K-20 Education Network Strategic Plan Spring 2013 Version 2.0
Document Revision History Date Description 03/21/13 Updated Section 5.5 regarding the extension of the K-20 Backbone 04/04/13 Updated Section 9.3 Network Diagram 04/08/13 Revised Section 8 Communication Plan regarding Facebook and Twitter 05/01/13 Reformatted document and added new Section 2 05/07/13 Added new Section 2 i
TABLE of CONTENTS 1 PURPOSE 1 2 K-20 NETWORK 1 3 SCOPE 3 3.1 TECHNICAL SCOPE 3 3.2 ORGANIZATIONAL SCOPE 3 4 OBJECTIVES 4 4.1 MAINTAIN EXISTING K-20 INFRASTRUCTURE AND SERVICES 4 4.2 EXPAND AND IMPROVE THE K-20 NETWORK 4 4.3 FACILITATE PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND TECHNICAL SUPPORT SERVICES 4 4.4 IMPROVE COMMUNICATIONS 4 4.5 LIVING DOCUMENT 4 5 ASSUMPTIONS 5 5.1 SCOPE 5 5.2 TECHNOLOGY 5 5.3 BUDGET 5 5.4 NETWORK OPERATIONS AND SERVICES 5 6 MAINTAIN AND EXPAND K-20 INFRASTRUCTURE SERVICES 6 6.1 CONTINUATION OF EXISTING DATA SERVICES 6 6.2 CONTINUED E-RATE FUNDING 6 6.3 ONGOING ETHERNET TRANSITION 6 6.4 STREAMLINE NETWORK OPERATIONS SUPPORT 7 6.5 IMPLEMENTATION OF 40GBPS BACKBONE 7 6.6 TRANSITION AWAY FROM DEDICATED NODE FACILITIES 7 6.7 IMPLEMENTATION OF OSS 7 6.8 CONTINUATION OF CISCO MSE8000 PLATFORM AND H.323 VIDEO CONFERENCING 8 6.9 UNIFIED COMMUNICATIONS 8 6.10 LEARNING FROM OTHER STATES 8 7 FACILITATE PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT 8 8 TECHNICAL SUPPORT SERVICES 9 9 K-20 COMMUNICATIONS PLAN 9 10 APPENDICES 10 10.1 APPENDIX A: K-20 BUDGETED EXPENSES FY2014 AND FY2015 10 10.2 APPENDIX B: NETWORK COSTS AND FUTURE BANDWIDTH REQUIREMENTS 11 10.3 APPENDIX C: K-20 EDUCATION NETWORK 40GBPS NETWORK DIAGRAM 12 ii
1 PURPOSE The purpose of the K-20 Education Network strategic plan is to document activities to be undertaken to maintain and develop the K-20 Education Network in Washington State. These activities include the evolution/improvement of both the K-20 backbone and institutional network connections, assisting K-20 customers with technical training and development, and the creation of a comprehensive communications plan to ensure customers are aware of available K-20 resources and services. This strategic plan will be implemented in alignment with the goals of the Washington State OCIO and K-20 educational stakeholders and will focus on meeting the needs of K-20 institutional customers and end-users. The plan will be updated on a biennial schedule to ensure it remains relevant and focused on the evolving needs of Washington State educational network technology customers. 2 K-20 Education Network Powerful Technology for Lifelong Learning For nearly 20 years, the K-20 Education Network has been the entry point to a medium that powers unlimited access to a wide world of educational opportunity. Today more than 1.5 million students elementary through post-graduate level learn, research and communicate over the K-20 Network. On any given day: High school students study advanced placement courses at universities and colleges statewide. Elementary school students explore the world through virtual field trips to metropolitan museums. Medical practitioners consult with specialists via video conferencing and attend remote training courses to sharpen their skills. Staff across the educational spectrum run productivity, administration and communication applications to get work done. This invaluable community asset is based on a vision formed when the vast majority of computer users depended on dial-up to connect to the Internet. As the Internet transforms the way we communicate, conduct business, stay informed and entertain ourselves, web-enabled technology is also responsible for profound changes in how we learn and from whom we can learn. Online, educational institutions can extend their reach, personalize learning, dismantle barriers of time and distance, and remove the limitations of a one-teacher traditional classroom. Today, progressive educators are redesigning classrooms into learning environments able 1
to integrate new societal norms that run on digital citizenship connection, communication and collaboration. This move toward deep technology integration is changing the teaching and learning experience in educational institutions. Educators and students are exploring the power of mobile technologies, lectures captured on audio and video, flipped classrooms, massive open online courses (MOOC), Bring Your Own Device programming, hybrid/blended learning strategies, course management systems and cloud-based content/service delivery. New and progressive tools for instruction assessment and make it possible to break down the equity barrier, and lift the classroom-based constraints of time and location. The role of the network in K-12 education has kept pace with these titanic changes. Shifting from a passive, reliable network presence, useful for data transmission and distance learning, the K-20 Education Network remains the engine of an online environment that promotes active engagement with teachers and learners. Today, the K-20 Education Network is a high-value asset essential to higher learning and, at the K-12 level, for the preparation of career- and college-ready graduates. Across the K-12 sector, the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) works closely