SyTEC PA.org - History of SSHEnet

SSHEnet

A 20-member In 1992 universities of the Pennsylvania State System were searching for a way to interconnect. The Electronic Data Processing Council of the day, comprised of Computer Center Directors, had discussed the idea of networking, but in the end had decided to author a white paper and send it to the VP's of Finance, thus effectively deferring the decision to them. The VP's of Finance, whom for the most part did not understand the significance of such an undertaking, were not interested in pursuing the matter any further. Instead, the Research Department, in the Academic Affairs Division of the Office of the Chancellor, provided leadership and directed the formation of the SSHEnet Committee. This committee was formed to spur the development of a system-wide network to interconnect all system universities, as well as provide access to the nascent Internet. The group was kept relatively small and membership restricted to network engineers and a few Computer Center Directors. The SSHEnet Committee designed and implemented SSHEnet, the Wide Area Network (WAN) based upon experiences with NSF/Internet mid-level networks (e.g., PREPnet).

In the early 1990's the Internet was used primarily to deliver text-based resources, E-mail (SMTP), file transfer (FTP), and connectivity (Telnet). Gopher, WAIS, Veronica, and similar technologies assisted in the management of text-based data. Transport bandwidth was typically 56 Kbps to the ISP, T1 from the ISP to the Internet, and 10 Mbps on the LAN. The State System implemented SSHEnet over the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania's IMUX network. The IMUX (Digital Intelligent Multiplexer Integrated Network) was operated by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania's Office of Administration. IMUX was designed to provide digital (voice, data, and video) networked connectivity to the tax supported agencies of Pennsylvania. This network was managed under a service provisioning arrangement by Bell Atlantic who provided those services (lines, performance, repair, installation, engineering, cost monitoring, new technology directions, etc.) commonly associated with a Network Operating Center (NOC).

In 1992, most points of presence within the network used at least a T-1 line, provided by 101 (95 in Bell Atlantic central offices and 6 in GTE North central offices) intelligent multiplexers; (Newbridge Mainstreet 3600s) distributed throughout the State. The 1992 IMUX implementation consisted of 3,560 data and voice circuits with 2,200 drops, 285 high capacity circuits, and 51 InterLATA T-1s. The backbone (internodal, IntraLATA, InterLATA) was capable of speeds up to T-3 and used 184 T-1 lines. It supported frame relay, ISDN, FDDI and other technologies to provide service to the numerous digital networks it supported.

As a result of deploying IMUX, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania negotiated favorable voice and digital rates, with certain carriers, throughout Pennsylvania and passed these rates onto SSHEnet and its attached community networks. Through this model SSHEnet provided members adequate, cost-effective access to text-based resources. The basic model connected, via 56 Kbps frame relay lines, a SSHEnet member's LAN (Ethernet or token ring) to a SSHEnet server. In turn, SSHEnet was connected to PREPnet, which was directly connected to the Internet. SSHEnet provided services including: E-mail; Internet access; System personnel and payroll; resource sharing; super computer cycles; System bulletin boards; System-wide statistics, information, mandated reports; and instructional support. Although the cost of tail circuits to the IMUX network could be very expensive in some independent telephone company territories (where many of the System universities were located), the State System pooled these costs and shared them equally among the 14 state-owned universities.

A NSF grant, in the amount of $175,000, was obtained in 1993 to partially underwrite the costs associated with interconnecting each State System main campus to SSHEnet. This grant was just the right elixir to put the VP's of Finance in the right mood to support the formation of the network. With this stimulus, and the agreement that all campuses would share costs equally as a community of common interest universities should, the final objections to the birth of SSHEnet were overcome. In 1993, SSHEnet provided at least a half T-1 routed TCP/IP connection to each main campus and at least a 56 Kbps to all others. By Fall 1994, connectivity was upgraded to at least a full T1 to main campuses and a half T1 to others. A nicely succinct description of the project and its successes can be found in the "Report to NSF on Results Obtained with SSHEnet Grant -- 1994."

SSHEnet II

By 1995, increasing use of services such as the World Wide Web (WWW), placed larger demands upon existing networks. For example, the 56 Kbps lines that supported hundreds of PCs accessing text-based resources could support no more than 15-25 PCs using Web browsers. Then the Federal Government sold control of the Internet to a few companies, who managed access to it through Network Access Points (NAPs). PREPnet was forced to buy connectivity through an ISP to a NAP, rather than being connected directly. Not only did this raise the cost of doing business; it also added additional points of failure, and demanded an overhead through reduction in usable bandwidth. With the advent of the World Wide Web and the desire to bring multimedia and video to desktops within SSHEnet, the State System realized that existing SSHEnet capacity was inadequate to meet current and near-term needs.

