Showing posts with label networkshop networking broadband social-networks fibre. Show all posts
Showing posts with label networkshop networking broadband social-networks fibre. Show all posts

Friday, 17 April 2009

Networkshop 2009 notes

Networkshop 37 - 2009 - University of Cambridge

Previous year held in Cambridge: 1979.

Most sessions were videoed for later Web access

Selected highlights:

Tuesday 31st March 2009

13:45 - 15:30 Plenary Session - West Road Concert Hall

[I can only remember one previous case (recent) when the host vice-chancellor didn't welcome delegates as first speaker.]
13.45 Welcome
Ian Lewis, Head of Computing Service, The University of Cambridge
  • Statistic of 4000km of fibre installed for Granta Backbone Network
  • Network topology and availability are old-style descriptions/concerns. Now that stuff is largely taken for granted and we're moving along the value-added spectrum. E.g. now chart unique users per week on wireless. A transmission service is necessary but not sufficient.
  • Need WebDAV capability to add value, with value reporting.
14.00 Keynote address: The Social Life of Networks
John Naughton, The Open University
  • The arrival of timesharing: MIT, UCam ... replaced the previous fellowship of the bus queue, waiting for paper tape or punched card access for batch processing.
  • The Titan system at UCam [still talked about in 1976] ... there was a wake for it in 1973... a community.
  • Licklider [Wikipedia]: MIT, BBN, early arpanet... then Washington. Organised contracts to CompSci depts concentrating on networking of incompatable mainframes. This led to computer graphics and Xerox PARC...
  • Ideas of human symbiosis; the computer as message processor.
  • Around 1973, at Xerox PARC: EtherNet, HCI etc (mouse) but no follow through. An ARPAnet study in 1973 found 75% traffic was email.
  • SMS took off late 90s, once prepay arrived - matching needs of teens.
  • Social networks & communities
  • Cultural agoraphobia: media/polical fear of innovations...
14.45 JANET Update
Tim Kidd and Jeremy Sharp, JANET
  • 100G Ethernet coming, having done 40G just in time - trial soon.
  • JANET Lightpath moved from SDH to EoMPLS.
  • Carrier Ethernet to be trialled.
  • JANET Talk - analysis of results of trial & market survey.
  • Ultra high-def tv - immersive - surround sound -lots of Gb!
  • GEANT3 starting.
  • Public sector shared services - shared datacentres - HEFCE commission around that - SHED - sector sharing of datacentres.
  • Reprocuring global transit links - market has changed a lot, can get keen prices.
  • 10g link to BBC.
  • Service desk now 0700-0000.
  • vidconf : 3 Tandberg codian MCUs, lots of channels.
  • Netsight 2: now rolling out; has schematic MPAs, can drill down.
  • Reprocuring Eastnet; involved with E2BN.
  • Framework agreements - kit,maint,training, vidconf, routers. Coming: telco f/w.
  • SJ core-reliability, scalability, separability, flexibility, visibility.
  • Poss. increase low-level support for roaming.
  • VfM study coming: benchmark 2009, options, tech trends, delivery model with public body interconnections, security model & compliance.

16:15 - 17:30 Parallel Sessions 1 – Faculty of Law

LG17 Session 1a - Network access

Chair: Mark O’Leary, JANET
16.15 Local loop unbundling - A JANET access technology?
Barry Forde, Lancaster University
16.45 Improving the Security and Management of Wireless LANs
Matthew Gast, Trapeze Networks
17.05 The future of XSupplicant
Chris Hessing, OpenSEA Alliance

LG18 Session 1b - Access management

Chair: Mark Tysom, JANET
16.15 Multiple identities: fully-automated installations of multi-instance Shibboleth IdPs
Steve Holden, University of Brighton
  • Multiple IDs U. brighton/U. sussex, due to shared medical school, all staff belong to both.
  • Project was to develop automated instals of shibboleth on RedHat kickstart packaging to smooth auto-install; cobbler now a better basis
  • apache, 2 separate Tomcats (java), with certs, 2 interfaces, iptables, Template::Toolkit
  • use RH-style directory paths: {sysplace}/{DNS-domain}[.type]
16.40 Shibboleth on Windows experience
Ian Burgess, C2K
  • had flown in specially, returning this eve!
  • C2k in Northern Ireland schools, 330,000+ kids, 80,000 seat network, single Active Direcory.
  • needs ID mgmt - reliable - essential for shibboleth.
  • bespoke a/c provisioning s/w; no manual a/c creation permitted, so quality of data enforced.
  • technology easy! process is more challenging!
  • shibboleth service in DMZ: win2003 R2, digital cert., security & sysmgt s/w.
  • the current shib windows installer has problems: not compat with firewall config - assumes no firewall in between serv & AD DC. DNS config is key.
  • 5 key params need setting then resolver.xml tweaks - but that file still has a plaintext AD account! attribs: eduPersonTargetedID distinct for each serv prov, to allow personalalisation: SID/GUID hashed.
  • They used VMware.
  • Used HA-Shib from spaces.internet2.edu/display/SHIB/Contributions
  • Deployed to load balanced environment - paper in adjacent location to www.ja.net/development/ and look for 'shibboleth on windows'
17.05 Towards Pan-European Federated End-User Services
Josh Howlett, JANET
    Working on normalising trust/key/certificate issues across boundaries

