Essay Instructions: 1. Network Management Case Study Analysis paper.
2. Provide 3 page APA format analysis of Oregon School District Provides Higher (Bandwidth) Learning.
3. Please use concise writing style. Utilize a writer with computer science background. List headers in the paper. Case study analysis report format example documented below.
4. Use paraphrase, quotation and cite in APA format. The article is attached to this document.
Case Study Analysis Report Format
Title: Case Study: Oregon School District Provides Higher (Bandwidth) Learning
I. Introduction
? Briefly describe the organization. What is its mission?
? Describe current network and IT system
II. Problem or Need
? What is the organization concerned about? Focus on the business case not the technology
? Relates to purposes and goals of organization.
? Is of reasonable dimensions.
? Is supported by statistical evidence.
? Is supported by statements from authorities.
? Is stated in terms of clients or beneficiaries.
? Is developed with input from clients and beneficiaries.
? Is not the "lack of a method" (unless the method is the only solution).
? Doesn't make assumptions.
III. Objectives
? Must be specific and measurable to improve the situation described in the Problem.
? Describes problem-related outcomes of the project.
? Describe the Objectives in numerical terms, if at all possible.
IV. Their Solution
? Clearly describes program activities.
? States reasons for selection of activities.
? Describes sequence of activities.
? Describes staffing of program.
? Describes clients and client selection.
V. Unanswered Questions
? If you could ask the organization some questions, what would you ask?
VI. Last Word/Conclusions
? What final thoughts do you have regarding this case study?
? Use your imagination. If you think the methods and chosen solution, say so. What would do different? Speak your mind.
Reference
Clark, E.(2001, December 5). Business Case: Oregon School District Provides Higher (Bandwidth) Learning. Retrieved February 3, 2005, from http://www.cconvergence.com/shared/article/showArticle.jhtml?articleId =8703266
ARTICLE
Business Case: Oregon School District Provides Higher (Bandwidth) Learning
By Elizabeth Clark
12/05/2001 9:22 AM EST
URL: http://www.cconvergence.com/shared/article/showArticle.jhtml?articleId=8703266
For the Klamath County School District, new network access systems and management software helped to rein in rogue traffic without putting the network on lockdown.
Soap operas. Australian radio broadcasts. MTV music videos. Napster. Instant messaging. Online gaming. This is just a sampling of the applications that have been battling for bandwidth on the Klamath County School District's (KCSD) WAN for the past few years. And with more and more content becoming available on the Internet, demand isn't likely to shrink of its own accord.
While this is certainly not a novel problem among networks that support K-12 school systems, it posed a specific set of challenges for the KCSD's WAN, which covers about 6,000 square miles. But, as it turned out, overcoming these challenges proved to be a very educational experience, not only for students but also for those supporting the network.
DIGITAL DIVIDE
Headquartered in Klamath Falls, OR, the district encompasses 20 schools, many of which are located in rural areas. The KCSD WAN supports about 7,000 K-12 students, and roughly 2,300 computers. The far-flung network has required an increasing amount of bandwidth to meet the needs of students, teachers, and administrators-many of whom are located a very long way from the KCSD's district office headquarters.
The disparity in the number of students at some of the district schools also presents some hurdles when balancing bandwidth across the WAN. One school complex has nearly 1,500 students, while the smaller schools have fewer than 100. This situation precludes the option of "cut-and-paste" bandwidth management.
Compounding the geographical challenges is the fact that, like most K-12 networks, the district's WAN has been used for more than just the three R's. Students have been downloading bandwidth-intensive content such as streaming media, MPEG, MP3, and RealAudio. But seemingly innocuous applications, such as ICQ and AOL's Instant Messenger (AIM), were also taking a toll on bandwidth, says John Hill, the district's technology coordinator. "Kids would get on the network and start instant messaging each other from school to school," says Hill. While this wasn't highly problematic in small doses, "if you get 30 people doing it, pretty soon you're going to run out of bandwidth," Hill asserts.
Another consideration was the KCSD's need to limit access to certain types of Web sites, such as those with violent or obscene content, to meet government regulations, and to help qualify for highly prized e-rate funding. (E-rate funding is money made available by the Telecommunications Act of 1996 for delivering advanced telecommunications and Internet access to schools and libraries.) To compound matters, Hill and his team weren't exactly sure how much of the traffic was legit and how much was extracurricular because they simply lacked sufficient visibility into the network to separate the wheat from the chaff.
