CENIC News

At its heart, CENIC is about connecting people. CENIC was created by the state's K-20 research and education community in order to enable communication within and between the segments through high-performance networking.

However, there is more than one kind of communication, and CENIC's unique position at the center of the fiber-optic "web" extending throughout the state means that we are also able to create other opportunities for human communication, putting people in touch with one another to share their achievements, learn from their experiences, and create greater opportunities for themselves and their institutions.

On September 15-16, 2008 CENIC was delighted to hold what we hope will be the first of a series of research workshops demonstrating uses of bleeding-edge networking, the CalREN-XD/HPR Workshop. This conference was planned by and overseen by the CENIC Board's XD/HPR committee. During the conference, scientists and technologists from some of the California's most prestigious research universities and beyond gathered at Calit2 at UC San Diego to discuss and demonstrate the high-performance research made possible by CalREN's fiber-optic infrastructure and networks. Institutions from throughout the state staged 13 demonstrations, eight of which required multi-Gigabit bandwidth.

High-performance demonstrations took place throughout the first day of the Workshop in various locations around Atkinson Hall, Calit2's headquarters building at UC San Diego. All were supported by the ultra-high performance networking provided by CalREN. Attendees were wowed by simultaneous demonstrations in research areas as diverse as space science, high-quality interactive cinema, cloud and grid computing, geospatial data, telepresence, and data visualization. Presentations were given on CineGrid, the OptIPlanet collaboratory, and trans-Pacific networking via Pacific Wave, and the workshop was pleased to feature campus-specific infrastructure presentations centering on the UC San Diego, Irvine, and Davis campuses as well as the entire UC system as a whole. Attendees also enjoyed an excellent presentation on cyberinfrastructure by the new director of the National Science Foundation's Office of Cyberinfrastructure Ed Seidel as well as discussions of the current state and projected future of CalREN itself.

With the invaluable assistance of the people at Calit2, the Workshop was a stunning success as a learning and networking experience (both in terms of hardware and people). Attendees were able to see the highest-performance tier of the CalREN network enabling multiple live demonstrations of some of the most advanced technology known, as well as taking away valuable lessons from many of the world's most accomplished technologists and researchers.

More such Workshops are planned for the future revolving around a variety of topics. If you are interested in knowing more about this recent workshop, you can find presentations online at www.cenic.org/workshop/.

There's been a great deal of activity at CENIC during the month of September, with many sites receiving new, enhanced Gigabit connectivity to CalREN and to one another. CENIC has been working hard to upgrade the SONET circuits serving the K-12 system with Gigabit connections, and this month's upgrades include those between the El Dorado and Sacramento County Offices of Education, the San Benito County Office of Education and the CalREN backbone node at Soledad, as well as between the San Benito COE and the Monterey County Office of Education, the Colusa County Office of Education and the Sutter County Superintendent of Schools, and the Amador County Office of Education and the CalREN backbone node at Merced. The Pomona Unified School District was also transitioned with a Gigabit circuit to an alternate connection to the CalREN backbone.

Several of California's Community Colleges have also received upgraded connectivity this month as well. New Gigabit connections to CalREN were delivered to the following community college sites: Butte College, the California Community Colleges System Office, and the Yosemite Community College District, serving Columbia College and Modesto Junior College. (The CENIC Network Operations Center is working with the Yosemite CCD on the details of putting their new connection into production.)

For the California State University, a new OC-3 circuit between the CalREN backbone node at Los Angeles and the university system's data center in Salt Lake City, UT was put into production on October 4, 2008.

Last year in the May 2007 issue of CENIC Today, we mentioned the introduction of S1492, the Broadband Data Improvement Act by Sen. Daniel Inouye of Hawaii. In the same year's August issue, CENIC President and CEO Jim Dolgonas treated the Act and what it sought to achieve in the context of a larger national awareness of the value of broadband.

On September 26, 2008, the Broadband Data Improvement Act was voted on and passed by the Senate. Three days later on September 29, 2008 the Act passed the House of Representatives as well and currently awaits the President's signature before becoming law.

