by a presentation 
<http://connect.educause.edu/Library/Abstract/ABlueprintforBigBroadband/46209> 
I heard recently by John Windhausen, Jr., President of Telepoly Consulting.

John's talk was full of interesting information, projections, and 
incisive recommendations. He referred to research 
<http://www.nemertes.com/internet_singularity_delayed_why_limits_internet_capacity_will_stifle_innovation_web> 
conducted by Nemertes Research <http://www.nemertes.com/> suggesting 
that projections of insufficient network capacity will stifle 
innovation, primarily in web-based applications but also in many other 
applications such as telemedicine, telecommunity, HDTV, social 
networking, legal file sharing, and so on. And of course, predicting 
other specific uses of technology is always risky -- remember the 
prediction that the primary use of home computers would be the storage 
of recipes? Almost the only watertight prediction that can be made is 
that the new applications to come will likely be network-based, making 
it reasonable to assume some continual growth in network capacity 
regardless of exactly how steep one believes the growth curve will be.

Windhausen also assembled and presented information on broadband 
deployment in the US compared to other countries. Although there has 
been much similar information published in the last few years, 
Windhausen's presentation took the extra step of gathering growth data 
not only on the existence of broadband but its penetration and 
performance, displaying it graphically, and comparing the US to many 
other nations. This method of presenting broadband growth data throws 
the disparity between the United States and many other nations with 
equal or greater economic and geographic challenges into high relief. 
For example, Windhausen's presentation shows that broadband penetration 
is much greater in Canada than in the US with average download speeds up 
to 50% faster than US download speeds, and many nations with a lower GPD 
and a more dispersed rural population have greater broadband deployment, 
availability, and adoption than do we.

Windhausen concluded his presentation with a focus on policy, what types 
of market and government actions will be needed to maximize broadband 
penetration, and the crucial importance of having an overall national 
broadband policy in the first place. Windhausen notes that in 2001, 
Canada adopted a national-level broadband plan in which broadband was 
treated as infrastructure, similar to electrical or water delivery, 
roads, and bridges. (Importantly, the Canadian government provided some 
funding to support broadband as well.) Many other nations were discussed 
as well, and the position was put forth that these nations are now 
reaping the benefits of national broadband policies put into motion some 
6 to 8 years ago.

In terms of what a US broadband policy might consists of, Windhausen 
further concludes that market forces only are not sufficient create the 
necessary investment in broadband facilities since immediate, direct 
returns are not large enough, and that a new Universal Broadband Fund is 
necessary to subsidize the construction of local broadband connections 
to every home and business. His recommendation is that last-mile 
connectivity be funded in equal thirds from federal funds, state funds, 
and from the network builder/owner.

One can question whether the specifics of this particular policy 
recommendation are appropriate for the US. Nevertheless, I consider the 
conclusion to be of vital importance: in order for the US to be 
internationally competitive in broadband deployment, some type of 
central funding is required in addition to the existing commercial 
entities that would offer services over the infrastructure. How such a 
fund could be created in the US, and how it would operate to create the 
needed network infrastructure to keep us from falling even further 
behind the rest of the world, is of course a vast and complex question. 
It is however one with which we as a nation must grapple if we are to 
achieve the levels of broadband deployment -- and the benefits accruing 
to them as illustrated in the Broadband Task Force report -- available 
elsewhere in the world.

[***] <#top>
CalREN Update: Network Projects and Activities
by Ed Smith, CENIC Project Manager
------------------------------------------------------------------------

The past few months have been enomrously busy and fruitful for all 
segments, but I'd like to take some time to concentrate on the upgrades 
to CalREN connectivity for California's K-12 system. We're delighted to 
announce the completion of several large ongoing projects to better 
serve the K12 node sites, the connection points to the CalREN backbone, 
and ultimately the entire K12 community.

*Customer Premises Equipment (CPE) Refresh Project:*
K12's CPE refresh effort has been completed, and all original Cisco 7500 
series routers have now been retired and replaced with newer and faster 
Cisco 7200 series routers.

*UPS Battery Replacement Project:*
CENIC has just ordered the last of the needed replacement battery packs 
for the UPS units that protect K12 node site routers in case of power 
outages.

*Circuit Upgrades:*
To better meet the increasing demands for bandwith, the K12 High Speed 
Network requested that CENIC upgrade 21 circuits to Gigabit speeds. Of 
these 21 Gigabit circuit upgrades, all 21 have now been put into 
production on the CalREN-DC network. The final two Gigabit circuit 
upgrades, as marked, were completed before the end of February. CENIC 
and K12 have already identified and prioritized the next groups of 
circuit upgrades.

