Wireless Access Services in the ITFS Spectrum Presentation to the UTFAB Tuesday, March 22, 2005 Scott Baily, Associate Director for Networking, [email protected],

Wireless Access Services in the ITFS Spectrum

Presentation to the UTFABTuesday, March 22, 2005

Scott Baily, Associate Director for Networking, [email protected],

491-7655

UTFAB - 03/22/2005

ITFS Proposal 2

Outline Overview of this proposal History of ITFS services

ITFS spectrum – the “gold” standard Project description

NextNet deployment Business model

With support description and a 3-yr. plan Other solutions Funding request Summary

Overview of this Proposal

UTFAB - 03/22/2005

ITFS Proposal 4

Project Elements Offer high-speed wireless access to CSU clientele

In CSU’s ITFS spectrum that is regulated and protected by the FCC

To complement the modem pool that is waning Speeds of 128 kbps “up” and 768 kbps “down” Asymmetric to optimize use of the spectrum In response to years of requests for higher speeds

“Non-line of sight” (NLOS) Indoor unit “reach” of about 1 ½ miles Outdoor unit “reach” of 5-6 miles

Target $30/month, compared to Comcast $40-45/month Expand the system as budget allows

Dependent somewhat on the customer base Can expand by sectorizing the antenna, or Can expand by adding antennas

Foothills campus, VTH campus, and other areas, even Loveland, …

UTFAB - 03/22/2005

ITFS Proposal 5

Advantages Lower cost than Comcast and Qwest DSL “Behind” CSU IT security systems, filtering,

firewalls CSU IP addresses (for library use and database

access) Direct access to CSU IT resources Access to ultrahigh-speed networks through

CSU Internet2 and National Lambda Rail

Could “reach” where DSL and Comcast cannot

UTFAB - 03/22/2005

ITFS Proposal 6

Funding Request

Best estimate now is start-up costs of $200k $100K for “Head End” $100K for subscriber units

Have $160k from the modem pool charge-back Need $40k to get started As subscribers join over time, will expand to

meet demand as funding permits

History of ITFS Services

UTFAB - 03/22/2005

ITFS Proposal 8

History of the ITFS Spectrum

FCC licensed the ITFS spectrum (2.5–2.69 GHz) to educational institutions in the 1980’s Institutions could lease their licensed spectrum

to the private sector, for example for broadcast TV

Requirement that 5% of the spectrum be used for educational purposes (typically, one channel – analogous to Channel 25 on Comcast)

Heavily used for education in many major metropolitan areas, especially by Catholic Dioceses on the east coast and in Chicago

Repurposed by the FCC in 2000 for 2-way (wireless Internet)

UTFAB - 03/22/2005

ITFS Proposal 9

CSU’s ITFS Spectrum CSU is licensed for the G channels in the Fort

Collins area under lead callsign of WNC612 In the mid 1980’s, CSU leased this to Choice

TV, that operated it for 20+ channels of broadcast TV, with one channel for educational use (same as channel 25 on Comcast)

Choice TV was purchased by Sprint in 2000 Sprint offered “peanuts” to license it for 2 way,

e.g. pennies per subscriber per month Our lease with Sprint expires April 11, 2005

UTFAB - 03/22/2005

ITFS Proposal 10

ITFS Spectrum – the “Gold” Standard

ITFS spectrum is “prime real estate” in terms of spectrum (see next page)

Best balance between carrying capacity and penetration

Over the past several years, private sector mega corporations “took a run” at getting the ITFS Spectrum

Lobbied with the FCC to repossess it and auction it Successfully rebuffed by educational lobbying efforts

(we had “the Catholics” on our side) Non-interference is guaranteed, but must file an

engineering plan and obtain the FCC’s approval The plan must specify equipment brand, model,

configuration and power

UTFAB - 03/22/2005

ITFS Proposal 11

ITFS Characteristics

CarryingCapacity

Penetration

OverallThroughput

Frequency, GhzITFS

Project Description

UTFAB - 03/22/2005

ITFS Proposal 13

1 mi.

2 mi.

N

UTFAB - 03/22/2005

ITFS Proposal 14

Architecture Head end

Install a single sector (360o) antenna on one of the towers

Link to a base unit that outputs Ethernet Transport to campus backbone in E7

Subscriber side 10/100 Ethernet output Indoor unit – place inside residence wherever the

signal is acceptable, range: ~1 ½ miles Outdoor unit – place on a pole and orient it toward the

head end, range: ~5-6 miles Can use a $50 router to establish a LAN, just as for

Comcast or Qwest

UTFAB - 03/22/2005

ITFS Proposal 15

NextNet Solution Proprietary technology, but works very well in

NLOS mode Good coverage, very good penetration, very robust,

and adaptable as the FCC changes the spectrum use Total cost to get going is $200k, with 330

subscriber units Purported to serve ~330 simultaneous users Can purchase additional subscriber units to meet

demand Currently, the “best” technical solution,

according to the ITFS consortium Other solutions are emerging

UTFAB - 03/22/2005

ITFS Proposal 16

Support The system would be operated,

managed and supported by the networking staff in ACNS

User support Tier 1 support, the ACNS help desk Tier 2 support, ACNS networking staff Tier 3 support, the vendor

