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I can answer these questions definitively... MSU gets its commodity Internet and Internet2 connectivity through Merit Network. We pay a fixed annual Member fee to Merit, based on the scale of the University. We and UM pay the same relatively large fee; others pay smaller fees. In addition to bandwidth, the fees help Merit provide a statewide networking regime focused on education and research support. We have, or will very soon have, a 10 Gbps connection to Merit, so bandwidth at MSU is very available at the border. (BTW, the 10 Gbps connection costs us about the same as what we were paying for 1 Gbps.) Bandwidth hogging might be more of a problem at local network levels, where there will be some smaller bottlenecks. In addition to Merit bandwidth, MSU co-owns the Michigan LambdaRail (MiLR) optical network with UM and Wayne State. We can provision dedicated 10 Gbps wavelengths over MiLR for relatively modest incremental cost. We also connect in Chicago to the CIC OmniPoP -- a very large switch through which we can connect to other statenets in the CIC (BigTen) region and to various national and international networks available to us at the Starlight facility. Between Merit and OmniPoP peering opportunities, we could provision dedicated waves anywhere between New York City, Kansas City, Canada and (almost) Seattle without the need to involve Internet2 or National LambdaRail. - dave Hoort, Brian writes: > I was presuming more on the lines of: Merit is MSU's ISP, we pay them a > monthly fee to have the connections of a certain size (now 10 GB, I > understand), a per-GB fee for utilized traffic in both directions, and > perhaps an hourly fee for anything that breaks on "our" segment that > they have to send someone out to work on, this being the least > significant of the three. In this scenario, we'd still be paying for > bits flying from U-M, and it would cost the same amount as traffic from > the West Coast, or overseas, for example. However, listening to WKAR > from on campus would be entirely free of cost in a per-bit sense, > excepting possible clogging of building routing equipment, leading to > the purchase and upgrading of said equipment, etc. so, virtually > zero-cost in this case. > > Brian Hoort > > > -----Original Message----- > From: Tom Rockwell [mailto:[log in to unmask]] > Sent: Thursday, January 17, 2008 3:23 PM > To: [log in to unmask] > Subject: Re: [MSUNAG] How Does MSU Pay for Bandwidth? > > My understanding of modern networks is that to first approximation, the > bandwidth is free and what costs money is actually making and > maintaining the connections. All the unused bandwidth is wasted in the > same sense that unused CPU cycles are a wasted resource. So, it is > wasteful to _not_ have that Internet radio on ;-) > > Seriously, if you are listening to Michigan Radio, the stream is coming > off servers at U-M and our connection to them goes across fiber that is > partly owned by MSU. Pretty sure there are no per bit fees there, just > the fees to make and keep the connection. > > There probably are fees involved when traffic goes from Merit to > commercial networks, don't know how those would be structured. > > -Tom > > > > Ray Hernandez wrote: >> I envision a bunch of little yellow stickers stuck to people's >> monitors with a sad computer face saying "Why waste?" Similar to the >> ones seen on the light switches around campus. >> --Ray >> >> On Jan 17, 2008, at 12:40 PM, Brian Hoort wrote: >> >>> NAGgers: >>> >>> We have several users who listen to Internet radio on their campus >>> workstations. Often, they'll let it play all day, even if they are >>> not at their desks. This has bothered me because I am under the >>> impression that MSU pays for our bandwidth per bit used and not with >>> an all-you-can-eat subscription basis, like we do at home (DSL, >>> cable). If so, leaving the radio on when not listening would be akin > >>> to leaving the refrigerator door open while you're at work-just watch > >>> that meter go!. How does MSU pay for bandwidth, and is there a >>> policy or recommendation against "leaving the refrigerator door >>> open"? I realize this brings up a whole can of worms, like our >>> computers being used as Skype master nodes, peer-to-peer file >>> sharing, academic freedom, etc., and it is not my intention to rouse >>> a discussion on this quagmire, I'm just hoping to learn how we are >>> charged for bandwidth so that we can police ourselves better. >>> >>> Thanks >>> >>> Brian Hoort >>> [log in to unmask] >>> >