HomeMy WebLinkAboutAgenda - 10-18-94-X-A 1
ORANGE COUNTY
BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
Action Agenda
Item No 2Lil
ACTION AGENDA ITEM ABSTRACT
Meeting Date: October 18, 1994
SUBJECT: North Carolina Information Highway
DEPARTMENT: County Manager PUBLIC HEARING YES NO x
ATTACHMENT(S) : INFORMATION CONTACT
Background Information Rod Visser, ext 2300
TELEPHONE NUMBER
Hillsborough 732-8181
Chapel Hill 968-4501
Mebane 227-2031
Durham 688-7331
PURPOSE: To receive a report on efforts to develop the North Carolina
Information Highway.
BACKGROUND: Some months ago, County staff began discussions with
Orange County Schools staff and telephone company representatives to
explore opportunities for cost effective access to the North Carolina
Information highway. At tonight' s meeting, telephone company
representatives and a staff member from the State' s Information Highway
Office will make a 15 minute presentation concerning their joint
efforts to develop the Information Highway. They will also be
available to respond to any questions the Board of Commissioners may
have about the statewide project. The attached background material
describes the evolution to date of the Information Highway and some of
the applications that have been or are being developed.
RECOMMENDATION: The Manager recommends that the Board receive the
report as information only.
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The North Carolina Information Highway
Larry Gravenstein, GTE
Charlie Pittman, Carolina Telephone
Bill Smith, BellSouth Telecommunications
Introduction: to develop a proposal for a comprehensive
network that would riot only serve state
In August of this year the State of North government applications,but the applications
Carolina will begin using the first statewide of current and prospective businesses in the
information highway to utilize Asynchronous state. Requesting the telephone companies
Transfer Mode (A switching and to construct the NCIH allows the state to
Synchronous Optical NETwork (SONET) share risks associated with building the first
transmission equipment. Several trials have network of this type, and also places the
been conducted using ATM technology, but responsibility for operations and upgrades
this is the first operational network to be with the telephone companies where their
deployed on such a large scale. Just over expertise in these areas can be utilized. The
100 sites will be included in the group result is a "win-win" situation that benefits
scheduled for August 1994 service. These the citizens of North Carolina and
sites include hospitals, universities, accelerates the development of an advanced
community colleges, public schools, telecommunications infrastructure that is
correctional facilities, and various essential to attracting new business and
administrative government locations. indistrY.
Network testing with end users will begin as
early as June 1994. More than 3000 state Background:
government sites will be connected to the
network over the next decade. The NCIH is the result of several years of
planning and a number of successful trial
What is probably the most unique aspect of projects. The State of North Carolina has
the North Carolina Information Highway long been a leader in the deploym ere of
(NCIH) is the spirit of cooperation that advanced telecommunications services for
exists between the public and private sectors, administrative applications. In 1986, North
as well as cooperation within each of those Carolina was the first state government to
sectors. While some states have chosen to convert to a fully digital network throughout
construct, own, and operate their own fiber the state. While that seemed to be a very
optic network for governmental applications, large step at the time, the result has been
leadership within the state of North Carolina better service at a lower cost to the state.
recognized the opportunity to use the According to data provided by the National
enormous purchasing power of the state to Association of State Telecommunications
accelerate the deployment of advanced Directors, North Carolina's
telecommunications capabilities to business telecommunications costs range from 20 to
and industry as well as state Bove rnmrnt. 70 percent lower than other states.
North Carolina requested the telephone
companies within the state to work together In the latter part of the 1980's, management
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of the State Information Processing Services VISTAnet is one of the gigabit per second
(SIPS)organization, which is responsible for testbeds originally funded in August 1989 by
voice and data communications within the the National Science Foundation (NSF) and
state, began looking ahead to identify future the Defense Advanced Research Projects
performance needs for internal applications. Agency (DARPA). NSF and DARPA
In looking at health care,education,criminal studies had shown that while dramatic
justice, geographic information systems, and improvements were taking place in
other administrative areas there were clear computing technology, similar "order of
indications that future applications would magnitude" increases were not developing in
rely more on the transmission of high quality communications and networking technology.