The Act has undergone some changes since it was first introduced by Senator Inouye, and now includes provisions for international comparison as well as verbiage taken from HR 3919, the Broadband Census of America Act of 2007, which passed the House on November 13, 2007. Among the additions is a list of the types of information to be included in the Consumer Survey of Broadband Service Capability, carried out by the FCC, to determine what the Act calls the "national characteristics of the use of broadband service capability." The information to be collected is quite broad in scope, focusing on the types of technology used to provide the service, the actual speeds of transmission, the amount paid by consumers for service, the applications and services most often used by consumers, other sources of broadband, and reasons given by consumers who have chosen not to avail themselves of the broadband capability offered in their areas. The Act also directs the FCC to make the survey results publicly available at least once a year, with suitable awareness of the FCC's obligation to protect proprietary information.

Still contained in the Act are provisions to expand the American Community Survey performed by the Census Bureau to include broadband-related metrics, to study the impact of broadband speed and price on small businesses, and to encourage state-based initiatives to improve broadband by use of a State Broadband Data and Development Grant Program. (Information on eligible entities and how a grant application must be filed can be found at http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=s110-1492.)

On November 13, 2008, nearly 4 million southern Californians will participate in the largest earthquake drill in history, including 640 schools, school districts, and institutions of higher education in eight counties. Called the Great Southern California Shakeout, it includes a drill, an International Earthquake Conference, and a post-drill Get Ready Rally in Nokia Plaza in downtown Los Angeles. Supporting organizations include the Los Angeles, Riverside, and San Diego County Offices of Education, the San Bernardino Superintendent of Schools, and the Orange County Department of Education.

The Shakeout is based on the scenario of a magnitude 7.8 earthquake occurring along the San Andreas fault and racing northward through southern California, considerably larger than the 1994 Northridge earthquake that caused such significant damage. Information about the drill itself, the post-drill activities, how to participate, and flyers that can be used to raise awareness of the Shakeout can be found online at the Great Southern California Shakeout website.

The Shakeout is part of a larger statewide disaster response scenario, conducted under the leadership of Governor Schwarzenegger and the direction of his Office of Homeland Security -- Golden Guardian 2008, the nation's largest state sponsored emergency exercise. GG08 uses the same scenario and involves many local, state, and federal agencies, the US Military, and private organizations as well to test the local, state, and federal-level coordinated response to such a disaster.

Golden Guardian is an ongoing annual event, comprised of a series of seminars, discussion-based tabletop exercise and drills, and culminating in a full-scale exercise designed to test the emergency capabilities of the State of California to deter, prevent, respond to, and recover from a potential terrorist attack or catastrophic natural disaster. Previous GG exercises have tested response to scenarios such as terrorist attacks on mass transit and public concerts, earthquakes in other locations, "dirty bomb" attacks, and other natural disasters.

The next CENIC Annual Conference, RIDING THE WAVES OF INNOVATION, will be held from March 9-11, 2009 in the beautiful city of Long Beach, CA. On the conference website, you'll find details on how to submit a proposal for your presentation as well as nominate an application or project that you feel merits consideration for the 2009 Innovations in Networking Awards.

If you'd like to submit a proposal for a presentation, we are interested in presentations that cover technology and infrastructure, teaching and learning, application development and use, trends, and/or future developments in network technology and related applications. The conference venue will be connected at 1 Gigabit to CalREN, NLR, and Internet2 to enable live demonstrations of content or capability. Information about past presentations can be obtained by reviewing the CENIC 2007 and CENIC 2008 conference programs.

We are especially interested in presentations that involve:

• Collaboration across educational segments, or with non-profit or research entities
• Use of national and international networks
• Teaching and Learning applications and projects
• Green initiatives and Sustainability
• Real-time demonstrations with remote sites
• Advanced services or technologies
• Use of new and emerging technologies

If you're interested in submitting an application or project for consideration for the Innovations in Networking Awards for 2009, the awards will be given for innovations in the following four categories:

• Teaching and Learning Applications
• High-Performance Research Applications
• Experimental/Developmental Applications
• Gigabit/Broadband Applications

Applications and projects involving collaborative work, either across multiple segments of the K-20 community or across county, state, or national borders, are encouraged. A committee of judges from within the CalREN community will determine the award winners on the basis of submitted materials, and additional interviews as deemed necessary.

