Status Report - February 16, 2009

Here is the ARE-ON status report for February 16, 2009:

1. ADVA DWDM equipment: During the week of January 26th, Scott Ramoly and Steven Karp accompanied ADVA project personnel on site visits to almost all of the locations around the state and on the route to Dallas where ADVA equipment will be installed. Information gathered during these visits is being assimilated into a document that details the scope of work at each site that ADVA has been contracted for during the DWDM equipment installation that will take place during the summer. Due to inclement weather conditions, travel to some sites were not possible that week, so follow-on visits to those sites will be done in the near future.

On Tuesday, February 10, we had a major project kickoff meeting with ADVA during which we discussed the equipment configurations at each site based on the details of the site visits conducted so far. Based on the current network design, ADVA is confident that we will have sufficient equipment acquired during the RFP last fall to build the entire network plus light all the way to Dallas. Steven has provided ADVA with specifications for Eltek Valere FLATPACK2 systems for DC rectification necessary at campus locations where DC power is not available. In addition, we have provided ADVA with our preferred specifications on a number of other things that they will be supplying, including racks and cabinets.

2. Little Rock/Monroe IRU: The paperwork for completing the Paetec/McLeod IRU agreement between Little Rock and Monroe is being processed, as are documents about colocation space, splicing into the Paetec backbone fiber, and the use of house fiber for entering the regen site in North Little Rock.

3. Little Rock/Time Warner Telecom: We have a conference call scheduled today with TWTC regarding the agreement with the City of Little Rock. This will be an important call for us; we hope to have a better understanding of acceptable use of the metro fiber in Little Rock.

4. Little Rock: We have made the recommendation based on a variety of factors to proceed with the engineering and build of our own fiber in Little Rock to connect the UAMS and UALR campuses. This route would include diverting our Level3 fiber that passes through Little Rock through the two campuses, thus placing both campuses directly on the ARE-ON backbone. Also, now that we have decided to light the Level3 fiber to Dallas, along with additional work we are planning for Dallas, we can provide diverse routes for both campuses.

5. Ritter/Jonesboro: The Ritter dark fiber capacity agreement is currently under review by the UA legal counsel.

6. Conway: The Conway Corporation dark fiber agreement is currently under review by the UA legal counsel.

7. Suddenlink: I have contacted Suddenlink regarding the preparation of a formal proposal to build two routes in their service areas for us, including the south route to the HSU campus in Arkadelphia and the route to the SAU campus in Magnolia. We have a conference call scheduled for this Wednesday, February 18, to discuss the proposal in detail.

8. McLeod/OneNet/Tulsa: We are going to cancel any work for tying the Tulsa end of the McLeod fiber to OneNet.

9. Juniper Routers: Steven Karp worked with the UARK network group to place their new Juniper MX960 border router into production. All campus traffic to/from ARE-ON now goes through that router. The legacy Juniper M10 router is still running, currently handling the Internet2 traffic for UALR and UAMS, as well as the connection to the state network for UARK. The state network connection will move at some point to the ARE-ON MX960 in Fayetteville. ARE-ON will eventually take over the management of the M10 to eliminate the need for the UARK networking group to support the UALR and UAMS Internet2 links. Ultimately, as UALR and UAMS get their fiber link to ARE-ON, the M10 will move to serve other functions as long as it remains a viable resource and supported by Juniper.

10. Fiber Laterals Engineering: The selections of McClelland Consulting Engineers/CT&T as the engineering company and CDI as the construction manager for the fiber laterals construction project was reviewed and passed by a committee of the Legislative Council in their meeting on February 4th. The committee’s recommendation will be presented to the Legislative Council at their next meeting on February 20th. The McClelland contract has been signed and the CDI contract is under review by UA legal counsel. In the meantime, we have had weekly meetings with all three companies since the first of the year and have developed a project plan. The target of the plan is to have construction completed for all projects currently not on hold by June 15. Bids for subcontractors for Phase A are going out this week, with a pre-bid conference scheduled for February 18. These will be on the street about three weeks at which point they will be opened and an award or awards will be made. Phase A includes construction of the following fiber laterals: Fort Smith (north and south routes), Alma (two south routes to Cox/MBO splice and one north route to McLeod splice), Russellville (north and south routes), and Monticello (north and south routes). Easement documents that must be reviewed and approved by the individual campuses where fiber will be built are being drawn up.