    * Alameda COE to San Mateo COE (completed!)
    * San Mateo COE to Sunnyvale Backbone Node Site (completed!)
    * San Francisco COE to Sunnyvale Backbone Node Site
    * San Francisco COE to Marin COE
    * Merced COE to San Joaquin COE
    * Stanislaus COE to Merced Backbone Node Site
    * Ventura COE to Los Angeles Backbone Node Site
    * Butte COE to Corning Backbone Node Site
    * El Dorado COE to Sacramento Backbone Node Site
    * Contra Costa COE to Marin COE
    * Santa Clara COE to Alameda COE
    * Placer COE to Sacramento Backbone Node Site
    * San Diego COE to San Diego Backbone Node Site
    * Riverside COE to Riverside Backbone Node Site
    * Contra Costa COE to Oakland Backbone Node Site
    * Solano COE to Sunnyvale Backbone Node Site
    * San Bernardino CSS to Riverside Backbone Node Site
    * Sonoma COE to Oakland Backbone Node Site
    * Santa Clara COE to Sunnyvale Backbone Node Site
    * Fresno COE to Fresno Backbone Node Site
    * Los Angeles COE to Los Angeles Backbone Node Site

In addition to these upgrades for the K-12 system, the California State 
University campus at San Bernardino also received a CENIC-managed fiber 
connection to the Riverside backbone node site, located at UC Riverside. 
An OC-3 to the Los Angeles node site provides diversity. Other projects 
for the CSU system and California's Community colleges are in various 
stages, so be sure to keep an eye out for future issues of CENIC Today 
to stay up to date about them and other exciting developments.

[***] <#top>
CalREN Supports Bio-sensor Collaboration between UCLA and Jordan University
by Janis Cortese, CENIC Manager of Publicity & Communications
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Half a world away in the Middle East, where fresh water is scarce and 
access to it is hotly contested, a small town wonders whether its water 
supply is healthy and safe. Cheap, reliable, disposable bio-sensors that 
test for organic pollutants and return fast, clear results would go a 
long way to enabling that small town (or nearby big city) to judge the 
safety of their water supply and what might need to be done to ensure 
it. For countries like Jordan, Oman, Iraq, and others in the Middle 
East, who are often heavily dependent on aquifers and using more than 
100% of their replenishable water supply, such considerations are 
urgent. Even in California where organic pollutants are increasing in 
the Colorado River, by which the thirst of much of southern California 
is sated, concerns like this will only become more and more pressing as 
time passes.

[Image of Hal Monbouquette and Vanessa Tolosa]Bio-engineering 
researchers at UCLA, the Jordan University of Science and Technology in 
Amman, Jordan, the Egyptian National Science and Technical Information 
Network (ENSTINET) in Cairo, Egypt, and the National Science Foundation 
in Arlington, VA collaborate and share knowledge on the bio-sensors 
needed to make this vision a reality, crucial in today's increasingly 
conservation-oriented world. On February 28, 2008 at 8:30AM PST, the 
medium via which they came together for this purpose was high-quality 
videoconferencing, made possible in part by CalREN and other 
high-performance research and education networks, and managed by Arif 
Khan at the Ohio Supercomputer Center. Readers of CENIC Today will also 
recognize the name of the man who accomplished the social networking 
needed to make the videoconference possible -- the peripatetic Ed 
Johansen, always an expert in, as he puts it, "getting the right people 
to the table."

This time, the "right people" consisted of the following:

    * UCLA Professor/Chair of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
      Harold Monbouquette and graduate student in the Monbouquette
      laboratory Vanessa Tolosa from the UCLA Visualization Portal,
      shown above at left
    * Assistant Professor at Jordan University of Science and Technology
      (and `04 Monbouquette lab alum) Naser Hamdi and Chair of the
      university's Biomedical Engineering Department Rami Oweis from
      Amman, Jordan
    * ENSTINET Director Ola Wagieh Laurence from Cairo, Egypt
    * Egyptian Embassy Science Adviser Maha Kamel, Internet Educational
      Equal Access Foundation Board Chair and University of Maryland
      Professor Donald Riley, and Senior Program Manager at the NSF's
      Office of International Science and Engineering Osman Shinaishin
      from the NSF in Arlington, VA

[Image of videoconference screen showing four sites]all of whom can be 
seen in the photograph at right, where participating locations listed 
clockwise from the top left are Cairo, Arlington, the Ohio Supercomputer 
Center, and Amman. Video clarity during the entire videoconference was 
stunning, with no stuttering or pixelation and no perceptible delay, a 
fact which a favorably impressed Dr. Monbouquette commented on 
afterwards. During the videoconference, clear and legible slide 
presentations were shared from Jordan and UCLA which included finely 
detailed photomicrographs and plots discussing not only the design but 
the manufacture of bio-sensors as well. Potentially valuable insights 
were gained by all participants on how to improve the fabrication and 
use of such devices, mere millimeters in size and sensitive to a variety 
to biologically originating compounds. Considerations include sensor 
shape, electrode geometry, methods for depositing sensing materials and 
other fabrication issues, and how to break a complex signal into its 
component parts in order to judge the concentrations of a variety of 
compounds in a given sample.