images to supplement traditional text. Both agencies saw the potential for the lack
Although they currently had one of the most of high performance networking to become
advanced state telecommunications networks a serious bottleneck to our ability to take
in the country, it was obvious that advantage of computing technology
applications would soon emerge that would improvements, potentially inhibiting our
require performance beyond the capabilities international competitiveness. VISTAnet
of their network was one of five testbeds funded nationally to
explore the creation and operation of
During this time frame,several projects were networks in the gigabit per second range.
either in progress or being planned to Partners in the VISTAnet project include the
demonstrate the technical feasibility and Corporation for National Research
application value associated with high Initiatives, MCNC, the University of North
performance networking. First of all, the Carolina at Chapel Mil, 01E, and
North Carolina Research and Education BellSouth
Network (NCREN, formerly known as
CONCERT)network had been operational in VISTAnet uses prototype ATM host and
some form since January 1985. NCREN is remote switches provided by Fujitsu
a digital microwave netw that Network Switching of America, Inc_ and a
video ork and data connectivity betweai nine high speed circuit switch developed by G'lr;
major state universities throughout North to provide an extremely high performance
Carolina. NCREN was built and is network between researchers at the
operated by MCNC in the Research Triangle University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Park, which is the central lamb of the and the Cray supercomputer at MCNC. The
network. A variety of functions are backbone network between BellSouth and
provided at/vICNC, including video network GTE operates at the SONET OC-48 (2.4
operations, interact access, and access to the Gb/s) rate, with end user connections
Cray YM-P supercornputer. Both data and operating at the 0C-12c (622 Mb/s) rate.
video usage of the NCREN has gown
. steadily since it became operational. It has With VISTAnet, radiation oncologists at
clearly demonstrated the value of a statewide Chapel Hill have access to the Cray
network in making specialized resources supercomputer approximately twenty miles
available throughout the state. The network away at MCNC. The specific application is
is currently used for a variety of data and called dynamic radiation therapy planning,
video applications. and allows physicians to do a three
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dimensional radiation therapy plan in order switched video system supported by a DS-3
to deliver higher doses of radiation to tumors (45 Mb/s) fiber optic network. Each
while minimizing the radiation levels to classroom contains two cameras and
surrounding tissue. It is possible to support monitors at the front of the room for
this application-with conventional state of students to view the teacher and/or =note
the art graphics computers; however, it classes, and a large screen monitor at the
would take anywhere from several minutes rear of the room for the teachers to view
to a couple of hours to get the projected remote classrooms. A high quality overhead
results from a proposed treatment plat camera is also available for sending a variety
Using the broadband network to access the of images. Continuous presence audio is
supercomputer allows this process to be another very important feature of this
completed in two seconds or less. Without system. It provides for "mixing" of the
the response times provided by such a high audio from all remote locations, allowing
performance network, radiation oncologists students to ask spontaneous questions or
would find the application to be much less provide answers just as if they were in the
desirable to use because of the waiting classroom with the teacher. A "quad-
periods required to develop each treatment splitter" is incorporated into the video
plan. This time factor would restrict the switches to allow up to four remote
number of plans that could be evaluated by classrooms to be shown on the same
a radiation oncologist, and therefore may monitor. The entire system (camera ':•
compromise the quality of the chosen positions, zoom, audio levels, etc.) is
treatment plan. With VISTAnet, a physician controlled by a facilitator in each classroom.
can evaluate hundreds of plans in order to In most cases the facilitator is a staff
ensure that the optimum plan is ehosaL member, but in some instances a student has
Furthermore, access to such specialized provided that function.
