Enhanced T1 lines keep `K-20' connected - Technology Information

Communications News, August, 2000

School district overhauls WAN with new routers.

Washington state provides a school district in metropolitan Seattle, WA, with access to its high-speed, fiber-optic network via T-1 line, but the district specifies, acquires, builds and maintains its own district-wide network to benefit from that connectivity.

It probably comes as no surprise that a school district in metropolitan Seattle, WA, would have a state-of-the-art, district-wide network in the middle of a high-tech capital, and home to some of the world's best-known technology developers and manufacturers, but the state government itself is committed to state-wide connectivity for educational institutions. With its `K-20' Network Initiative, the state of Washington laid the groundwork for state-wide, interdistrict connectivity.

In 1997, the `K-20' Network, a high-speed fiber-optic network, linked the first of the state's 296 school districts, public higher-education off-campus and extension centers, branch campuses of community and technical colleges and independent nonprofit baccalaureate institutions.

Its goal, then and now, was to connect students and educators at every level in the state's educational system--from kindergarten through graduate school--to the incredible collaboration opportunities and wealth of resources that is available online. The network facilitates use of the Internet, videoconferencing, satellite video programming and more, all at huge savings to school districts.

The state provides access to its highspeed, fiber optic network via T-1 lines to the school districts. Each district, though, specifies, acquires, builds and maintains its own district-wide network to benefit from that connectivity. The Northshore School District, a district with 20,000 students headquartered in Bothell, WA, makes its connection to the K-20 network via four T-1 lines coming into the district headquarters data center.

The district was well-positioned to leverage the new connectivity options being offered by the state's K-20 program. District data center professionals at Northshore had installed the first of its school networks in 1989, and its wide area network (WAN) in 1994. That original WAN connected all 29 of the district's school campuses to the district data center's network hub via high-speed T-1 lines. From that central connection point, the district and all of its school campuses had access to Internet connectivity via the state's predecessor to the K-20, which was then called the Washington Education Network (WedNet). Since then, many factors have driven continually increasing usage of the WAN, including the growth and popularization of the Internet; the installation of district-wide services for libraries, student records, fiscal, and human resources; a rapid increase in the number of computers--to a current level of more than 7,000 networked computers, including two multimedia workstations per classroom--and continual improvements in network connections. All 29 school campuses now boast a minimum of CAT5 wiring tested for 100 Mbps performance with several wired for CAT5e and Gigabit speeds.

When the time came to update the district's WAN capability to handle the increasing traffic loads, district network staff evaluated several options before choosing Allied Telesyn AT-AR350 and AT-AR330 routers to direct district-wide connectivity down the line to the 29 school campuses.

Though Allied Telesyn was well-established in Northshore's network through its LAN connectivity, the district's network staff hadn't initially looked to it for routers. "When we found out that it did have a line of routers, and that the routers were proven technology--built and supported by router experts--we were thrilled," says Jon Wiederspan, network operations manager for Northshore.

By 1999, the district had more than 8,500 devices connected to its network, including approximately 7,000 Macs, 200 Intel PCs, 10 Unix-based computers and a number of networked printers, scanners and other peripheral devices--while the district's schools and offices added somewhere between 500 and 800 new connections to the network.

According to Wiederspan, e-mail is the number one network activity. "Not only does e-mail serve as a vehicle for day-to-day staff, administration and student communication, it is also used in the context of the curriculum," says Wiederspan. "Foreign language students use e-mail to converse with pen pals in other countries; students in social studies classes communicate with politicians--e-mail really opens up communications possibilities."

The second biggest activity is Web browsing--both directed and independent. Students use library and classroom connections for research and special projects. Classroom activities leverage the Web as well. "Currently, several elementary school classes are involved in an interactive geography project via the Web," says Wiederspan. "They follow a group of scientists traveling around the world, literally 'voting' among a pool of students nationwide to decide where the team will travel next. Projects like this engage the students in learning in a whole new way--projects that wouldn't be possible without the kind of connectivity we have today."