Here are brief status updates on each of the fiber lateral projects:

a. Alma/MBO: The ARE-ON staff completed their review of the site. McClelland is wrapping up the last changes to the prints for the building at Alma. The five easements were signed and returned by the UA System Office, and as of last Friday, a sixth easement had been signed and mailed by the property owner. We have received preliminary approval from MBO & Cox for use of their splice point, but we are still awaiting the pricing quote for the work that Cox will need to do for the actual splicing. We have also received preliminary approval from McLeod. McLeod will pull the necessary highway permits for us, but will work with our contractor for the actual lateral build and splicing. This site will be in Bid Package A, which is being submitted this week.

b. Fort Smith/UA Fort Smith: The ARE-ON staff completed their review of the site. The last corrections on the prints for the two routes to UAFS have been completed. We are still awaiting an easement document for a small piece of property at the Cox splice point near the Garrison Avenue bridge. We have received preliminary approval from MBO & Cox for use of their splice point, but we are still awaiting the pricing quote for the work that Cox will need to do for the actual splicing. The two railroad permits are still pending approval. This project will require relocation of equipment from the existing MBO POP in downtown Fort Smith to the UAFS campus. This site will be in Bid Package A, which is being submitted this week.

c. Russellville/Arkansas Tech University: The ARE-ON staff completed their review of the site. The last corrections for the two routes to ATU have been completed. We have preliminary approval from McLeod on the use of their splice points, including a mid-span splice point that we were originally unable to use. McLeod will pull the necessary highway permits for us, but will work with our contractor for the actual lateral build and splicing. This site will be in Bid Package A, which is being submitted this week.

d. Monticello/UA Monticello: The ARE-ON staff completed their review of the site. The last corrections on the prints for the two routes to UAM have been completed. The use of the two McLeod splice points are still pending the completion of the IRU agreement. This site will be in Bid Package A, which is being submitted this week.

e. Conway/University of Central Arkansas: CT&T is in the process of completing the engineering of the two routes to the UCA campus. The northern route consists of short pieces on the beginning and end of the Conway Corp fiber that we are acquiring. The southern route reaches to a McLeod splice point along I-40 in south Conway. CT&T predicts that preliminary route drawings will be ready by February 18. The agreement with Conway Corp is currently under review by our legal counsel. UCA has asked if they can join with ARE-ON on a portion of the fiber build for conduit that extends south of their campus, which we will try to accommodate if at all possible.

f. North Little Rock/Level3 POP: We have decided to not build the two routes from the McLeod fiber along I-40 into the Level3 POP. If the TWTC deal is consummated, we will build one route from the POP to meet the TWTC fiber somewhere in North Little Rock. Meetings with TWTC engineering staff would have to take place before we know where that meet-me point would be.

g. North Little Rock/McLeod POP: CT&T is working on the draft prints for this route, which should be ready this week. We have a pending agreement with McLeod/Paetec on the fiber entrance to the POP, which per their sales engineer will need to be via house fiber rather than our own fiber. The build that we will undertake is from the POP over to a nearby splice point on the Level3 fiber along I-40. Level3 has provided an estimate on the cost of their lateral build. The colocation agreement with McLeod is also pending review. We will be placing ADVA ROADM and Juniper router equipment at this site. It will be our major central Arkansas routing node.

h. Pine Bluff/UA Pine Bluff: CT&T is working on the draft prints for the northern route into the UAPB campus, which should be ready for ARE-ON review by February 23. An agreement with WEHCO Video for a separate southern route is still pending.

i. Arkadelphia/Henderson State University: CT&T is working on the draft prints for the northern route into the HSU campus, which should be available for ARE-ON review this week. The contact with Suddenlink about the southern route is still pending. Level3 has given us preliminary estimates for the cost of building off their splice point near the intersection of I-30 and Country Club Road.

