>> It sounds like issues over paying for bandwidth are being
>> reintroduced. This doesn't surprise me as universities are
>> spending more and more money on Internet bandwidth. Its not
>> like the cost of a Mbit/sec in bandwidth has gone down in
>> recent years.
>
> Is it possible that this issue may evaporate with the
> implementation of Internet2 (Abielene)? I know from reading
> up on CRAFT, that the potential for Internet2 is promising
> for high bandwidth needs. Anyone at the universities that
> have access to Internet2 have any comments?
FSU is on Internet2. It has been a while since I have done the
traceroutes, but the last time I did that, some LDM stuff was
coming via Internet2 and some was getting here via the commodity
internet. I don't know exact details as regards costs, and part
of the problem is that the same people (local backbone) control
both and they unfortunately are not always seen as allies by
us, the users. Mostly they are into power politics, bilking the
departments for more monthly cash, etc. They seem to not have
money of their own, so they force it out of others.
At one time FSU MET was one of the biggest users of bandwidth/
data flow on campus, but now days the top six users are the
dormitories. This started with a thing called napster <grin>.
Now napster has been more or less "blocked" , but the dorms are
still the biggest users of bandwidth. And this has to do with
links to the commodity internet, more than with Internet2, but
this could change with time. Anyway, it is not weather data that
they are after. The most recent local bandwidth enhancements
here were with pipes to commodity internet, and it was expensive.
Among the departments though, MET is still the biggest user on
campus. So I get the impression we are supposed to pay for
everything because we get some grant money every so often. But
still the "off the top" payments from the external grants for
"infrastructure" seem to be forgotten about by planners. The long
range goal sems to be to make MET pay even more, I fear. It is
not so much a technical problem, as it is a political one. And
we of FSU MET are losing the battle (or have already lost it) it
appears. So soon, as regards bandwidth, we will be paying for it
two times. Probably this is also happening to other MET departments.
Bob Broedel, FSU MET