Questions of funding were also addressed, which were of considerable use 
and interest to all parties and an excellent example of an issue that 
can benefit from high-quality videoconferencing and both the technical 
and social networking that makes it possible. The NSF's Dr. Shinaishin 
shared information about the Foundation's interest in domestic research 
projects with international scope, which was met with warmth and 
enthusiasm by Drs. Monbouquette, Hamdi, and Oweis. ENSTINET Director 
Laurence was particularly keen to learn more about the NSF's activities 
regarding science education projects, of powerful interest to her and to 
Egypt's First Lady Suzanne Mubarak.

Further, another opportunity to take advantage of high-quality 
videoconferencing was identified by all parties during a March workshop 
to take place in Tanzania, and everyone present agreed on the enormous 
benefit to collaboration and research that such videoconferences bring, 
presenting as they do the ability to share information firsthand, not 
only about research but also about how to support it.

CENIC serves a very well-defined community, California's K-20 
researchers and educators. That community, however, has a global scope 
and vision. Through all of you and the advances you pursue, CENIC is put 
in the enviable position of facilitating innovations like those 
discussed at the UCLA Visualization Portal and other locations around 
the world on February 28, innovations which have the potential to 
improve the lives of people half a world away, who may never even have 
heard of CalREN.

Stay tuned for more information on future videoconferences facilitated 
by Ed Johansen and made possible by the kind of high-performance 
networking brought to California's K-20 R&E community by CENIC.

[***] <#top>
Your Last Chance to Pre-Register for CENIC 08!
by Janis Cortese, CENIC Manager of Publicity & Communications
------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Image of Oakland Marriott City Center] Final preparations are underway 
for *CENIC 08: Lightpath to the Stars*, and next week beginning on 
Sunday evening, the best and brightest of the California research & 
education community and many of their colleagues from around the world 
will come together to share their knowledge of network research and the 
applications that high-performance networking supports.

Among those attending will be the 2008 winners of CENIC's Innovations in 
Networking Awards. With this award, CENIC seeks to highlight network 
applications by identifying exemplary innovations that leverage the 
network and have the potential to improve the way instruction and 
research is conducted, even when the impact of the innovation may not be 
felt immediately.

CENIC will present the awards on *Tuesday March 11, 2008*, at the 
Oakland Marriott City Center hotel and convention center. Award winners 
will also be given the opportunity to present and discuss their 
application in a special session at the conference.

This year's award winners include:

*Educational Applications:*
CAHSEE: Stepping into your Future

*High-Performance Research Applications:*
Pac-10 Internet Video Exchange Project

*Experimental/Developmental Applications:*
CineGrid and UltraLight (tie)

*Gigabit/Broadband Applications:*
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's California Broadband Task Force

------------------------------------------------------------------------

CENIC is also pleased to announce Jerry Keith of UC Riverside as the 
2008 winner of the award for *Outstanding Individual Achievement*.

Award winners will be giving presentations about their respective 
projects on Tuesday as well; check out the conference program 
<http://cenic08.cenic.org/program/> to learn more, and if you haven't 
yet registered, do so now <http://cenic08.cenic.org/registration/>! See 
you next week in Oakland, CA!

[***] <#top>

  National Networking News:

8th Annual Global LambdaGrid Workshop This October
Source: GLIF <http://www.glif.is/meetings/2008/>
------------------------------------------------------------------------

The 8th Annual Global LambdaGrid Workshop will be held on 1-2 October 
2008 at the Bell Harbor International Conference Center, in Seattle, WA. 
At the website, you can find information about the workshop itself, 
accomodations (including special discounted room rates!), and obtaining 
travel visas for attendees from outside the United States.

Introducing TRIUMF: Canada's Tier-1 on the Worldwide Grid
Source: International Science Grid This Week 
<http://www.isgtw.org/?pid=1000944>
------------------------------------------------------------------------

When the Large Hadron Collider <http://lhc.web.cern.ch/lhc/> starts up 
at CERN <http://www.cern.ch> in 2008, the world will be waiting to 
receive the data it produces. In Canada, researchers will be looking to 
TRIUMF <http://www.triumf.info/>, Canada's particle and nuclear physics 
national laboratory.