j. Magnolia/Southern Arkansas University: The contract with Suddenlink about building a route from the Level3 POP near Guernsey to the SAU campus in Magnolia is still pending. Prior efforts to find an alternate route to the east through El Dorado and Monticello have not been successful, although we hope that as a future project we might be able to acquire and/or build this route in order to round off a fiber ring for the southern half of the state.

k. Little Rock/UALR/UAMS: The decision point for use of the TWTC fiber has already passed. ARE-ON staff feels that this fiber will be of limited use especially as TWTC wants to put restrictions on its use. We have released CT&T to begin developing the detailed engineering plans for the preliminary route prepared several months ago. There is a major financial implication to this that will need to be addressed.

l. Monroe/University of Louisiana – We are awaiting the MOU with LONI before we can proceed with this project. LONI has just recently lost its executive director and may not be in a position to move the MOU forward yet. Mike Abbiatti is working with them to finalize the MOU and to place it before the LONI Management Council. In the meantime, we have approached the staff at the University of Louisiana, Monroe, about the physical facility. A site visit has not been scheduled yet, but will take place in the near future.

11. Dallas: As a result of a revision of the optical network design, there were sufficient savings in equipment already purchased through the DWDM equipment RFP from last Fall that will enable us to light the route all the way to Dallas. Site visits have already been made to the Level3 regen and collocation facilities. We have also solicited budgetary quotes from AT&T, Qwest, and Level3 for a 10-gigabit circuit between Dallas and Tulsa that will provide redundancy for all of the sites located along the Little Rock to Dallas fiber route (includes UAMS, UALR, HSU, and SAUM). One of the Juniper MX480 routers previous acquired and in use as a test machine will be deployed in Dallas to facilitate the circuit.

12. Arkansas One-Call & ARKUPS: The application for ARKUPS (the non-profit organization that will contract with us to do utility locates) has not yet come in. When we receive it, we will file it along with the application for Arkansas One-Call.

13. Commodity Internet: We have talked informally with Qwest, Level3, and AT&T about commodity Internet services. Now that we are planning to light the route to Dallas, we have many more options for CIS than before. We plan to put out a RFI to gather information about which companies can provide services and where their points of access are.

14. NOC: We have obtained a toll-free number and are contracting for an answering service to take trouble calls 24x7 and forward to an on-call ARE-ON network engineer. This, coupled, with some automated network monitoring, an out-of-band management network, and training that we will be conducting with select ARE-ON member institutions, will be our first start at a network operations center. This is a low-cost approach, which we will evaluate later to see if it is meeting the needs of the ARE-ON members or if a professional out-sourced NOC contract is called for.

15. DIS Peering: We still plan to work with DIS on migrating their Fayetteville connection to the ARE-ON MX960 router.

16. Fiber Testing Tools: Steven Karp and Scott Ramoly have had an opportunity to do some hands-on testing of the EXFO fiber testing tools with excellent results. The EXFO FTB-400 is a modular chassis that provides plug-in modules for various functions such as OTDR, power meter, CD and PMD analysis, etc.

On a personal note, all of ARE-ON’s staff was impacted by the ice storms that hit on January 26-27. Some of us were without power at home for over a week, and most of us have substantial tree and other damage at our homes. Steven Karp and Scott Ramoly were doing scheduled site visits around the state and into Texas during this time, and I want to take this opportunity to thank and commend them for their dedication to the project while their families were back home. We appreciate the patience of all as we work through the aftermath.

-David Merrifield, Chief Technology Officer
Arkansas Research and Education Optical Network

Status Report - 26 January 2009

Here is the ARE-ON status report for January 26, 2009:

1. ADVA DWDM equipment: We have had several conference calls with ADVA regarding overall changes in the network design that accommodates changes in the design as a result of several factors, including more efficient use of the equipment that we purchased and relocation of equipment originally planned for sites in Little Rock/North Little Rock that are no longer going to be used. We also have completed the network design for UA Fort Smith and Alma, and were very pleased that the equipment purchased in the original RFP, plus a few parts trade-ins, has resulted in the ability to equip the Fort Smith/Alma sites and light all the way to Dallas at no additional cost.