with network staff to support network technology, and provide leadership through policy development, strategic planning and administration. Here is a partial list of the many services districts source from the K-20 Education Network. On- and off-net data and video Administrative applications Access to Internet2 Intranet connectivity to WSIPC, a state cooperative that supplies business applications to school districts RITU support at all nine educational service districts staff in these video/data tech support units interact directly with educators and go a long way to support tech integration at the classroom level. The assurance of high quality service delivery at the most competitive rates regardless of the size of an educational institution, or its location, E-rate discount potential or local network capacity continues to sustain the vision and drive the operation of the K-20 Network. The leadership team is fully aware of the budgetary limitations facing education as a whole, and continues to commit the necessary resources to make sure that co-payment and ISP rates remain as cost-effective as possible. Strategic decisions to redefine and re-scope the network are underway. Forward-thinking technological changes will move capacity to 40Gbps, and maintain the network s position as vital infrastructure for learning environments that continue to evolve and become more complex. True to its original vision, K-20 Network technology will be tuned to the needs of education and rates will remain highly competitive the right solution at the right price. 2
3 SCOPE 3.1 Technical Scope The technical scope of this plan is focused on the K-20 network backbone, associated core network equipment, wiring and optical infrastructure, video conferencing Multipoint Control Units (MCUs), gatekeepers, and Tandberg Management Suite (TMS) server, tail circuits and aggregation facilities, network edge devices, the K-20 Network Operations Center (NOC), and the Operational Support System. 3.2 Organizational Scope The plan addresses cooperative efforts and activities among groups including K-20 administration, staff, and customers. Some aspects of this plan may include interaction between K-20 entities and organizations outside the network, including the Pacific Northwest GigaPOP and non-k-20 partner organizations. 3
4 OBJECTIVES The objectives of this plan are as follows: 4.1 Maintain existing K-20 infrastructure and services K-20 customers rely on the network to support business-class mission-critical applications and distance education in a wide variety of academic and geographical settings. K-20 stakeholders must ensure the network maintains the high levels of service and availability that have existed from the inception of the network. 4.2 Expand and improve the K-20 Network Customers require increasing amounts of bandwidth and greater flexibility from their K-20 connections while expecting quality of service to remain uncompromised. K-20 must improve and expand the network with a focus on ensuring reliability and scalability. Continued improvement and expansion of the network is vital in order to meet future institutional needs. 4.3 Facilitate professional development and technical support services The increasing resources needed to keep Washington educational institutions competitive in the global environment and the explosion of technologies such as distance education, collaborative tools, administrative and student applications, cloud-based applications, unified communications, and wireless handheld devices require K-20 stakeholders to take steps to ensure network administrators, staff, and customers have the tools and training they need to obtain the most from network services and resources. Exploring options for enhancing customer technical support services will facilitate improved response times to end-user issues, better problem resolution, and greater adaptability to changing technological demands. 4.4 Improve communications In a complex system such as the Washington K-20 Education Network, even the best strategic planning means little without including a communications framework and details for putting the ideas into action. K-20 will work with various entities to improve existing communications activities and develop new resources to improve future interaction. 4.5 Living document This strategic plan is intended to serve as a living document that will evolve and adapt to integrate emerging technologies and changing customer needs on a continuing basis and provide a definitive record of the strategic directions and pathways important to all K-20 stakeholders and customers. 4
