Schools deploy big pipes as Web usage skyrockets

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By Bob Brewin and James Cope

(IDG) -- Explosive growth in student Internet usage over the past two years has resulted in school systems beefing up their networks to the point where they rival or exceed the capacity of many corporate networks.

In doing so, school systems around the country have deployed unlicensed wireless networks, tapped the bandwidth of cable television systems and even employed satellite service as a cheaper and more reliable alternative to the local telephone company.

The San Diego County Office of Education has experienced 10 percent growth in Internet use by students in the county's 400 schools every month since 1999, said Chris Brawner, director of network and video services.

To handle that growth, Brawner said the county beefed up its backbone service to school district offices from two DS-3 (45M bit/sec.) circuits last year to six OC-3 (155M bit/sec.) circuits, with individual schools served by a T1 (1.54M bit/sec.) link to that backbone.

Brawner said four of the OC-3 circuits are being supplied for backup by the Pacific Bell unit of San Antonio-based SBC Communications Inc. and another two by the Cox Business Services unit of Cox Communications Inc. in Atlanta.

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A maxed out T1

Rural Allegheny County in Maryland has seen Internet usage quadruple over the past several years, according to Jeff Blank, the county's supervisor of networking and microcomputing. That growth "maxed out" the county's T1 Internet connection from Verizon Communications in New York, Blank said.

The county initially planned to install a DS-3 Internet connection for the start of this school year. But when Verizon quoted him a monthly rate of roughly $18,000 for the DS-3 connection, Blank said, the county decided to instead install a 65-mile, six-hop, unlicensed wireless link operating in the 2.4-GHz band from its hub in Cumberland to a Maryland public Internet access point in Hagerstown.

That long-distance link is the last step in a totally wireless network that serves 80 buildings, including 23 schools, via a 10M bit/sec. backbone with links to each school in the 3M bit/sec. range.

Blank said the fixed cost of the entire network, including the long-distance Hagerstown link, was about $350,000 vs. the $70,000 per month the county would have had to pay to Verizon for similar service.

The state of Oklahoma has completed installation of a statewide network that provides connections of at least T1 speeds to schools over a backbone that runs at DS-3 or higher, according to Bill Shafer, executive director for the Oklahoma OneNet project.

While Oklahoma tapped the local phone company -- the Southwestern Bell division of SBC Communications -- for some of its links, the state also brought in a number of other service providers, including Tulsa, Okla.-based Williams Communications LLC, Sprint Corp. and Kingfisher, Okla.-based Pioneer Telephone Cooperative.

Shafer said these companies agreed to charge no more than $400 a month for a T1 connection to be used exclusively for data, compared with roughly $1,000 per month that Allegheny County paid last year for its T1 Internet connection. The state pays $750 per month for a circuit that also supports videoconferencing.

Call of the wild

Remote Alaskan schools don't have the luxury of choosing from multiple wire-line service providers, so the University of Alaska has started to deploy a VSAT satellite service from McLean, Va.-based StarBand Communications Inc. to 25 communities throughout the state. The initial deployment is designed to test speed and latency, as well as the toll the harsh Alaskan climate takes on performance, said Michael Sfraga, director of special programs at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks.

StarBand said it expects downstream rates will average 300K bit/sec. to 400K bit/sec., with upstream speeds running at about 60K bit/sec. While that may seem slow, Sfraga said he's optimistic about the boost in throughput that the satellite system can deliver.

"There are places in Alaska where you can click Enter and go get a cup of coffee while the file downloads," he said.