Steven Karp and Scott Ramoly have been studying the power requirements for each of our sites where we will be installing rectifiers and batteries (generally, at the various university campuses). They are currently focusing on the Eltek Valere FLATPACK2 system. This equipment will actually be purchased and deployed by ADVA as a part of their installation related materials.

This week Scott and Steven are traveling the state with ADVA planners, doing site visits at every location where ADVA equipment will be placed, including campuses, carrier colocation facilities, etc. The information gathered from these sites visits will be correlated for the ADVA project kickoff meeting scheduled for February 10.

2. Little Rock/Monroe IRU: We have initiated the process for acquiring this IRU from Paetec/McLeod. I have a conference call scheduled for tomorrow morning during which we will go over any last-minute details before completing the quotation and final paperwork.

3. McLeod/Paetec: Along with the IRU agreement for the Little Rock/Monroe route, we are finalizing the colocation agreements for Ozark, North Little Rock, and Hamburg where we will have to install DWDM and routing equipment. We have also requested formal permission to use select splice points in the Alma, Russellville, Conway, North Little Rock, Pine Bluff, and Monticello.

4. Level3: We were able to obtain our entry badges for the Level3 colocation facilities this past week. Level3 has granted us unescorted access into all of the areas where our equipment will be located except Dallas. Dallas requires additional security requiring each of our engineers will to visit in person before we can get the unescorted access we need there.

5. Little Rock/Time Warner Telecom: We have no updates beyond the discussions with the City two weeks ago about further tweaks to the agreement language.

6. Ritter/Jonesboro: The Ritter dark fiber capacity agreement is currently under review by the UA legal counsel.

7. Suddenlink: We feel that the Suddenlink proposals for the south route to HSU in Arkadelphia and the route from Magnolia to Guernsey are going to be our best prospects for completing those routes economically. I will be contacting Suddenlink to get a final proposal and draft agreement to us this week.

8. McLeod/OneNet/Tulsa: We are going to cancel any work for tying the Tulsa end of the McLeod fiber to OneNet.

9. Juniper Routers: The fix for a problem that we thought was included in the 9.3R2 JUNOS code for our MX960 routes apparently did not make it into the code. There were several problems with non-stop routing that were to be fixed in that release, but the BGP soft reset issue still remains. We are awaiting the release of 9.3R3 where we have been assured the fix will appear.

Also, an attempt to bring the UARK MX960 into full production on January 18th was not fully successful due to a problem with the UARK border firewall. We were able to establish the eBGP sessions as anticipated, but the firewall was blocking traffic unexpectedly. We will make another attempt at a later date in coordination with the UARK network team.

10. Fiber Laterals Engineering: The UA Board of Trustees met on January 16 and approved the selection of the McClelland Consulting Engineers/CT&T team as the engineering company for our fiber laterals construction project and the selection of CDI as the construction manager. These approvals are pending review by the Legislative Council, which is scheduled to meeting February 4. In the meantime, we have been working with McClelland since last fall and CDI for several weeks and have a plan for releasing the construction RFQs and the actual construction at each of our target cities. We are pressing to have all of our fiber constructed by June 15, although due to the continued delays in getting the Time Warner Telecom agreement in place it is likely that the Little Rock construction may not be completed until some time in August. The UA Board of Trustees also approved a resolution that enables us to handle easement approvals through the UA System Office more expeditiously.

Here are brief status updates on each of the fiber lateral projects:

a. Alma/MBO: The five easements for the Alma area should have been signed by this time, but one of those requires a slight modification and we are awaiting a new signature from the property owner. The network design, including final prints, has been completed. Final last-minute changes are in progress for the small building that we will be constructing that the location to house a DWDM ROADM between the juncture of the MBO and McLeod longhaul fibers that are being brought into the building. We are awaiting approval from Paetec to use the splice point on their fiber along I-40. We are also awaiting approval from MBO to use a splice point along US64. This project will require relocation of equipment from the existing MBO ILA site in Chester.

