Mvccnet - Next Steps

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Next Steps

Written by Administrator

Thursday, 26 July 2007

THE CURRENT SITUATION:
To put it plainly SB 117 has put us in a real crunch. Time-Warner has expressed the intention to discontinue our Institutional Network and our access to the Time-Warner head end on the first day that SB 117 permits them to do so. The date looks like Jan 23rd, 2008. Some of us have already talked about the implications of this for municipalities in this

region. In summary, there are three categories of problems.

1. Use of the institutional network for intra-municipality communications will cease on that date. For some of you this has huge implications. The information on the links referenced below doesn’t address this problem. However, MVCC is not ignoring this problem and we understand that a group solution for all municipalities may be more cost effective – and faster – than individual solutions. I suggest using our blog referenced below to brainstorm solutions. One thing we are looking at is a wide area wireless solution for locations that don’t need as much bandwidth.

2. Use of the institutional network for inter-municipality communications will cease on that date. The information on the links referenced above is an initial effort to address that problem. We need to settle on a final design and gather costs for that design very quickly. It takes about 9 months normally to install fiber in this region. It will probably take about three months to install microwave. We have six months before we lose our institutional network. Happily, all municipalities that have traffic signals fiber are contributing fiber to the regional network. The ODOT has contributed their fiber along SR 725 and SR 741 in Washington and Miami Townships. Montgomery County Sanitary has offered the use of many of their water towers provided we can offer them a reasonable business case. (In the interest of time and because of resource limitations we may do this later.) Vandalia, Miamisburg and Germantown have offered the use of their municipal water towers. P&R communications has one or more towers we may be able to use (at some cost). Dayton Schools has offered the use of their tower on top of the American Building at 40 W. 4th St. provided their landlord permits it. There are police towers in several cities that we may be able to use. So, we have quite a few resources available to us.

3. Time-Warner-provided network access to the Time-Warner head end will cease on that date. This means that all municipalities, non-profit PEG facilities, schools and others who today transmit PEG channels to the Time-Warner head end will have to find a different way to reach the Time-Warner head end at their own expense. Again the information on the links referenced above is an initial effort to address that problem.

RESPONSE TO THE SITUATION:

We will very soon initiate a process to formally seek ideas for replacing the network services lost as a result of losing our institutional network. Please feel free to pass this note to any others who may be able to help in this process. Please keep in mind the short time frame involved. We know the problems! We are seeking cooperative solutions that can be quickly, cost-effectively implemented.

In the meantime we are pressing ahead with a regional solution to the situation created by SB 117. We understand that some may pursue individual solutions.

For those who wish to participate in a regional solution we are seeking network bandwidth requirements. To this end we ask that you look at the Network Priorities List and download the Excel spreadsheet. Please fill in any information that applies to your municipality and send the spreadsheet to Tom Ireland at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it . Your information will be integrated into the final Post SB 117 Network Priorities List. It would be best to provide this information as soon as possible.

The information we have gathered so far has led to the generalized network paths shown in the pages in the PowerPoint MVRN Presentation. This PowerPoint and the drawings should be reviewed before the next Miami Valley Regional Network Meeting at MVCC. The drawings and the requirements from the Excel spreadsheets need to be discussed at that meeting. The objective is to drive to a consensus among the technical team before the end of that meeting. If that seems ambitious it is! However, if we want to pursue a regional solution that might reduce the costs for all of us in this post-SB 117 environment then we need to move aggressively. Otherwise we may all be leasing more expensive services after January 23, 2008.

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