Business Model

UTFAB - 03/22/2005

ITFS Proposal 18

Business Strategy Strategy – “get going” and grow as revenue allows Use one-time funds to pay for the first installation Use subscription fees to

Pay minimal recurring costs Accumulate capital for expansion

Can sectorize or add another single-sector site (e.g. Foothills campus, VTH complex, even Loveland where we could obtain a fiber path)

Expand over time, as revenue allows, to meet additional demand

UTFAB - 03/22/2005

ITFS Proposal 19

The Contention Ratio The Contention Ratio, C

C = “sold capacity”/”equipment capacity” Is a critical variable in a business plan

Always > 1 because not everyone uses the resource at the same time, and even when the resource is heavily used, the traffic is bursty with “holes” that can be filled in

Depends on capacity control (on the head end), user profiles (user access profile, user traffic profile)

For the modem pool, C = 10-12 works fine We think C for ITFS will be between 2 and 4

UTFAB - 03/22/2005

ITFS Proposal 20

Modem Pool Trends May 1997 : 9,400 subscribers

8,000 were students (85%) February 2005 : 2,500 subscribers

1,000 are students (40%) Potential clientele exists Modems no longer meet remote

access requirements, especially for students

UTFAB - 03/22/2005

ITFS Proposal 21

Ramp Up “Ramp up” characterizes the

growth in number of subscribers over time Is also a critical variable in a business

plan If ramp up is quick, then accumulation of

capital is rapid, and expansion is expeditious

UTFAB - 03/22/2005

ITFS Proposal 22

Subscriber Costs One-time connection fee of $50 Monthly subscription cost - $30/month

Extra $2/month for an outdoor unit Subscriber units

CSU owns, and the monthly subscription fee includes leasing the subscriber unit, “You break it, you buy it,” or

Customer can purchase Customer does the installation

Can contract with Telecom for installation, either indoor or outdoor

Full refund if the customer can not get the system to work within two weeks, and a working subscriber unit is returned

UTFAB - 03/22/2005

ITFS Proposal 23

NextNet Simple Payback, Yrs.

C =

1 2 3

Head End 3 2 1

UTFAB - 03/22/2005

ITFS Proposal 24

3-Year Plan FY 06

Deploy initial system Performance tuning, monitoring, robustness

FY 07 Climb the “growth curve” Expand system

FY 08 Expand the system more by either

sectorization (120o, 90o, or 60o) and/or installation of additional system and antenna

Other Solutions

UTFAB - 03/22/2005

ITFS Proposal 26

Other Hardware Sprint

They will sell us the equipment they use for ITFS (they are the largest lessee) at their deeply discounted, wholesale cost

We will lease back to them the excess capacity for their mobile users

Fills the “ramp-up” hole We are to meet with Sprint to get more

details on Wednesday, March 23, 2005

Funding Request

UTFAB - 03/22/2005

ITFS Proposal 28

The “Split” of Costs Modem pool $160k (80%) UTF $40k (20%) Total $200k

UTFAB - 03/22/2005

ITFS Proposal 29

Funding Leverage Ratio Monthly savings potential (C=2):

$10/month/subscriber x 600 subscribers = $6,000 per month

Simple payback of $40k in < 7 months

In 3 years, leverage ratio = $216k/$40k = 5.4:1

UTFAB - 03/22/2005

ITFS Proposal 30

Total Savings Over Time

0

100000

200000

300000

400000

500000

600000

700000

800000

900000

1 2 3

Year

$ /

Yea

r C=4

C=3

C=2

Analysis

UTFAB - 03/22/2005

ITFS Proposal 32

Considerations (cont’d) This would meet the pent-up demand

for CSU access at higher speeds than modems can provide

This is a “moderate risk, high gain” proposition As UTFAB, you should deliberately manage

your portfolio of risks Recall that for every $1 of UTFAB funding,

the modem pool would be contributing $4, so the risk is mitigated

UTFAB - 03/22/2005

ITFS Proposal 33

Considerations We have used NextNet budget numbers – all

we have now for what we believe is a good technical solution

Sprint may yield lower costs This would allow faster expansion, or Allow getting started with a larger system

Both options will be fully explored with a target toward deployment in FY 06

We know of no other way to get going to use this extremely valuable spectrum to meet the demand of CSU residential users

Summary

UTFAB - 03/22/2005

ITFS Proposal 35

UTFAB Funding Criteria1. Benefit as many students as possible

Would benefit more with future growth.

2. Ability to effectively utilize the fee

Your decision.

3. Not funded by CFT Check.

4. Adherence to budget and accountability

Your decision.

5. Potential for direct student use

Absolutely.

6. Effort and thought reflected in the plan

Your decision.

7. Justification and clarity of project plan

Your decision.

UTFAB - 03/22/2005

ITFS Proposal 36

Discussion and questions

Are most welcome