In response to these stressors, the State System, along with its partners PREPnet, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and Chesconet, began the process of determining the most cost-effective means to meet their needs. As a result of this effort, SSHEnet was reengineered in 1997. To accommodate Web browsers it was recommended that a minimum connection for a SSHEnet school should be at least three point-to-point T1s. To accommodate multiple T1s into SSHEnet, it was decided that the minimal SSHEnet connection to the Internet was 10 Mbps. To eliminate problems (reduced available bandwidth, multiple failure points), inherent by going through multiple ISPs to connect at a NAP, it was decided that the SSHEnet POP was to be directly connected to a NAP. To eliminate the very large expense of obtaining transport between SSHEnet and an ISP POP, it was decided that the ISP POP would be located on SSHEnet. By placing a direct NAP connection on SSHEnet scalability was assured. Bandwidth could be increased, as needed, without purchasing new and expensive tail circuits. This implementation (direct connect) also increased performance and reliability and was less costly.

Additional engineering directed towards supporting technologies such as high quality video applications, or shared voice, at affordable costs, resulted in an ATM implementation. A pilot involving the BTC, Kutztown and Millersville Universities, and Chesconet, begun in March 1997. Based upon the success of this pilot, full SSHEnet production was implemented in August 1997.

By 1997 the support contract with Bell Atlantic for "network services" was concluding. State System personnel had become convinced that they could develop service offerings that easily surpassed those of the commercial firms of the day. Additionally, many State System personnel were convinced that the only way to maintain independent and accurate information about the WAN was to manage it internally.

To that end the SSHEnet Committee developed an RFP for the State System's NOC and distributed the document to all interested State System network departments. Following the submission of proposals, a SSHEnet Committee subcommittee, the Network Operations Center RFP Evaluation Committee, reviewed proposals and selected West Chester's Business Technology Center (BTC) to serve as the ATM nerve center for SSHEnet II for a period of three years, pending successful annual review. The notification was made in a memo to Dr. Egan from Mr. Lahr on 07/09/97.

Since that time the NOC has undergone successful peer reviews. The NOC has had daily challenges to operations from internal and external sources, but SSHEnet has never had a major failure. Annual surveys of clientele at the campuses have always been very positive and often complimentary. Mr. Lahr has even received unsolicited testimonials from networking staff at the universities extolling the virtues of the personnel at the NOC. These generally come after NOC personnel solve some particularly vexing problem, in short order, for the good of the university.

In short, the professionalism exhibited by NOC personnel, their dedication to duty, flexibility in approach, ability to respond to unforeseen contingencies -- all of these attributes are unmatchable in a commercial setting. The SSHEnet Committee was right, but it fell to the NOC to prove them so.

SSHEnet III

New telecommunications services became available to the State System in 2001 when the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania obtained expanded capabilities under a new contract. As a result, each University now has a full OC-3 (155Mbps) available for data, voice and video. Initial connections to SSHEnet III were made in February 2001 and completed in June. New backbone and site network equipment was installed in May and June. The 155Mbps Internet connection went into operation on July 23rd; a 45Mbps Internet II connection was put in place in August of 2001. Mansfield University was the last campus to receive its OC-3 fiber connection, and that happened on Wednesday, November 27, 2002. The switchover outage lasted 3 seconds.

The Commonwealth awarded the State System $2 Million dollars to assist with transition and Internet2 costs, partly because the System agreed to partner with the Commonwealth in the Keystone Communications Project, but partly because NOC personnel assisted during the evaluation phase of the project. Their expertise and keen judgment permitted the Commonwealth to understand in no uncertain terms the technical choices that the competing team offered. In the end, the Commonwealth had a clear vision of the offerings proposed for its connectivity problems in the next five years. For more information see the January 10, 2003, press release by Governor Schweiker regarding this project and its importance to Pennsylvania.

With the advent of this newfound bandwidth, the State System was now able to accommodate the needs of students, faculty and staff to communicate under the new paradigms of the decade. As a result, the SSHEnet Committee had to find a new Internet Service Provider who could handle the large increases in anticipated traffic volume. Several campuses elected to use the ISP contracted under the Keystone Communications Project, but they have paid a premium to do so. In fact, they annually overpay between $50-70 thousand for this service. Most of the other campuses instead share a 155Mbps gateway provided by Internap and thus reap the rewards of aggregating their traffic and cost-sharing facilities. These savings conservatively amount to $650,000 annually. Again, another clear benefit of acting cooperatively for the common good.

SSHEnet IV