b. Fort Smith/UA Fort Smith: The final prints for the two routes to UAFS have been completed. CT&T discovered that we will have to obtain at least one small easement, possibly two, at the Cox splice point near the Garrison Avenue bridge. We have a pending request to MBO and Cox for permission to use their splice points. We also have two pending requests for railroad permits. This project will require relocation of equipment from the existing MBO POP in downtown Fort Smith to the UAFS campus. Scott Ramoly is planning the site visit at UAFS for this Wednesday.

c. Russellville/Arkansas Tech University: The final prints for the two routes to ATU have been completed. We are pending approval from Paetec to use the two splice points on their fiber along I-40. Scott Ramoly is planning the site visit at ATU for this Tuesday.

d. Conway/University of Central Arkansas: Conway Corp has agreed to build a portion of the northern route to the UCA campus. We will have to build a short amount of fiber to connect to the McLeod splice point near the intersection of I-40 and Skyline Drive and at the other end of the cable to connect to the campus. The agreement with Conway Corp is currently under review by our legal counsel. CT&T has been directed to engineer the southern route to connect the campus to the McLeod splice point along I-40 south of Dave Ward Drive. We are still awaiting the preliminary route design prints for both of these routes in Conway. Scott Ramoly is planning the site visit for UCA for this Tuesday.

e. North Little Rock/Level3 POP: We have decided to not build the two routes from the McLeod fiber along I-40 into the Level3 POP. Although, once the Time Warner Telecom agreement is in place, we will have to build a route from the Level3 POP to a suitable splice point on the TWTC fiber in the North Little Rock area. We have not yet begun design of this route since we are currently restricted from talking with TWTC directly until the agreement is finalized. Scott Ramoly is planning a site visit for the Level3 POP in North Little Rock for today.

f. North Little Rock/McLeod POP: CT&T is working on the draft prints for this route, which replaces the two routes we had originally planned for joining the McLeod and Level3 long-haul fibers at the Level3 POP. It is a single short build along state highway right-of-way with a short segment that McLeod will provide into their splice point at the intersection of I-40 and I-440. We have decided that the McLeod POP will house our Juniper core router and an ADVA ROADM. We anticipate needing a single easement to cross private property to reach the McLeod POP, but the easement research is still pending. Scott Ramoly is planning a site visit at the McLeod POP in North Little Rock for Wednesday. We are awaiting approval from Level3 to use the single splice point on their fiber along I-40 near the McLeod POP.

g. Pine Bluff/UA Pine Bluff: CT&T is working on the draft prints for the northern route into the UAPB campus. An agreement with WEHCO Video for a separate southern route is still pending. Steven Karp is planning a site visit at UAPB for today. We are awaiting permission from McLeod to use the single splice point in the Pine Bluff area.

h. Monticello/UA Monticello: The route prints for Monticello are finalized. Steven Karp is planning a site visit at UAM and the McLeod ILA site at Hamburg for today. We are awaiting permission from McLeod to use the two splice points in the Monticello area.

i. Arkadelphia/Henderson State University: We are still awaiting draft draft prints of the northern route from CT&T. The contact with Suddenlink about the southern route is still pending. Level3 has given us preliminary estimates for the cost of building off their splice point near the intersection of I-30 and Country Club Road. Scott Ramoly is planning a site visit at HSU for Thursday

j. Magnolia/Southern Arkansas University: The contact with Suddenlink about building a route from the Level3 POP near Guernsey to the SAU campus in Magnolia is still pending. Steven Karp is planning a site visit at SAU for today.

k. Little Rock/UALR/UAMS: Our understanding is that the Time Warner Telecom agreement with the City of Little Rock is very near resolution. Until we have an opportunity to talk with TWTC engineers about their metro fiber we are unable to do any further planning for Little Rock. Scott Ramoly is planning a site visit at UALR for today and at UAMS on Wednesday.

l. Monroe/University of Louisiana – We are awaiting the MOU with LONI before we can proceed with this project.

11. Arkansas One-Call & ARKUPS: The application for ARKUPS (the non-profit organization that will contract with us to do utility locates) has not yet come in. When we receive it, we will file it along with the application for Arkansas One-Call.

