1. The Global Network Operations Center at Indiana UniversityWhy We Cut Grass
Dave Jent
Indiana University
July 10, 2008
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2. A bit about me

Associate Vice President, Networks

3. Indiana GigaPoP DirectorGlobal NOC
I-Light, Network for Higher Education in IN
Indiana GigaPoP
IU Network responsibilities
System wide planning
Layer 3
10 year network plan
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4. What the heck does cutting grass have to do with anything?
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5. What we doMission statement?
Support International, National, Regional, Statewide, Campus and local network projects.
Assist our clients and users to create the best possible networking environment.
Provide educational outreach to the Research and Education networking community.
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6. Global NOC
We believe national networking benefits from an organization(s) that can focus on operational/management aspects of R&E networks
Core business of the NOC
Very little bleed over into campus or local support
75% of staff funding derived by support of external networks
IU becomes deeply involved
Engineering, Measurement, Operations, Planning, Design, Community Participation
Commitment
Dedicated staff managing engineering and operations
Supporting services and processes
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7. Starting out
1998 with the Abilene Network
IU won the award for the Operations Center for the yet to be built Abilene Network.
Included the usual engineering, operations, monitoring in our response, then we added partnership.
Network Operations Center started modestly; moving some Computer Operations staff into a new group with responsibilities for :
Statewide IU Network monitoring
Abilene
Transpac award also in 1998
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8. Who says money cant buy some happiness?
Network Operations Center and Indiana GigaPoP funding from the state.
Direct allocation to these projects.
Enabled the hiring of a full complement of dedicated staff
Even included some startup capital for furniture and space
Set a direction for the NOC away from supportingIU networking.
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9. Who says money cant buy somehappiness? Part 2.
State provided I-Light(1) funding to build an optical network in 1999:
Bloomington, Indianapolis, West Lafayette.
Construction project
Developed technical expertise in optical network design, deployment and operations
Leveraged this expertise as we started working onother projects
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10. What happens when you claim to be an expert----I-Light2

Governors office moved responsibility of statewide networking for Higher Education networking to IU

Statewide optical network to support all public and private higher education sites in Indiana,
Infrastructure is owned/leased fiber, I-Light owns/operates the hardware
1000+ miles of fiber, 17 access nodes
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11. Network the NOC supports
Internet2 NetworkMAN LAN
National Lambda RailIP Grid
TransPAC2OSG
I-LightiVDGL
Indiana GigapopAMPATH
CIC OmnipopREN-ISAC
HOPI
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13. Experience and Expertise
50+ staff very experienced in:

Service Desk Operations

14. Advanced Network protocols; IPV6, Multicast 15. Optical network design & optical electronics 16. Large scale network deployment 17. Measurement, data collection and monitoring of high performance networks 18. Architecture and design of advanced network systems12
19. Staff facts
Staff located in Bloomington, Indianapolis, VancouverBC and at times in 49 cities around the country.
Connected via pervasive HD video/audio system (DLP displays last 6-8 months if left on for 24 hours a day)
Emphasis is on working together as a group to solve problems
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20. Networks staff
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21. Global NOC and Indiana University
NOC is part of the University Technology service unit
CIO for University is head of unit and reports to the President
Very good support from University and State administration
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22. Global NOC and Indiana University
We do get a few benefits being part of the University:
Do not pay institutional overhead
Do not pay rent, utilities
Able to retain indirect charges from external awards
Able to use Human Resources, Purchasing, Legal Council and Finance Office services for a small fee.
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23. Global NOC and Indiana University
Do not have to adhere to University guidelines for hiring/salary issues.
Able to meet market rates in most cases as funding allows.
NOC staff are University employees and have all the right as any other IU staff person.
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24. What did all this get IU?
Support of large scale high performance networks has attracted some very talented staff.
Developed advanced processes, software, expertise.
Leverage all of the above to provide advanced networking solutions and support for Indiana University and the State.
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25. Whats next
Continue to work with Internet2 and National Lambda Rail to expand support.
GENI, ?
Regional Network support
National RON, or what ever you want to call it
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26. Whats next
Collaborate with someone in the community to provide redundancy for specific services

Major software (re)development effort: monitoring and reporting, trouble ticket system automation, weather map, improved flexibility with the NOC database, access to data.

Starting a evaluation process, evaluation of how were doing delivering services to the community
Space issue as our head count continues to grow
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27. Questions, comments?
Are there things you would want from the NOC, or for the NOC to do differently?
Remember we work for the networks who use some of your money to pay us
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28. Want more information?
Dave Jent
djent@iu.edu
http://globalnoc.iu.edu/
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29. A quick demo, hopefully
http://atlas.grnoc.iu.edu/I2.html
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