05-10-2006 Council Agenda - Laserfiche WebLink

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Institutional Network Begins to Fulfill Promise Long before MediaOne conceived of "broadband," the ability of coaxial cable to transmit a wide variety of communication types was well known to local franchising authorities. As early as the franchises of the 1970's, cable companies were offering the construction of two -way cable networks, separate from the subscriber network, to serve the public institutions in their communities. These Institutional Networks, or (- Nets, were key components of the package of community benefits that cable companies offered to cities in return for using their public rights -of -way to sell cable television. Among the services touted by cable companies eager to be the winning bidder for the franchise was security services, meter reading, and data communications. The original cable company's proposal for the 10 cities of the North Suburban Communications Commission (NSCC) devotes nine pages to a description of what could /would be done over the Institutional Network. Until the mid- 1990's, however, most I -Nets were used primarily to facilitate the cable - casting of live programming, such as parades, concerts in the park, and high school sports, from a remote site. There were two reasons for this underuse of a very valuable resource. The first was the slow development of the necessary electronic equipment for data transmission. Although the coaxial cable was ideally suited for transmitting all kinds of signals, there were few options for modems, translators and routers because there was very little demand for them. And, there was very little demand because cable companies, by and large, saw their business as cable television and entertainment, not communications. So, while I -Nets were one of the hooks used to get a cable franchise, the companies had little interest in developing their communications capabilities beyond video, especially when the service was being provided for free. Developing the connection That began to change as the larger cable companies realized that they would have to sell more than television in order to compete in the telecommunications marketplace. In addition, more instutions, especially schools, finally had enough computers deployed throughout the organization that networking those computers became important. That was why in 1994 staff from the Roseville Area Schools approached the North Suburban Communications Commission about using the I -Net as the backbone of a wide area network (WAN) connecting all of their facilities. NSCC is a consortium of 10 cities in northern Ramsey County established through a joint powers agreement. The I -Net connects every city building, fire station, library, and school (both public and private, primary, secondary and post- secondary) in the ten cities, for a total of almost 100 drops. The 400 Megahertz (MHz) system has 38 channels down - stream and 16 channels upstream. The original network was primarily coaxial cable with some fiber optics; the current network is primarily fiber, with some coaxial connections. To establish the data connections, the Roseville Schools and NSCC (with its non - profit community programming affiliate, CTV15) installed 4 Megabits per second (Mbps) Zenith cable modems and Cisco routers at each of their locations. The school district also purchased a translator that is located in the cable company's head end. The modems take the data off the network, while the router sends it to each institution's internal network. The translator routes the incoming and outgoing signals to the appropriate frequencies on the I- Net. In addition, the Cable Company installed filters throughout the network to keep signals from the various frequencies from interfering with one another. The Roseville school district uses the WAN to transmit data and internal e-mail between its facilities. The district distributes the Internet to its facilities over the I -Net, as well. Testing the technology The first year was a tough one. Data is less forgiving of infrastructure performance deficiencies than video signals are, and the initial year with most of the Roseville public schools connected was the winter of 1995/96, when temperatures dropped 40 degrees below zero on several occasions. The extreme cold resulted in "suck outs," where the coaxial cable shrinks and literally pulls out of its fittings. By the second year of the project, the company's enhanced maintenance of the I -Net began to pay off with significantly improved performance, and there were no significant outages during winter of 1996/97. With the technology now proven and interest in Internet access heating up among the NSCC member cities, in 1997 the commission staff established a second pair of 6 MHz frequencies to distribute the Internet to the