TRIUMF is host to one of eleven Tier-1 centers, forming an integral part 
of the Worldwide LHC Computing Grid <http://lcg.web.cern.ch/LCG/> 
collaboration and supporting the particle detector experiment, ATLAS 
<http://atlasexperiment.org/>, one of the LHC-powered experiments.

AT&T Wi-Fi to be Offered Nationwide at Starbucks Locations
Source: Forbes 
<http://www.forbes.com/prnewswire/feeds/prnewswire/2008/02/11/prnewswire200802110930PR_NEWS_USPR_____AQM183.html> 

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Beginning this spring, Starbucks Card holders can enjoy up to two hours 
of free Wi-Fi service per day at Starbucks locations offering Wi-Fi 
access, while more than 12 million qualifying AT&T <http://www.att.com/> 
broadband and AT&T U-verse(SM) Internet customers will have unlimited 
free access to the Wi-Fi service. In addition, more than 5 million of 
AT&T's remote access services business customers will be able to access 
Wi-Fi service at Starbucks locations. AT&T will soon extend the benefits 
of Wi-Fi at Starbucks to its wireless customers.

"People want to stay connected to their world 24/7, and Wi-Fi hot spots, 
broadband and wireless make that mobility possible," said Rick Welday, 
AT&T chief marketing officer.

State Farm Youth Advisory Board Awards Half Million in Service-Learning 
Grants in CA
Source: converge 
<http://www.convergemag.com/story.php?catid=239&storyid=106782>
------------------------------------------------------------------------

State Farm's national 30-member Youth Advisory Board has awarded 
$486,045 in grants to five new California service-learning programs. The 
board awarded the grants after reviewing more than 30 applications from 
California schools and community-based organizations, in addition to 
over 300 requests for funding that were received from program sponsors 
in the United States and several Canadian provinces.

Latest Trend in School Security: Convergence
Source: eSchool News 
<http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/top-news/index.cfm?i=52717;_hbguid=87d56736-7045-46fa-aa5d-a7f24092e8c8> 

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Faced with increased security concerns, especially in light of recent 
school shootings across the US, educators are looking for new ways to 
improve their campus security systems -- and converging physical 
security tools on their campus computer network is the latest trend they 
are turning to.

At the Campus Safety Conference in California on Feb. 20, officials from 
Cisco Systems discussed the importance of converging a school's physical 
security tools on its network, which they said schools are now doing at 
an unprecedented pace.

Stevie Wonder to Present Award to CSU Northridge for Work on Behalf of 
Accessibility
Source:
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Twenty-five-time Grammy Award winning performer Stevie Wonder will 
present California State University, Northridge (CSUN) with the CSU's 
first "Accessible Technology Pioneer Award" March 12 during the campus's 
23rd Annual International Technology & Persons with Disabilities 
Conference 
<http://www.letsgoexpo.com/expo/index.cfm?EID=80000093&p=1&page=about&ECTID=48>, 
which takes place March 10-15.

The award, which will be accepted by CSUN President Dr. Jolene Koester, 
will be presented during a reception that will take place from 4:30 to 6 
p.m. at the Renaissance Montura Hotel at LAX.

CSU Northridge is being honored by the CSU Office of the Chancellor's 
Accessible Technology Initiative staff for the success of the conference 
in advancing the field of accessible technology by bringing together the 
foremost academic experts, technology innovators and companies, and 
consumer advocates in one venue. The school is also home to a globally 
renowned Deaf Studies 
<http://www.csun.edu/%7Esch_educ/dfst/old/index.html> program.

  About CENIC and How to Change Your Subscription:

California's education and research communities leverage their 
networking resources under CENIC, the Corporation for Education Network 
Initiatives in California, in order to obtain cost-effective, 
high-bandwidth networking to support their missions and answer the needs 
of their faculty, staff, and students. CENIC designs, implements, and 
operates CalREN, the California Research and Education Network, a 
high-bandwidth, high-capacity Internet network specially designed to 
meet the unique requirements of these communities, and to which the vast 
majority of the state's K-20 educational institutions are connected. In 
order to facilitate collaboration in education and research, CENIC also 
provides connectivity to non-California institutions and industry 
research organizations with which CENIC's Associate researchers and 
educators are engaged.

CENIC is governed by its member institutions. Representatives from these 
institutions also donate expertise through their participation in 
various committees designed to ensure that CENIC is managed effectively 
and efficiently, and to support the continued evolution of the network 
as technology advances.

For more information, visit www.cenic.org <http://www.cenico.rg/>.

Subscription Information: You can subscribe and unsubscribe to CENIC 
Today at http://lists.cenic.org/mailman/listinfo/cenic-today.

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