Here is the ARE-ON status report for October 20, 2008:
1. ADVA DWDM equipment: Additional shipments of ADVA equipment have arrived and are stored in the Government Ave. warehouse. We have been advised to place all activities on hold pending a protest filed over the RFP award.
2. Little Rock/Monroe IRU: Now that the route survey for Monticello is done, I can now provide the information that we needed to place in the IRU document and will proceed with completion of the acquisition of this route this week.
3. Little Rock/Time Warner Telecom: No new developments. We are still awaiting TWTC’s review of the current draft of the agreement with the City of Little Rock.
4. Ritter/Jonesboro: The last update that we received from David Adams was on October 3rd. I have the Ritter IRU document in redline format, but did not make any progress last week in its review due to the busy schedule.
5. Suddenlink: No new developments. I did not hear from Suddenlink this past week. We are anticipating two proposals from them, one for a fiber route from Jonesboro to Biscoe, and another for the lateral builds from our McLeod splice points in Russellville to the Arkansas Tech University campus.
6. McLeod/OneNet/Tulsa: This project is on hold pending the outcome the Van Buren/MBO project (below).
7. Juniper Routers: The Fayetteville Juniper MX960 core router is now in production as of October 17. Steven Karp worked with OneNet to install a second, temporary 10Gig link using an extra wavelength between Fayetteville and Tulsa to connect our new Juniper MX960 to OneNet’s router at OSU Tulsa. He is still debugging a BGP localpref issue, so we have left the temporary 10Gig link operational throughout the weekend until he and OneNet can do some additional diagnostics.
8. Fiber Laterals Engineering: In the Friday, October 17, weekly status meeting with Facilities Management, McClelland Consultant Engineers, and CT&T, we got an update site-by-site on progress by CT&T. This will be summarized below. We also learned that Bob Beeler of FACM was able to get approval to use the construction coordinator (CM) method of selecting construction firms. A newspaper advertisement went out this weekend asking for companies to respond to a Request for Qualifications, which is due October 31. The CM will be selected through an interview process similar to that of the engineering company. The CM we select will then work directly with McClelland at CT&T on construction route details and will bid each construction project/phase. Phase I bids could be ready for construction bid in 4 to 5 weeks, pending permissions for right-of-way along the controlled access highways.
a. Alma/MBO: CT&T has obtained verbal agreement from property owners between the MBO and McLeod splice points for easements that will permit construction of a fiber hut where we can install our ROADM equipment. Still pending are easements on the private side of the fence to the McLeod splice point, and one of the two fiber routes to the Cox/MBO splice point.
b. Fort Smith/UA Fort Smith: AT&T has denied access into their manhole and conduit that would permit easy splice access into the MBO POP in downtown Fort Smith and facilitated the southern route into the UAFS campus. We have identified alternative splice points north of the POP that will require a redesign of the routes. Scott Ramoly has a meeting scheduled with MBO and Cox on Wednesday to verify the splice points, followed by a meeting with CT&T to redesign the routes.
c. Russellville/Arkansas Tech University: We are awaiting final approval of the right-of-way along the I-40 controlled access highway before we can have CT&T complete their design of the fiber routes into the ATU campus.
d. Conway/University of Central Arkansas: We have a meeting scheduled on October 20 with Conway Corp about them potentially building the two routes to the UCA campus for us.
e. North Little Rock/Level3 POP: Preliminary route selection is complete.
f. Pine Bluff/UA Pine Bluff: Preliminary route selection is complete. However, CT&T is facilitating a meeting with WEHCO Cable to potentially use some of their fiber for one of the routes. This could save money, plus give us a partner in town for future projects.
g. Monticello/UA Monticello: Preliminary route selection is complete. CT&T will start route measurements this week.
h. Arkadelphia/Henderson State University: The preliminary route selection is complete. CT&T has begun route measurements.
i. Magnolia/Southern Arkansas University: CT&T has agreed to facilitate a meeting with the companies that we may be able to use to procure fiber between Monticello and Magnolia. This meeting has not been scheduled yet.
j. Little Rock/UALR/UAMS: Scott Ramoly met with CT&T last week to develop a preliminary route between two Level3 splice points in Little Rock through the UALR and UAMS campuses. They were not able to locate the northern splice point that is closest to the UAMS campus, but have proceeded based on the assumption that the Level3 map is accurate and that the splice point might be buried. Portions of this route are very difficult. CT&T will have a preliminary estimate ready by October 24.
k. Monroe/University of Louisiana – Monroe: I met with Lonnie Leger of LONI while at the Internet2 meeting last week to discuss the fiber lateral into the ULM campus where we will place an ARE-ON routing node and connection to the LONI network. LONI has fiber in the McLeod manhole where our fiber passes through, and 24-count fiber from there to the ULM campus. LONI is willing to provide a fiber pair into the ULM campus. After the interstate MOU is signed, we can simply contract with LONI to do the necessary splicing and collocation at the ULM campus.
9. NOC: We made no progress on this project.
10. DIS Peering: We will work with DIS on migrating their Fayetteville connection to the new MX960 router after we have it in production.
11. SAU Magnolia DNS: Steven Karp continues to assist SAU Magnolia in setting up their own public-facing primary DNS server on campus rather than relying on their commodity Internet provider.
12. HPC: Steven Karp will be traveling to Jonesboro on October 21-22 to discuss High Performance Computing, mass storage, and how ARE-ON may be able to facilitate statewide needs for these resources.
13. Madison County Telephone: Steven Karp has arranged for a friendly meeting in Huntsville on Thursday with Madison County Telephone to tour one of their fiber huts. MCT builds their own huts rather than use preconstructed concrete huts.
14. Training: Scott Ramoly is scheduled to attend ADVA training in Norcross, GA, the week of October 27-31. We will also be sending him to an outside cabling plant course in Albuquerque November 17-21.
-David Merrifield, Chief Technology Officer
Arkansas Research and Education Optical Network
About Me
- David Merrifield
- Fayetteville, Arkansas, United States
David Merrifield is the chief technology officer for the Arkansas Research and Education Optical Network (ARE-ON), which is a consortium of the eleven four-year public universities in the state of Arkansas formed to build a fiber optic network to connect the member universities to the national research and education backbone networks of Internet2 and National LambdaRail.