12. Commodity Internet: We have talked informally with Qwest, Level3, and AT&T about commodity Internet services. Now that we are planning to light the route to Dallas, we have many more options for CIS than before. We plan to put out a RFI to gather information about which companies can provide services and where their points of access are.

13. NOC: We made no progress on this project.

14. DIS Peering: We still plan to work with DIS on migrating their Fayetteville connection to the new MX960 router.

15. Fiber Testing Tools: Steven Karp and Scott Ramoly have been looking at fiber testing equipment, including OTDR, loss measurement, dispersion compensation, and Ethernet testing. EXFO has come highly recommended, and they have the product to meet our needs. They are not inexpensive, however, so we are being careful to evaluate real needs vs. nice-to-have functionality.

-David Merrifield, Chief Technology Officer
Arkansas Research and Education Optical Network

Status Report - January 12, 2009

Here is the ARE-ON status report for January 12, 2009:

1. ADVA DWDM equipment: The State Procurement Office completed its review of the ADVA DWDM equipment acquisition and ARE-ON is cleared to proceed with the shipment and installation of the equipment. We have begun meetings with ADVA on the actual final network design. Numerous changes in fiber routing and where we want to host our services have taken place since the initial RFP was released in March 2008. Last week we had a conference call with ADVA and learned that with a small amount of swapping equipment, we can do a lot more with the equipment already acquired than originally planned. This is good news to us since it enables to us add sites that were outside the scope of the RFP with no additional cost for the equipment, including Fort Smith and Alma, but also enabling us to light the path all the way to Dallas if we choose. We are currently working with ADVA on the final equipment list so that we can get the parts shipped as necessary. We are also working with ADVA on the early shipment and installation of the equipment racks for the campus sites where we will be building fiber. We need the racks in place in order to install the fiber patch panels that the construction contractors will build when the fiber laterals are completed.

2. Little Rock/Monroe IRU: We will wrap up the agreement with Paetec/McLeod on this route this week.

3. Little Rock/Time Warner Telecom: We heard late last week that this agreement is very close to completion.

4. Ritter/Jonesboro: The Ritter dark fiber capacity agreement is currently under review by the UA legal counsel.

5. Suddenlink: We feel that the Suddenlink proposals for the south route to HSU in Arkadelphia and the route from Magnolia to Guernsey are going to be our best prospects for completing those routes economically. I will be contacting Suddenlink to get a final proposal and draft agreement to us this week.

6. McLeod/OneNet/Tulsa: We are going to cancel any work for tying the Tulsa end of the McLeod fiber to OneNet.

7. Juniper Routers: Juniper delivered the fix to our non-stop routing problem in the latest release of their JUNOS operating system. Steven installed this version in the Fayetteville M960 on January 2, 2009.

8. Fiber Laterals Engineering: The approval of our selection of the construction manager is still pending. The UA Board of Trustees is meeting this Friday, January 16, and the approval is on their agenda. Also, the selection must receive approval by the Legislative Council before a contract can be signed. The next meeting of the Legislative Council is February 20. Delays in these approvals have made our construction timeline extremely tight. However, at this point, we are still pushing to have construction completed by June 15, 2009. This will give us time to get the optical network installed and tested, then build the Layer 2 & 3 backbone infrastructure and the links to the campuses to hopefully have our campuses operational by the time the Fall 2009 semester starts.

Here are brief status updates on each of the fiber lateral projects:

a. Alma/MBO: The signed easements are awaiting approval by the UA System Office and Board of Trustees for approval. A proposal is being placed before the BoT that will enable easements to be expedited through UA System Office approval and just follow-up reporting to the BoT afterwards. McClelland Engineering and GA Engineering has issued draft prints for the fiber hut to be constructed, and these are under review by the ARE-ON staff. The fiber construction prints are also under review by ARE-ON staff.

b. Fort Smith/UA Fort Smith: ARE-ON staff has reviewed the draft prints for the two routes to the campus, and CT&T is working on final drawings. We have a pending request to MBO and Cox for permission to use their splice points. We also have two pending requests for railroad permits. The UA legal counsel issued an opinion that the University is not subject to city franchises due to status as a state entity.