. resources over a high performance netwuxic
avoids the need to duplicate medical and There are several potential benefits of a
technical equipment and expertise at each distance learning system such as the Vision
treatment location. Carolina project. The most obvious is the
ability to offer a much broader array of
• Vision Carolina is another application and classes than would otherwise be available.
technology trial that has been underway in This is particularly important for small rural
North Carolina. It began at the start of the schools where. the number of students
1991-1992 school year, and will Continue interested in a particular is not sufficient to
until the end of the 1993-1994 school year. justify a teacher, even if a qualified teacher
Vision Carolina is a distance learning trial were available. This would typically be the
that consists of sixteen locations in the case for specialized classes such as advanced
Charlotte and Wilmington metropolitan physics, calculus, or a variety of foreign
areas. While these locations are primarily languages. Unfortunately, many teachers
public high schools, they also ,include teaching these classes today are not certified
community colleges, universities, and a to do so. A distance learning system would
regional medical center. make specialized classes available for very
small groups of interested students. During
Vision Carolina utilizes a high quality the Vision Carolina trial high school students
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have received college credit for university term solution, knowing that these
courses taken over the network technologies required additional development
before they were ready for deployment
Another use of the system is called "team This was the result of previous experience
teaching" and involves having a teacher in where "off the shelf" technology became
some or all of the classrooms. While this obsolete before it could be fully deployed
1 arrangement does not necessarily improve throughout the state. In January 1992 the
mess to courses, it does allow teachers to state of North Carolina asked BellSouth,
present ideas in different ways and to learn GTE, and Carolina Telephone to cooperate
from each other. Even very experienced in the development of a statewide network
teachers using the Vision Carolina system to based on SONET transmission systems and
"team teach" reported that they learned new ATM switching. Preliminary designs and
ways to present ideas to students. This redesigns were developed during much of
arrangement could be particularly
useful for 1992, until a final design and preliminary
mentoring arrangements between experienced prices were presented to the state by each
and new teachers. Staff developmenrt and company. Detailed design and pricing was
continuing education is another very completed independently by each company
important application for a network of this by mbargenel that was
a the Nam
type. Teachers can use the network after Y
normal school hours to receive specialized Carolina State Government signed a Letter
training or for working on advanced degrees of Intent with each telephone company, and
from a university that is also on the network. Governor Jim Hunt announced the NCB-1 at
The Vision Carolina project has been a press conference in May 1993.
sponsored by BellSouth and Northern ob'ertives of the state
Telecom. One of the primary J
was to accelerate the deployment of
Last but not least, the IMPACT North advanced telecommunications technology
trial has utilized ISDN technology all users in the state. They felt
to allow members of the education availability of this technology e
at Appalachian State University to be a strong incentive attracting new
to
department
teachers and student teachers in information intensive businesses to North
nearby rural areas of western North Carolina. Carulina_ North Carolina's commitment to
This trial has been very effective in the use be the "anchor tenant" on the NCIH has
of narrowband tectstology to enhance given the telephone companies the necessary
educational outcomes. IMPACT North incentive to deploy the most advanced
Carolina has been sponsored by BellSouth technology in their networks much earlier
and AT&T. than they would have under normal
conditions. The end result is that general
al
Each of the trials listed provided significant tariffs for broadband services will be
insight to the state of North Carolina available for business and industry in the
regarding the potential associated with late:'94 to mid95 time frame. Economic
advanced tele comnuaucations technology. forecasting models have predicted substantial
They began reviewing the status of various increases in tax revenues resulting from
technologies and decided to pursue a long expansion of employment in existing
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businesses and employment by new smaller schools;thereby improving the small
businesses that will locate in North Carolina schools without impacting the large schools.
due 'to availability of an advanced The latter appears to be the more appropriate
communications infrastructure. solution Ii
Health care: Other than advanced diagnostic
Applications: and treatment systems such as VISTAnet,
there are enormous opportunities to utilize
Initial NC[H application identification and this technology to address two of the most
development efforts have focussed in five critical issues in health care: access and cost.
