 Planning
for the road ahead - In the past
fourteen years the telecommunications technology that connects
our Regional Distance Learning schools has been through two significant
technology platform upgrades while maintaining a virtually seamless
transition for the end-users.
DL platforms have traditionally been upgraded every five years.
The last conversion/upgrade to our regional network occured in
2003. There are a number of compelling reasons to move forward
with an upgrade/conversion at this time.
- Contracts with Telecom
Service Providers for Wide Area Network service and service
to DL sites have already begun to expire.
- Demand for higher
data bandwidth is growing at a rapid pace.
- There is a clear industry,
regional, and statewide trend toward delivering video services
over Ethernet (IP) on Wide Area Networks, with the video being
treated as data - the network becomes data-centric, not video-centric.
- The telecom environment
in most areas has become more competitive.
- An initial investigation
by The Myers Group with vendors in the region found that a
next-generation network is both technically and fiscally feasible.
Based the reasons noted above, a Steering
Committee with members of the regional BOCES and NERIC has established
general project guidelines, developed cost estimates and is
providing oversite of the project.
A Technical Planning Team is developing the technical design
specifications and standards for the next-generation network.
These activities will culminate with the implementation of the
Distance Learning Network conversion this summer, with Wide
Area Network upgrades implemented on an ongoing basis as requested
by districts.
For additional information see: Proposal-Regional
Distance Learning / Wide Area Network Conversion . pdf
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