But even prior to the availability of applications with less tangible educational value (not to put too fine a point on it), the WAN already had a full-time job supporting the district's requirements. In addition to basic Internet and e-mail access, the classrooms needed connectivity for distance learning classes, as well as broadcast and cable TV feeds to deliver educational programming. The WAN also had to support administrative applications (including some hefty databases) that help the district keep track of students' grades, attendance, immunization records, and other critical information. Then there were the Unix-based accounting systems. Add to this mix the students' desire for a more recreational "learning experience," and you've got an equation for bandwidth backup.
With the variables of this equation firmly in hand, KCSD decided to launch a network upgrade. Beginning in 2000, the KCSD network's 56Kbit/sec frame relay circuits were replaced with T1 lines to each school in the district, with the upgrade progressing into 2001. While their analysis showed that this would go a long way toward solving the network's bandwidth shortfall, Hill and his team focused on the long haul. "We realized that we couldn't continually escalate to more and more pipes," says Hill. "We knew we'd probably never be able to afford more than one T1 per school," at least in the foreseeable future, he notes.
Additionally, even after the upgrade to T1 lines, more and more computers kept getting tacked onto the network. As users kept increasing their bandwidth consumption, "The network would drag really badly in the middle of the day," says Hill.
The lessons of history were clear: Hill and his team had to find a way to control bandwidth utilization to ensure that sufficient capacity would be available as the number of users and applications continued to grow over time-without inflating the price tag with pricey plumbing.
UPGRADING THE NETWORK
Hill and his team discussed a number of solutions be- fore settling on WAN access devices and software from Kentrox (www.kentrox.com, formerly ADC). In fact, says Hill, they had tried software-based solutions such as Novell's BorderManager and SurfControl's Cyber Patrol. But due to implementation problems and the somewhat cumbersome processes in- volved with these products, they weren't a good fit for the district's objectives. Besides, Hill didn't want to get stuck in the revolving door of filtering out certain sites and having to continually add to the list of "untouchables" as more and more content became available on the Internet.
So he began seeking out hardware-based solutions. After an extensive survey of what was available on the market, the district bought about 30 Kentrox ServicePoint Service Delivery Units (SDUs). Most of these systems are ServicePoint-tmc 2040 (Terminate, Monitor, and Control) units, with a couple of terminate-only units that provide Internet connectivity via a link to the Jackson County Education Service District (ESD).
In addition to serving as DSU/CSUssthat provide termination and access capabilities, the ServicePoint-tmc units also supply real-time and historical performance statistics on WAN and LAN link availability and utilization, service quality, and application performance. The systems also include ServicePoint Manager software, which en- ables administrators to set policies for managing and controlling the use of (and access to) bandwidth across the WAN.
ServicePoint-tmc systems terminate the T1 lines from the district's schools (see figure). Two frame relay clouds link these lines to the KCSD's district office headquarters, which has two ServicePoint-tmc units that sit between the frame relay clouds and a Nortel Networks ASN router. Each school has a Nortel ASN router. Separate point-to-point T1 links, terminated by two ServicePoint-t (termination-only) units, deliver Internet access via the Jackson County ESD. (The district uses two ISPs: UUNET and Cable & Wireless.) Qwest and CenturyTel provide telecommunications services.
Because many of the schools are located in re- mote areas, the district need- ed the capability to monitor and manage the WAN from a central location to avoid having to dispatch technicians to sites that might be a two-hour drive away. Given the distances involved, a service call could otherwise eat up an entire day. While some service calls are in- evitable, the district needed to minimize the number of such visits without sacrificing the quality of service de- livered to the schools.
ServicePoint Manager software provides centralized management and diagnostics, while ServicePoint Configurator software enables remote access and configuration of the ServicePoint SDUs on the network. The main console is run on a 966MHz Gateway E-5400 PC at the KCSD's district office headquarters campus.
EXPERIENCE: THE BEST TEACHER?
One reason for choosing the Kentrox systems, says Hill, was the fact that the district had been running an ADC Integrated Access Device (IAD)-the Opera Service Matrix Platform-for video transmissions for several years before the network up- grade. The system, located at the KCSD's district office headquarters, provides ac- cess to distance learning classes and cable TV feeds of educational programming. In addition, says Hill, it enabled the district to dedicate 512Kbits/sec to video traffic, while using the remaining capacity of a T1 line for data transmission.
The ServicePoint-tmc systems have provided Hill and his staff with the ability to monitor and control bandwidth access and utilization at the application level. The systems come with integrated software from Packeteer (www.packeteer.com), which helps to enable these capabilities. Both inbound and outbound traffic can be monitored-a feature that Hill and his team found particularly useful.