primary auras, although history has proven A broadband network allows physicians in
that end users will develop applications that small rural hospitals and clinics to receive
technologists overlook. The five areas of expert consultation from major medical
concentration are: education, health care, carters. This can take several forms, from a
criminal,Mice, economic development, and second opinion by an expert radiologist
government efr'iciertcy. regarding a digitized X-ray showing a
mysterious mass,to a dermatologist remotely
Many of the primary educational examining a suspicious mole on an elderly
applications were briefly described in the patient. While both of these consultations
Vision Carolina summary and will not be can take place without a broadband network,
repeated in this section Two additional the result is considerable inconvenience to
applications are the opportunity for "video the patient and/or additional costs to the
field trips" where students can get exposure tr eating facility in an attempt to keep the
to potential oamations(such as health care) needed expertise on staff In many cases
via the network without requiring excessive today, the patient will avoid traveling to a
expense to the school or disruption to the medical center for further examination in
"visited"location. In addition,these systems hopes that their condition will improve
expose students to a variety of technology without additional treatment- The patient
that they will use when the enter the wxk rarely ova, but mere often eventually
force. Finally, distance leaning appears to arrives at the medical center in a more
have a great deal of potential in addressing advanced stage of disease. The result is
concerns over equity in education. More increased treatment cost and Increase
than twenty states crarartly face or will soon mortality rates. In the other scenario,
face equity litigation of one form or another, smaller facilities attempt to provide specialty
and it is clear that financial resources do not expertise on staff and have difficulty
exist to hire enough teachers to ensure that avoiding financial problems. Additional
small rural schools have access to the same health care applications include better
course variety as large urban schools. The continuing medical education oppommities
two remaining options are that we: 1) lower and the Potential for lifetime medical records
the standard of some schools and use the to be accessed from any location in the
savings to raise the standard of others to an event of an accident or unexpected need.
equitable level, or 2) utilize advanced There is also a significant opportunity to
telecommunications technology to make utilize these systems to improve insurance
resources of larger schools available to claim processing efficiency • and reduce
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insurance fraud. Approximately twenty five that requires additional skills. The NCIH
percent of the costs of health care is will make the entire resources of North
attributed to adminstration, so even small Carolina available to a prospective business
improvements in this area can have a major regardless to where they locate within the
impact • state. This facilitates economic development
of depressed rural areas. Furthermore,
Criminal justice: Broadband systems improved education and health care can be
provide the capability to perform video provided to prospective businesses in these
arraignments, depositions, first appearances, areas.
etc. without incurring the substantial
transportation costs that we now see. Government aciency: There are a variety
Furthermore, reducing the necessity to of administrative areas where improved
transport prisoners between facilities can telecommunications capabilities can enhance
significantly reduce the chance for escape government's operational efficiency. The
• and therefore improve public safety. Video ability to avoid duplication of data bases
technology can be used in a similar fashion containing information from dif emot
for telemedicine and education of inmates. agencies is clearly an opportunity for
Studies have shown that the recidivism rate savings. More effectivecommwucations can
is substantially lower for inmates that take place using video conferencing in
receive their high school diploma while in emergency management situations,as well as
prison than for inmates that do not. The reduced travel requirements for normal
opportunity to teach specific skills to operations. The NCIH will also create the
inmates and help them become self-sufficient possibility of accessing and sharing
is one of the few effective ways to deal with information from different data bases in
increasing prison populations. Other order to benefit the public in ways that aren't
criminal justice applications would allow for currently possible. For example, health
the mechanization of arrest and warrant information could be correlated with
records which provide immediate geographic data base information in an
information• (including photographs and attempt to identify environment causes of
Aga prints) to law enforcement en t off cers disease.
when it is needed.
Technology:
Economic Deaslopm Advanced
telecommunications services has become a The initial design for the North Carolina
prerequisite for attracting high-tech business information Highway (NCIH) uses nine
and industry- As the need for information Fujitsu FE[EX 150 Broadband ATM
technology increases,so will the importance switches to provide service throughout the
of these advanced services. In addition, a state. Five of the nine switches will be
better educated work force is a key deployed by BellSouth, two by Carolina
ingredient to attracting business. Distance Telephone, and two by GTE. The initial
learning systans not only educate our configuration of the l4E 1EX 150 supports up
citizens more effectively while they are in to 64 user/network interface ports running at
school, they are a vital ingrediera to 155 MWs (SONET 0C-3c). This yields a
continuing education of an adult work force total switch throughput of approximately 9.6
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Gb/s. Future versions of this switch are the closest independent company switch
expected to support a total capacity of
approximately 160 Gb/s. 622 Mb/s user Full customer service will begin on August
interfaces (SONET 0C-12c) will be 1st. Feature enhancements and hardware
available by,the end of 1994. Along with upgrades will take place during the year,
the ATM switches, each telephone company with final upgrades scheduled to complete
is also deploying video multipoint control by November 1994. In addition to the full
units (MCUs) supplied by Northern ATM switches, approximately eight
'Telecom These MCUs act as a adjunct to Broadband Remote Line Concentrators
the ATM switch in order to provide many (BRLCs) will be deployed in smaller
video related features that cam* be communities initially. These BRLCs serve
performed by the ATM swig For multiple sites in a community, and support
example, continuous presence audio and concentration in the umbilicals back to the
enhanced control features are provided via host ATM switches. This feature helps
the MCUs. Quad-splitters are also provided reduce the initial investment in transmission
with the MCUs in order to view up to four equipment while supporting a graceful
locations on a single monitor. The nine migration plan. The BRLC can be upgraded
initial switches are located as follows: in the future to become a stand alone ATM
switch. Interexchange carriers will provide
BellSouth: SONET links between LEC ATM switches.
