From KAREN wiki

Contents 1 Introduction 2 Outcomes 2.1 National Education Network Outcomes 2.2 Teaching and Learning Outcomes 3 Participants 4 Testing the value of the NEN 5 Project learnings 5.1 Service turn-up 5.2 Technical clarity vs confusion - suppliers and members 5.2.1 Aggregators 5.2.2 Service Provider Issues 5.3 School / user capabilities 5.4 Technical issues 5.4.1 MultiCast 5.5 Documents and presentations

Introduction

The Ministry of Education and the Tertiary Education Commission and the National Library have engaged with REANNZ to trial a project referred to as the National Education Network (NEN).

Outcomes

National Education Network Outcomes

The objectives of this trial (considered a Proof of Concept-PoC) are to:

• connect to KAREN a range of educational entities such as Schools, Institutes of Technology and Polytechnics (ITP), Wananga, through Aggregators.
• connect and trial a range of educational services from defined Service Providers to these education entities. The range of these offered services will cover "real time, multi media, peer to peer and client/server" applications.
• prove the proposed NEN architecture is a network suitable for educational purposes.

This proof of concept will begin mid July and end mid December 2008.

Teaching and Learning Outcomes

At the same time as we achieve NEN outcomes, we are taking the chance to test and hopefully prove the value of certain teaching and learning outcomes across the ITPs and the Schools. TEC and MinEdu have driven these outcomes.

school outcomes

to enter

ITP outcomes Test the value in the following three areas that in turn support Tertiary Education Strategy:

• ITP teaching resources sharing / shared course development and delivery CPIT - Otago midwifery project
• ITP back-office support sharing WinTec - WITT backoffice sharing
• ITP-to-school integration NMIT - Collingwood and other schools

Participants

School, service and aggregation partners are still being tied down, but here is a current list of probables(*) and possibles(#) as of 23 July.

Schools

• list

Services

• e-Cast (*)
• e_AsTTle (*)
• DW TV mutlicast stream (*)
• LERN / KnowledgeNet (#)
• SchoolZone service layer (#)

Aggregators

• DTS
• Inspire.net
• Nayland College (Nelson Loop)
• Wellington Loop

Testing the value of the NEN

An overview of the test matrix for the National Education Network testing programme follows. Comments on this programme gladly accepted from members. This testing matrix has been drawn up (and needs to be completed) using the following criteria for both what is being evaluated and by whom.

Criteria

1. Confirm participating Schools
2. Support from Principal
3. Ensure Teacher time available
4. Record the learning outcomes –People, processes, preparation, and resources required
5. Willing to sign up for 2 hrs /week-KAREN Experience Programme (KEP)
6. Willing to accommodate set up costs
7. Ability to manage expectations of the Proof of Concept ending in December 2008
8. Has required technical interface
9. Has appropriate technical support

Timing	Description	Possible Participants	Technical Issues	Issues
Jul-08	e-AsTTle	Christ College, Logan Park, Appleby School, Burnside, St Marys	ID Mgt?	MoE Aggregation concept tested
Jul-08	Video Conference	CRI (Scion Research?)to various schools (Burnside, NEAL School?)	School on NEAL reqd to test DTS Radio Link Aggregation to SNAP as an Aggregator	DTS and Burnside, Available, Network Performance
Jul-08	Desktop VC	Hunterville	Desktop-REANNZ Bridge VC	Mirial Licence, Camera loan from REANNZ
Jul-08	IP TV Test, German Content.	From Christ College To Kristin then to Wellington Loop Schools,		Multi cast capability of KAREN tested
Jul-08	Digital images National Library	Wellington Loop, Palmerston Nth BHS	InspireNet as an ISP	Wn Loop, InspireNet, PN BHS
Aug-08	School Zone?, Content	School on NEAL?	School Zone , Participation?
Aug-08	KnowledgeNet, Adobe Connect	?, ?, ?		To be defined
Aug-08	e-Music	Ak University?, Wn BHS/GHS?		E Reisch MoE
Aug-08	Collaborative Wiki
Aug-08	e-Cast	Existing licence holders on Wn&NEAL Loops?,
Sep-08	Otago I Pod lectures	Mangamaire		Available September

Project learnings

Service turn-up

Connecting up Schools, Service and Content providers and aggregators for the National Education Network trial has demonstrated that this connection process is a bespoke, sequential and relatively complicated. The internal REANNZ process for completing a “single site connection” request is initiated when the connection information is received in accordance with [connections@reannz.co.nz]

REANNZ requests that the “single site connection” form needs to be completed in full. Missing detail has resulted in site connection delays and, potentially,non-compliance with KAREN standards.

The following information is requested for every connection.

• Physical and logical design diagram of existing network.
• Physical and logical design diagram of proposed network.
• The single site connection information is completed.

Most fields in the “single site connection” request form need to be made mandatory before the connection process will commence. An update to that form has been drafted. This may assist the current process but may not solve the root core problem. A number of issues within the connection process are apparent at this early stage and all need assessment.

The connection process has inherent delays because of not only REANNZ Service Level Agreements (SLA) and in addition the SLA’s of the outsourced third party equipment also adds to the timeline and coordination requirements. As an example any physical or logical MAC update to the KAREN core has a 10 and 5 day lead time requirement with TCL. The cumulative effect of the SLA’s involved in any one connection makes for unacceptable time frames when considering the overall time to connect up a NEN entity.

Most of the new NEN trial customers have experienced connection difficulties. Due to…

• Lack of technical knowledge required to provide the information sought as required by the current connection process.
• Lack of understanding of who is responsible for what and what equipment is being supported by whom, makes for a very confused environment. This seems to be worse when services are outsourced.

In summary. The NEN connection process must be improved and simplified and not assume detailed technical knowledge is necessarily available for all NEN educational participants. This area needs a careful holistic analysis and a relevant solution.

Technical clarity vs confusion - suppliers and members

Aggregators

Understanding the need to use Jumbo frames and ensuring that all network interface cards, switches, routers and firewalls all support a 9000 byte MTU appears not to be clear. This is a connection requirement.

Service Provider Issues

• Existing hardware has been found to be at full capacity requiring upgrades or new hardware to be purchased, this has often come as a surprise and has delayed NEN trial users from connecting.
• Delays in loan hardware being sourced installed and configured have added to timeframes.
• Lack of understanding of BGP and multicast has often delayed connections.

School / user capabilities

Technical issues

MultiCast

Work is progressing on providing DW German TV over KAREN for the NEN trial. It is planned to distribute this content as multi cast stream originating from Christ College in Christchurch. The provisioning of this content along with the ability to receive DW TV has raised a number of multi cast issues. Some comments arising follow:

Some equipment connected / connecting to the NEN appear not to adhere to the KAREN multicast standards and specs. The requirements are.

• MUST support MBGP on the edge router
• MUST support PIM-SM on at least the edge router
• MAY require support of MSDP on the edge router

There seems to be a lack of technical understanding around multicast. Possibly because multicast has not been widely used commercially in New Zealand. Some of the loan and new hardware being connected to KAREN as a compliant edge device appear not comply with KAREN BGP and multicast standards.

Documents and presentations

Presentation to Ministry of Education July 2008 - provides background to the NEN proof-of-concept project

NEN diagrammatic overview - technical network architecture

KAREN Network Access Policy - Members of the community are asked to read the linked policy statement and then comment on its impact and clarity as it relates to the National Education Network Proof of Concept project.

KAREN Technical Standards apply to the NEN PoC NEN PoC Commercial considerations and issues