The systems' SNMP-based collection agents can be configured to perform device discovery and configuration, and to gather valuable performance metrics from ServicePoint systems across the WAN. The systems' ability to recognize traffic on both the port and application levels enables network administrators to limit bandwidth utilization for specific types of traffic-particularly large audio and video downloads that, if given free reign, could choke pipes along the entire WAN.
The key to taking control of bandwidth utilization is in the ability to establish and enforce policies efficiently. With ServicePoint, policies are enforced at each Service- Point device along the network.
Hill and his team can now set a policy that restricts the amount of bandwidth an application such as RealAudio can use during certain times of the day. This ability to partition bandwidth according to minimum/maximum percentages can help even out the overall flow of traffic across the WAN and ensure that critical applications aren't squeezed out. Policies for applications can also be set according to parameters such as Committed Information Rate (CIR), end-to-end delay, and link availability. ServicePoint enables Hill and his team to determine in advance how specific policies will affect the network, and when existing policies need to be modified.
Since Hill didn't want to filter out HTTP traffic altogether, he specified maximum utilization limits for certain Internet-based applications. This was a much more attractive alternative than trying to block out certain Web sites, says Hill, and it enables students to access applications of interest as long as they don't exceed the utilization thresholds.
Real-time monitoring of application performance data plays a major role in delivering this level of flexibility. ServicePoint provides network-level reports that include fault summaries indicating the network's overall status. If desired, the administrator can look for further detail at the device, port, or Permanent Virtual Circuit (PVC) level. He or she can also refer to more granular reports (such as application performance reports and Physical-layer reports) that help pinpoint the cause of network problems.
REPORT CARDS
At the application level, ServicePoint generates reports on application response time, volume, and peak and average bandwidth levels. Server and network response time are also reflected. These allow Hill and his team to identify the top 10 applications in terms of bandwidth utilization. They can also find "top talkers" by user name, not just IP address. This enables them to identify "chronic offenders" who consume an inordinate amount of the available bandwidth, and implement measures to regain balance on the network.
ServicePoint also generates frame relay reports, which provide metrics for service quality according to parameters defined in FRF.13. (FRF.13, developed by the Frame Relay Forum, defines parameters that describe various elements of frame relay service levels.) These include end-to-end delay, service availability, data and frame delivery ratios, Mean Time To Repair (MTTR), and mean time between service outages. Additional metrics-such as congestion, exceptions, burst rates, and bandwidth utilization-are also provided.
These reports have helped the district monitor how well its service providers have done in living up to their Service Level Agreements (SLAs). Hill says that the ServicePoint systems have also helped to minimize finger-pointing between the service providers. Based on data from the reports, "We can diagnose what's going on with our line before we have to call them," says Hill. "We only call them when we know the problem is on their end."
The systems also allow administrators to establish thresholds-if a threshold is exceeded, an alarm is generated. ServicePoint's filter en- ables users to access different views of alarms, depending on which parameters are most critical to the network at that point in time. Traps can also be set for conditions such as link failures. In addition, ServicePoint provides diagnostics for fault isolation and troubleshooting.
Obviously, security is a primary consideration when it comes to delivering ef- fective bandwidth control without imposing overly cum- bersome constraints. With ServicePoint, the district's administrators have multiple options for defining user privileges and access restrictions, and ensuring proper user authentication. This helps to confine users to only the applications, devices, or other elements of the network that they're authorized to access.
Like most network upgrades, the district's overhaul didn't come cheap. Fortunately, the district secured funding in 2000 from the federal government's e-rate program, as well as a bill that had been passed in the Oregon legislature that allocated funds for telecommunications and Internet connectivity for state schools. These funds were crucial in enabling the district to complete its network upgrade project.
But, according to Hill, e-rate funding isn't a given. "You apply for it, and then, if you get really lucky, you get it," says Hill. "We just happened to get really lucky that year."
Hill says that most of the e-rate funding went toward defraying the cost of the T1 lines and connectivity to the telco. But in transitioning from 56Kbits/sec to T1, the district needed to replace its existing DSU/CSUs. In this light, the expense was buffered by the fact that "that was money we were going to have to spend anyway," says Hill. The additional bandwidth management capabilities they got out of the deal made the investment well worth it, he notes. Hill estimates that the Kentrox hardware and software cost the district about $62,000.
LEARNING CURVES
While they encountered a few bumps along the way, the rollout was basically a smooth one, says Hill. The initial implementation process took about six months. Hill says that version 2.1 of the ServicePoint software wasn't completed by the time the district decided to install the equipment. But he didn't perceive the delay as a problem. "We were willing to go on the proof of concept," he says.