Asheville, Charlotte, Greensboro,
Raleigh, Wilmington The local telephone companies have worked
together as a team in order to meet the needs
Carolina Telephone: of our customer in the most cost effective
Greenville, Fayetteville way. For example, a site in the serving area
of one company may connect to an ATM
GTE: switch of another company if that is the
Durham, Research Triangle Park most cost effective solution. In any event,
the NCIH must perform as a cohesive
A consoatiten of independat telephone netw do with company boundaries being
companies is in the process of designing and transparent to the customer.
deploying a network to save sites in many
of their franchise areas. These switches will The customer interface is a single mode
interface to BellSouth, Carolina Telephone, fiber termination. During the initial
and GTE switches using a standard Netwodc deployment, each customer will purchase a
to Network Interface (NM). Due to the Fujitsu Service Multiplexer for use at their
aggressive deployment schedule of the premises. The service multiplexer provides
project,the initial independent company sites a very important aspect of the evolution
are planned to be saved from the closest plan. It interfaces with the network
FETEX 150 switch. Once interoperability optically, then converts the 155 Mb/s
between the independent company switch(es) SONET/ATM signal into a variety of service
and the Fujitsu switches is verified, the specific inter to be connected to non-
serving independent company will have the ATM equipment. The two interfaces to be
option of moving their sites to save from supported initially are a DS3 circuit
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emulation interface for video, and a DS1 effort to create an informal but unique
SMDS interface for data communication partnership between the public and private
applications. Each interface is provided by sectors, with benefits eventually being
an individual card in the service multiplexer, realized by both groups. With the North
and additional interface cards are planned by Carolina State Government as their "anchor
the manufacturer. Two immediate additions tenant", telephone companies in the state
will include DS3 SMDS and DS1 circuit have the confidence to invest the substantial
emulation. Additional interfaces such as amounts of capital required to advance the
MPEG II video and FDDI interconnection deployment of a high performance
are planned. When the customer site telecommunications infrastructure. This
provides compatible ATM premise approach allows costs to shared by state
equipment the service rultiplexer will no government and future business and
longer be needed. Early evaluation of ATM industrial users of the network, and
premise switches in underway at MCNC to minimizes the risks to both the telephone
verify performance and compatibility. companies and state government
Since broadband signalling standards are not There are a wide range of benefits associated
complete at this time, connections will be with the NCIH, ranging from exit rational
managed using a Customer Network equity to economic development. One of the
Management interface into the broadband few things that we are sure of is that users
operations systems of BellSouth and GTE will further identify applications that far
This is a non-real time method of managing exceed our current initiatives. It is
Permanent Virtual Connections (PVCs). comforting to know that the SONET/ATM
Once signalling standards are'completed and platform being deployed in North Carolina
our switches are capable of supporting them, will provide the flexibility to meet current
we will offer Switched Virtual Connections demands and those that have not yet been
(SVCs) on demand imagined
Summary:
The NCIH is the first broadband
(SOINET/A'IM) network to be deployed for
general service on such a large scale. It
conforms to current standards, and will,
comply with future standards when they
become available. We currently know a
great deal about the technology; however,
there are a number of areas where we will
utilize the controlled introduction phase of
the network to further our undemanding of
issues such as congestion management in a
large ATM network.
The NCIH is the result of a very deliberate
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