EaStMAN The Edinburgh and Stirling Metropolitan Area Network


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G Howat

A version of the following discussion was presented at a colloquium on ``Extending the LAN - high speed data services'', Institution of Electrical Engineers, Monday 24th April, 1995. For further information or discussion please contact the author.

Who is involved in the EaStMAN Project?

The EaStMAN consortium currently comprises of seven Higher Education funded institutions (HEIs) in the Edinburgh and Stirling region:

The Universities of

with the

Aims of the EaStMAN Project

The aim of EaStMAN is to provide a pervasive multi-service network using Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) throughout the region with the potential to encompass educational, hospital academic departments, public and private sector partners etc.

Considerable benefits are perceived in pursuing the collaborative route to improving communications infrastructure through a MAN. For example, when compared with `going it alone', costs may be effectively reduced by sharing infrastructure. In so doing, we may achieve better intra- and inter-institution communication, provide early access to high speed networks to stimulate and support multi-media applications, for example, medical imaging, pace and distance learning, library sharing, integration of telephony and security services.

Experience with Suppliers

Before funding appeared on the horizon, a technical group carried out an initial study, involving specification of a MAN and its functionality, as well as examining the technical solutions by which it could be achieved. Meetings and discussions with the local providers of telecommunications services helped considerably in that phase.

Deregulation of the telecommunications industry in the UK has resulted in considerable local changes in the technical possibilities available for network provision. For example, newer entrants in the telecommunications marketplace (such as cable TV, utility companies etc) often offer very competitive and aggressive rates for traditional tariffed circuit services. All are seeking that differentiator between the various suppliers.

Suppliers were extremely interested in the project and were able to respond with a variety of suggestions:

Appearance of Funding and MAN Phase I

In September 1994, the Scottish Higher Education Funding Council (SHEFC) invited bids to improve networking infrastructure within Scottish HEIs. As a condition, successful institutions were committed to meeting 20% of the SHEFC supplied funding. During the evaluation phase of the bids, the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) enhanced the funding pool, recognising the role which MANs could play in the rollout of SuperJANET.

The aforementioned technical project team rapidly expanded, turned itself into the EaStMAN consortium and carried out an open procurement for the first stage of the MAN. The consortium subsequently accepted an offer from ScottishTelecom (a company evolved from the telecommunications arm of ScottishPower) to lease open monomode fibre running between ten important HEI sites. We have proceeded to procure routing and ATM switching equipment to attach to the fibre network.

Phase I of the project, with some possible Phase 2 sites, is shown in the attached Figures (the Annex contains a key to the site names for the interested):

The geographical map

shows the infrastructure consisting of a number of monomode fibres in a ring connected through the ten sites shown in the map. The fibres will be employed to construct parallel networks for production, experimental and migration purposes. The University of Stirling is connected to the MAN at the King's Buildings site via a 155Mbps SDH/STM-1 managed service from ScottishTelecom.

The technology map

shows the two inter-connected networking technologies for EaStMAN Phase I. Firstly, there is a 100Mbps FDDI ring between the ten Edinburgh city sites; the circumference of the ring is 58km. This network will deliver SuperJANET IP services to various HEIs via the King's Buildings SMDS interface, as well as general metropolitan connectivity. Five sites will also participate in a 155Mbps SDH/STM-1 ATM network, which is connected to both the Stirling campus and to the SuperJANET ATM Pilot network.

The target date for completion of the infrastructure is end of May 1995, full user service on the first stage MAN will commence by July 1995.

Some MAN Applications

At this time, we are in a period of tooling up for the new applications which are going to become possible through the MAN and new technologies. Education and information for the potential user population is important and ongoing. As examples, plans have been made for