5 ASSUMPTIONS Before detailing a strategic plan, it is important to identify the underlying assumptions the plan is founded upon. These assumptions are important both for defining the plan and for determining when unanticipated issues require the strategic path to be changed or amended. The assumptions the plan is based upon are as follows: 5.1 Scope This strategic plan assumes the scope of the K-20 network will continue to focus on the education community and the network will continue to define the link between the K-20 edge device and the customer s edge router as the boundary between the K-20 network and the local institutional network. Changes to either of these assumptions will impact the scope, resources, and costs required to operate and maintain the network. 5.2 Technology The plan is based upon existing networking and information technologies and disruptive technologies are mentioned but cannot be fully accounted for by this document. Rapidly evolving or disruptive technologies could require changes to the assumptions and actions associated with this plan. 5.3 Budget This plan assumes the state appropriation and institutional co-pays will remain in line with the amounts projected in the FY 2013-2015 K-20 biennial budget and any deviation from the planned budget will impact the assumptions and associated strategic activities associated with the plan. It should be noted that both increases and decreases in the budget will have significant impact on the network strategy. (A diagram of the K-20 budget for FY2014-2015 is shown in Appendix A.) 5.4 Network operations and services This plan assumes the KOCO Services Transition Project will be completed on schedule and associated increases in network efficiency and capacity will be phased in by the end of calendar year 2013. 5
6 Maintain and Expand K-20 Infrastructure Services A wide range of activities comprise the body of work required to maintain and expand the K-20 network. Network bandwidth demands continue to grow rapidly while costs remain relatively flat, as shown in Appendix B. Support for increasing customer bandwidth needs while keeping costs in line requires a focus on maintaining the carrier-class aspects of K-20 while continuing to grow and evolve the network to ensure future needs will continue to be met. The strategic directions supporting these activities now and in the future are identified as follows: 6.1 Continuation of existing data services The K-20 Education Network operates 24 hours per day and 365 days per year with extremely high reliability and availability. This carrier class standard of service is made possible by a wide range of resources including high-end Juniper routers at the core, modern Cisco routers at the network edge, University of Washington-provided Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) fiber connecting the six primary node sites, carrier-class multipoint control units for video bridging, 24x7 monitoring of real-time bandwidth usage at all K-20 sites, a Network Operations Center (NOC) staffed with experienced engineering and technical support staff, world-class engineering support, and expert provisioning and circuit management functions. Maintaining the end-to-end excellence of this system is a critical component of K-20 s strategic planning and implementation and is the foundation upon which all other network improvements and upgrades are built. 6.2 Continued E-rate funding The K-20 network budget relies in part upon reductions in telecommunications costs made possible by the federal E-rate funding received for K-12 schools and libraries. Maintaining the E-rate program and ensuring each eligible entity receives full E-rate reimbursements is a strategic asset for the K-20 network. 6.3 Ongoing Ethernet transition A vital part of K-20 s strategic direction is continuation of the transition from Time Division Multiplexed (TDM) tail circuits to Ethernet technology. Currently, over 70% of K-20 customer circuits have been transitioned to Ethernet 1. The advantages of Ethernet over TDM include simpler connections to the core network, easier bandwidth scaling at customer locations, and modern communications protocols and equipment throughout the network. Additionally, K-20 will continue to work with telecommunications providers to reduce the number of aggregation sites, reducing the possible points of failure and simplifying the network architecture. 1 Based on 1QFY13 K-20 customer invoicing data. 6
6.4 Streamline network operations support The KOCO Transition project includes the consolidation of separate network operations centers at Consolidated Technology Services (CTS) and the University of Washington (UW) into a single network operations center (NOC) at the UW. This change is a key part of managing costs, eliminating redundancy, maintaining and evolving service levels, and streamlining network operations. 6.5 Implementation of 40Gbps backbone Part of the K-20 KOCO Transition Project is the implementation of a new 40Gbps backbone for the K-20 network. The new backbone is an integral part of the network s strategic planning because it will provide greatly increased bandwidth for mission-critical applications and educational activities at the same cost as the current 10Gbps backbone. Additionally, if a decision is made to provide these backbone resources to other state entities in the future, the 40Gbps architecture will facilitate that activity in a scalable manner without negatively impacting existing services to educational institutions throughout the state. (Please see Appendix C for a diagram of the new 40Gbps backbone.) Additionally, K-20 will examine the desirability of further extension of the backbone beyond the current ring, with the goal of achieving the following objectives: Facilitate the provisioning of fully redundant circuits for end sites. As education customers become increasing dependent on network-provided