Fyi. MSU's transition from the current MichNet connection to the MiLR network should occur later in August. No interruptions in service are anticipated as part of the service transition; a brief outage may be necessary to move our Internet border monitoring and Intrusion Detection/Prevention services to the new link. A separate service maintenance announcement will be sent to the NETWORKANNOUNCE mailing list and also be posted to "http://servicestatus.msu.edu/", prior to any service interruption. The Michigan Lambda Rail network has the capacity to run 30 or more networks at 10 Gbps, and likely faster speeds in the future. Initially, MSU's primary connection to MiLR will remain at 1 Gbps; we will likely upgrade that connection to 10 Gbps by next summer. Additional connections to MiLR can potentially be made available for research projects or other high-speed network demands that would require a dedicated 1 Gbps or 10 Gbps network, either within the state, as part of similar initiatives within the CIC/Big Ten universities, or nationally in conjunction with upcoming National Lambda Rail initiatives. If you know of a need for such a network, contact ACNS to learn more about the availability and pricing of such dedicated bandwidth. Doug ----- Forwarded message from Jennifer Hensley <[log in to unmask]> ----- Date: Fri, 29 Jul 2005 11:00:02 -0400 From: Jennifer Hensley <[log in to unmask]> To: Inform Group for MichNet Outages <[log in to unmask]>, [log in to unmask] Subject: Network Transitions Merit Network is pleased to announce that it is making the final operational transition from leased telecommunication circuits to Michigan Lambda Rail (MiLR) for its backbone connections in southern Michigan. MiLR is a collaborative effort of Michigan State University, University of Michigan and Wayne State University to acquire and operate a redundant optical fiber network. The network includes metro rings in Detroit and Chicago and two geographically diverse loops between Detroit and Chicago. The Universities have contracted with Merit to support the deployment of DWDM optronics equipment and to subsequently manage and maintain the day-to-day operation and engineering of the MiLR network. Merit and the Universities also have an agreement to allow Merit use of the MiLR fiber for backbone transport of Merit's Member and Affiliate traffic. Transition to facilities-based, controlled fiber is an exciting move for Merit and will allow significant bandwidth growth (from Oc-48c to 10 Gbps), future cost control and greater engineering control of new initiatives. Merit is planning a gradual transition to occur over the next few weeks. No scheduled outages are planned. However, a massive change of this nature will likely result in some unexpected disruptions to service. Please note that Merit's highly proactive network monitoring may not always catch service disruptions until the transition is complete, due to the need to adapt to new routes and devices. We therefore suggest that you report any disruption you experience to the NOC to ensure that it is promptly logged and resolved. The NOC may be contacted at [log in to unmask] We ask for your patience during this exciting time. A transition of this import will not be without a few bumps. But Merit staff have carefully planned for this change and are working hard to take every precaution and to be available to address any issue promptly. Precautions include utilizing redundant paths wherever possible, both within the network and out to the greater Internet. Merit is even adding additional commodity access in Detroit as part of our long-range plan for maximum redundancy. We anticipate that the transition period will be complete within the next two weeks, well before the start of fall semesters. As always, we are pleased to provide advanced networking to each of our Members and Affiliates and look forward to the possibilities this change will make possible. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us. Regards, Jennifer Hensley Manager, Dedicated Connections Merit Network, Inc. www.merit.edu [log in to unmask] 734-936-4251 734-647-3185 (fax) 734-764-9430 (reception) ----- End forwarded message ----- -- Doug Nelson, Network Manager | [log in to unmask] Academic Computing and Network Services | Ph: (517) 353-2980 Michigan State University | http://www.msu.edu/~nelson/