In the beginning the district used the systems for termination only. KCSD worked out a deal with Kentrox in which they paid for the hardware, but didn't have to pay for the software until the final version was actually in hand. "We were basically a beta site for the software," he says.
During the ramp-up process, Kentrox would send incremental releases of the software for a test run on the KCSD's ServicePoint systems. While it was sometimes frustrating to wait for software to arrive on a periodic basis, says Hill, the final result was worth the wait. Whenever a glitch occurred or a problem was encountered, Kentrox would quickly send a patch, which typically resolved the issue right away. While some bugs were encountered throughout the process, "there weren't many," says Hill. He also notes that there's a learning curve with the systems, but that the instruction provided by Kentrox significantly reduced its duration.
Once the final version of the software was in place, Hill and his team observed traffic on the network for about two or three months, looking for usage patterns and anomalies. "We watched the users develop habits," says Hill. Then, the staff began tweaking bandwidth and providing limitations by protocol. They were able to observe which schools were consuming the most bandwidth, and which applications were taxing the network most heavily-and to adjust access to bandwidth accordingly.
"We actually started dividing the bandwidth up into blocks, so we could make sure that our administrative applications worked over the same T1s that carried all the other WAN traffic," says Hill. "Then we'd lower the availability levels as needed, and it shaped people's use of the bandwidth. We didn't cut anything off completely, but we made them aware that this is a limited resource," says Hill.
PLAYING WELL WITH OTHERS
According to Hill, the ServicePoint systems' major benefit is that they've helped the district to maximize the T1 lines' efficiency across the entire WAN. As a result, the district can use these links well into the future, thereby defraying the cost of additional lines that would be needed if bandwidth utilization were not under its present level of control. The ability to determine exactly how the bandwidth is being used, and to distribute it accordingly, has been extremely valuable. Also, says Hill, these capabilities have ultimately helped the end users "because now we can offer so much more on our network, including more administrative tools."
Another perk is that the ServicePoint systems have helped to educate users on the ills of monopolizing bandwidth. In the past, says Hill, certain schools consumed far more in the way of network resources than others did. And teachers and administrative personnel at "bandwidth-lean" locations began complaining about insufficient access levels. Hill can now show the reports generated by ServicePoint to "chronic offenders," illustrating to them the impact of their usage patterns on the entire WAN. This has been a very useful tool in helping to reshape bandwidth consumption patterns, says Hill.
FINAL EXAM
Hill says that the district plans to add 200 to 300 users per year, and will offer more distance learning courses, many of which will be increasingly bandwidth-intensive. Controlling the network traffic flow will become an increasingly challenging pro- position. But Hill says that the ServicePoint systems will help meet the growing demand for bandwidth.
One item on Hill's wish list is more flexible policy creation capabilities. Specifically, he's looking for the ability to construct policies that would, for example, enforce restrictions on network usage during peak hours, but then allow expanded access during nonpeak hours. This is due in part to his commitment to make the network as available as possible to its users. In this respect, he's quite satisfied with the current state of affairs. "When users really need the network, it's there for them now," says Hill.
Elizabeth Clark is the executive editor of Network Magazine. She can be reached at eclark@cmp.com.
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Business Profile
Klamath County School District (KCSD)
Industry: K-12 Education
Headquarters: Klamath Falls, OR
Size: 20 schools, with a total of about 7,000 students
Technology in focus: Bandwidth management
Project leader: John Hill, technology coordinator
Business challenge: For several years, schools on the Klamath County School District's (KCSD) WAN had been linked via 56Kbit/sec connections to the district's central campus. But as more students and computers were brought online, the WAN suffered from bandwidth blockages. In 2000, the links from each school were replaced with T1 lines, which also developed bottlenecks over time. To complicate matters, more students began accessing the network for content such as streaming media, MPEG, MP3, RealAudio, and for instant messaging and online gaming. The district needed a way to identify "chronic offenders" and control bandwidth to ensure sufficient capacity to support critical administrative applications.
Solution: After considering software approaches, Hill and his team turned to hardware. The KCSD bought about 30 Kentrox ServicePoint Service Delivery Units (SDUs), which not only serve as DSU/CSUs but also provide the ability to monitor and control bandwidth at the application level. The systems also supply monitoring as well as real-time and historical reporting based on LAN and WAN availability, utilization, service quality, and application performance statistics. These reports help the district determine whether service providers are meeting their Service Level Agreements (SLAs). In addition, remote diagnostic and configuration capabilities have eliminated the need for technicians to make unnecessary trips to schools within the far-flung district.