serve for both education and administrative business functions, K-20 has received numerous requests for fully redundant circuits. With the current architecture s six (6) node sites; a node site failure impacts approximately 20% of K-20 customers. Increasing the number of aggregation points would increase network reliability and reduce the impact of the loss of any single aggregation point/node. 6.6 Transition Away from Dedicated Node Facilities K-20 will investigate alternatives to maintaining dedicated network node sites, including the collocation of network node equipment with regional K-20 customer locations or other service partners to provide increased efficiency and reduced complexity at a lower cost. 6.7 Implementation of OSS The Operational Support System (OSS) will enable K-20 to automate some circuit provisioning processes currently being handled manually and will provide a single relational database serving as a repository for all network management and configuration item (CI) information. These activities are both compliant with the ITIL framework for improved management of IT resources and consistent with the objective of improving K-20 services and ensuring the network can scale effectively. 7
6.8 Continuation of Cisco MSE8000 platform and H.323 video conferencing The Cisco MSE8000 Multipoint Control Units (MCUs) purchased by K-20 in 2010 will continue to provide advanced H.323 video conferencing and streaming services to K-20 customers in the future. The Media Services Engine (MSE) design ensures the devices are capable of supporting a range of technologies including H.323, unicast and multicast streaming, browser-based video conferencing connections, and Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) clients. The MSE8000 architecture comprises a carrier-class video conferencing support solution and provides a robust, scalable, and resilient platform for current and future K-20 video conferencing resources and services. K-20 will also continue to explore and evaluate technologies related to the automation of MCU conference scheduling and load balancing. Leveraging modern scheduling technologies will empower network schedulers and enable MCU staff to focus on value-added services and video network infrastructure management. 6.9 Unified Communications K-20 will coordinate and collaborate with an anchor K-20 institution to leverage ongoing efforts supporting the integration of desktop video conferencing, voice, and data collaboration with existing K-20 conference room video conferencing services. K-20 will develop a business model allowing K-20 institutions to select a unified communications service that best fits local needs and business objectives. 6.10 Learning from other states K-20 will continue to review and evaluate processes, policies, and models used by other statewide educational networks to identify best practices that can be adopted to improve and enhance service to K-20 customers. 7 Facilitate Professional Development Because of the rapid rate of change of network technologies and the possible emergence of disruptive technologies impacting network operations and management, K-20 will collaborate and partner with educational institutions to encourage professional development and learning in the areas of website development/publishing, mobile and desktop video conferencing, unified communications, and data networking technologies. K-20 stakeholders must remember the current budget does not include funding for these activities, so network managers will need to leverage cooperation and partnership agreements with K-20 customers, and possibly engage in cost recovery activities, to support such initiatives. 8
8 Technical Support Services K-20 will collaborate with customers throughout the state to establish optional use contracts for institutional technical support. This support may include a range of consulting, design, implementation, and continuing operational support activities for K-20 customer video conferencing, unified communications, networking, and data communications. 9 K-20 Communications Plan Effective communications are a cornerstone of any strategic plan. K-20 will develop a communications plan to identify and advertise the entire range of K-20 services to all customer institutions. To aid this effort, K-20 will implement a project to redesign the K-20 website/portal so it can serve as an effective medium to facilitate improved communications with customers and stakeholders. K-20 will also develop periodic reports to share information about finances, network and performance metrics, and adoption rates for value-added services such as technical training or end-user support. K-20 will explore options for presenting this information on the website or another online location to ensure the content is readily accessible for customers and stakeholders. K-20 will create a Facebook page and Twitter account. These social media channels will be used to communicate to customers on a weekly basis items of interest and importance regarding the K-20 Education Network 9
10 Appendices 10.1 Appendix A: K-20 Budgeted Expenses FY2014 and FY2015 10
10.2 Appendix B: Network Costs and Future Bandwidth Requirements 11
10.3 Appendix C: K-20 Education Network 40Gbps Network Diagram 12