Other information such as how to reserve your hotel room, travel to and from the Long Beach area, and how your company can sponsor RIDING THE WAVES OF INNOVATION can be found on the conference website, along with an RSS Feed to help you stay up to date on everything related to the conference.

We look forward to reviewing your proposals and nominations, and to seeing you in Long Beach next March!

Last year's Supercomputing conference, SC07, was held in Reno, Nevada, and CENIC was pleased to take a major leadership role with Project Manager Ed Smith and Core Engineer Chris Costa co-chairing the WAN Transport Group. This year's conference, SC08, will be taking place in Austin, Texas, and as a result, the Lonestar Education and Research Network (LEARN) will be playing a major role along with NLR and Internet2 in the creation of SCinet, the ultra-high-performance network that will be supporting the presentations, demonstrations, and bandwidth challenges that will take place from November 15-21, 2008 at the Austin Convention Center.

In support of the event, the Pacific Wave distributed international peering exchange has undertaken steps to enhance the already high-performance exchange, including increasing the bandwidth of its Los Angeles-to-Sunnyvale and Sunnyvale-to-Seattle backbone paths from one 10 Gb/s to two such links for a total of 20 Gb/s. The additional links will remain after SC08 to support Pacific Wave. Since the three Pacific Wave locations are all on the West Coast, connectivity into Texas and the Austin Convention Center is being made possible by extending the exchange during SC08 to Houston via a 10 Gb/s NLR connection, and then from Houston to Austin via LEARN.

Serving research and education networks located in the Pacific Rim and beyond, Pacific Wave is a joint project of CENIC and the Pacific Northwest Gigapop, with the support of the University of Washington. It features exchange points in three locations along the West Coast of the United States: three in Los Angeles, two in the San Francisco Bay Area, and one located in Seattle, WA. Through Pacific Wave, member networks in 12 countries are able to exchange traffic settlement-free, enabling their users to collaborate with one another and California's K-20 community with them at a significant cost savings.

US & World Networking News:

The recent release of a "national report card" on campus sustainability efforts by the National Wildlife Federation recognizes higher education for exemplary performance on a range of conservation issues. A good portion of higher ed's stellar showing could be attributed to the practices of college stores.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology is looking for a few good ideas for its Technology Initiative Program.

NIST has put out a request for "suggestions on areas of critical national and societal needs that could be addressed by transformative new technologies," according to a release from the agency. The ideas could be included in competitions for research and development funding under TIP.

White papers describing a need and how technology could address it should be submitted by Nov. 1. "A Guide for Preparing and Submitting White Papers on Areas of Critical National Need" on NIST's Web site gives instructions on preparing the white papers. The guide also is available by calling 1-888-847-6478.

To date most academic researchers have not been particularly concerned about the impact of climate change on their academic research. To many researchers climate change only affects big polluters such as coal plants and owners of SUVs. Surprisingly few members of the research community appreciate the dramatic changes that will be required in the next couple of years, if we hope to slow down the rate of temperature increase in the next decade. Every aspect of our lives will be fundamentally altered as society starts to recognize the severity of the problem, including, and especially in the way we carry out academic research.

BBN Technologies, an advanced technology solutions firm, announced today subcontract awards totaling $12M for 29 academic/industrial research teams to build, integrate, and begin to operate the first prototypes of the GENI suite of network research infrastructure. GENI prototyping is sponsored by the National Science Foundation to support experimental research in network science and engineering.

Open-source technologies hold great promise for education--but for this promise to be fully realized, a dramatic shift in thinking must occur, according to representatives from the ed-tech industry, nonprofit organizations, and academic institutions from around the world.

The occasion for their discussion was a symposium titled "K-12 Open Technologies Initiative," held March 8-9 at the World Bank Headquarters in Washington, D.C. The event took place in conjunction with the annual K-12 School Networking Conference hosted by the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN), a nonprofit organization that helps schools use technology to improve teaching and learning.

Scientists around the world celebrated a milestone in particle physics on September 10, as the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the largest man-made particle collider, sent its first batch of protons around its 27 kilometer ring.

The LHC will create high-energy conditions not seen since the Big Bang to discover new particles, including the elusive Higgs boson that is thought to give particles mass. Physicists hope the discovery of the Higgs will fill one of the gaping holes in the standard model: Why do particles have mass, and why are some particles heavier than others?

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.

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