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/