c. Russellville/Arkansas Tech University: CT&T has completed the draft prints for the two routes to the ATU campus. Both sets are currently under review by the ARE-ON staff. Of note is McLeod/Paetec reversing an earlier decision to now allow ARE-ON to build to the mid-span splice point along I-40 nearest the campus on the south route. This saves ARE-ON substantial cost in not having to extend that fiber several miles to the next available splice point east of Weir Road.

d. Conway/University of Central Arkansas: Conway Corp has agreed to build a portion of the northern route to the UCA campus. We will have to build a short amount of fiber to connect to the McLeod splice point near the intersection of I-40 and Skyline Drive and at the other end of the cable to connect to the campus. The agreement with Conway Corp is currently under review by our legal counsel. CT&T has been directed to engineer the southern route to connect the campus to the McLeod splice point along I-40 south of Dave Ward Drive.

e. North Little Rock/Level3 POP: We have decided to not build the two routes from the McLeod fiber along I-40 into the Level3 POP.

f. North Little Rock/McLeod POP: CT&T is working on the draft prints for this route, which replaces the two routes we had originally planned for joining the McLeod and Level3 long-haul fibers at the Level3 POP. It is a single short build along state highway right-of-way with a short segment that McLeod will provide into their splice point at the intersection of I-40 and I-440. We have decided that the McLeod POP will house our Juniper core router and an ADVA ROADM. We anticipate needing a single easement to cross private property to reach the McLeod POP, but the easement research is still pending.

g. Pine Bluff/UA Pine Bluff: CT&T is working on the draft prints for the northern route into the UAPB campus. An agreement with WEHCO Video for a separate southern route is still pending.

h. Monticello/UA Monticello: ARE-ON staff has reviewed the draft prints for both the northern and southern routes to the UAM campus and returned them to CT&T for revisions and finalization.

i. Arkadelphia/Henderson State University: CT&T will issue draft prints of the northern route next week for ARE-ON’s review. We have decided to get a formal proposal from Suddenlink for the southern route. Suddenlink’s fiber will be predominantly aerial, but will be substantially less expensive than if we were to building it ourselves. Level3 has given us preliminary estimates for the cost of building off their splice point near the intersection of I-30 and Country Club Road.

j. Magnolia/Southern Arkansas University: We have decided to get a formal proposal from Suddenlink to build fiber from the Level3 POP near Guernsey and the SAU campus in Magnolia. We do not think that we can put together an eastern route to Monticello in a short timeframe or that would cost us less than what Suddenlink has proposed. Our desire to find a lower-cost route to the east out of Magnolia using fiber from multiple providers does not look promising at this point.

k. Little Rock/UALR/UAMS: Our understanding is that the Time Warner Telecom agreement with the City of Little Rock is very near resolution. We have an alternative plan in place that will require construction of our own fiber to UALR and UAMS, but at significant cost. We are anxious to get this deal completed so that we can start the route design work needed to tie the two campuses into the rest of the backbone fiber.

l. Monroe/University of Louisiana – We are awaiting the MOU with LONI before we can proceed with this project.

9. Arkansas One-Call & ARKUPS: The application for ARKUPS (the non-profit organization that will contract with us to do utility locates) has not yet come in. When we receive it, we will file it along with the application for Arkansas One-Call.

10. Commodity Internet: We have received clearance to put out a RFI for commodity Internet service, which we plan to do in the month of January. Germane to the discussion are not just bandwidth costs, but also the cost of local loops, backhaul, and possible colocation. The Quilt providers all offer very promising rates and free backhaul with certain restrictions. However, our understanding is that the market has grown increasingly competitive, thereby offering us other choices beyond just the Quilt providers. A RFI will help us get the information to know how to proceed with contracting for Commodity Internet services for our members.

11. NOC: We made no progress on this project.

12. DIS Peering: We still plan to work with DIS on migrating their Fayetteville connection to the new MX960 router.

-David Merrifield, Chief Technology Officer
Arkansas Research and Education Optical Network