Meeting Agenda
October 23/24, 2003

Thursday, October 23
Noon	Build-your-own-sandwich buffet.
12:45 p.m.	Welcome, introductions and announcements - Bonnie and Annie (B/A)
1:30 p.m.	Agenda review and meeting - B/A http://www.northerntier.wiscnet.net/TWG%20Issues.htm Organization Working Group Report - B/A Technical Working Group Report - David Lois
2:30 p.m.	Separate into 2 groups for further work.
6:30 p.m.	Dinner at Nappa Valley Grille, Mall of America
Friday, October 24
8 a.m.	Continental Breakfast
8:30 a.m.	Work groups continue
10:15 a.m.	Meet as a single group Organization Working Group recommendations Technical Working Group recommendations
11:30 a.m.	Next steps
Noon	Adjourn - box lunches will be provided.

Questions for the policy group:

What is the relationship of the Northern Tier network to Abilene?
What is the relationship to Internet2/UCAID?
What individual NT institution drivers does TWG need to be aware of? (Any show stoppers)
What is the vision for long-term network operations for the NT?
How closely do the TWG goals relate to the NT Policy goals?
What financial considerations should the TWG take into account for the preliminary design? (Do we do this in stages?)
What will be the procurement vehicle/organization/customer of record?
How long of a contract do we procure?

Future Meeting Issues:

Develop Budget Range
Develop Operations Strategy
Develop Procurement Strategy
Develop Project Phases/Alternatives
Discuss Roles of I2, Fiberco, others when appropriate.

Questions for any technical solution:

Do we provide connectivity to the non-primary NT sites. If so, how?
Do we provide the possibility to extend to other non-NT states or other countries (ie Canada)?
Should we talk to other entities that have done similar contracts?
Do we provide for QoS mechanisms?
How do we allocate bandwidth between entities?
What scalability options do we want to build in?
How much redundancy are we looking for?
What do we do for local loop connectivity?
Is it a true 10Gb solution?

If we pursue a Dark Fiber option:

Need to look into the legalities issues. (IRU, etc...)
Need to find out types and specifications of fiber being offered in the response.
Do we pursue more than 2 strands?
Need to know the test results on the fiber (dB loss, etc…) This needs to be tested for proper wavelength.
What opportunities are there for regeneration and amplification on vendor’s network?
Do we pursue a consulting firm that may have more breadth of knowledge on dark fiber availability and creating IRU contracts?
Who will monitor and provide breakfix on fiber.
It was stated that there is a preference to have one single point of contact if possible.
Need to decide if we want to provide our own hardware solution.
Need to select hardware vendors. Do we insist upon one common vendor?
Need to decide who will install/maintain and repair.
If not outsourced does each member contribute engineering support?
Do we have a central group do this?
Who will monitor the hardware?