LG19 Session 1c - JANET regional network developments

Chair: Rolly Trice JANET
16.15 The application of Stealthwatch in AbMAN
Michael Forrest, University of Aberdeen
17.00 YHman Lightpath - E2E service support within the Region and beyond
Ed Carter, YHMAN

Session 1d - Exhibitor Session - West Road Concert Hall - Lecture Room 2

16.15 Optical Network Transport Solutions
Dan Rees, MRV Communications
16.50 Reduce network costs and maximize switch port utilisation
Alex Whiteley, Tuscany Networks

Session 1e - Exhibitor Session - West Road Concert Hall - Lecture Room 3

16.15 Reducing the Carbon footprint of your infrastructure
Clive Allen, HP ProCurve
16.50 Making log data useful - University of Westminster Case Study
Mike Baker, IP Performance and Ross Brewer, Logrhythm

17:45 - 18:30 Birds of a Feather Sessions - West Road Concert Hall

A. Security

Chair: Wally Jackson, JANET West Road Concert Hall

B. Access Management

Chair: Mark Tysom, JANET Lecture Room 2

C. VoIP

Chair: Roger Bolam, JANET Lecture Room 3

18:00 - 19:00 Wine Reception and Exhibition – Exhibition Area

Wednesday 1st April 2009

JANET's 25th anniversary was celebrated today in various ways.

09:00 - 10:30 Plenary Session - West Road Concert Hall

Chair: Jeremy Sharp, JANET
09.00 The future of broadcasting - what's next after HDTV?
Richard Salmon, BBC R&D
  • current standard still based on small screens of 1950s.
  • 3D a likely direction - various euro projects.
  • Current HD blurs in live action panning
    - dynamic resolution poor
    - static v dynamic difference leads to blur & nausea
    - interpolate to 120Hz or more to solve
  • high frame rate - 300fps - promising
  • current colour depth is 8bit - use 10bit in in production, 14bit in camera.
09.45 Strengthening Network Access Control with Trusted Computing Hardware
Paul Sangster, OpenSEA Alliance
  • latest network access controls
  • threats more organised - gov, crime...
  • check at point of net access, remediate
  • central mgmt of compliance - policy...
  • Trusted Network Control
  • partial architecture:
    - access requester e.g. 802.1x supplicant
    - policy enforcement point eg switch, AP, firewall
    - policy decision point eg radius server
    - Trusted Platform Module, similar to smarttcard chip, protects keys
    - Platform Trust Service agent measures files/processess -> integrity report and provable execution history

11.15 - 12.30 Parallel Sessions – Faculty of Law

LG17 Session 2a - Green services

Chair: Mark Tysom, JANET
11.15 Building a 21st Century Consolidated, Virtualized, Enterprise IT Infrastructure
Zafar Chaudry, director of Info Mgmt & Tech, Liverpool Woman's Hospital
  • building 21st Century consolidated virtualised enterprise IT infra.
  • £4m IT budget, 1500 employees, Toxteth, is&it tech team of 12
  • staff leave after training eg vmware
  • starting point:
    - server sprawl - desktop PCs
    - no central datacentre
    - netware, groupwise
    - usb as backup for patient data
    - compaq makeshift SAN
    - with so few people, simplify
  • Went to marketplace: dell/emc won tender, with dell, fibrechannel, clariion, dell tapelib, ms, vmware...
  • 96% virtualised inc clinical sys leaving eg usb dongle needs
  • consolidated servs at 8:1
  • 2 sites, 1 vmware vmotion cluster...
  • buy 5y maint up front
  • 1 physical AD Domain Controller, 4 virtual
  • Groupwise - better w.r.t. viruses
  • centera content-addressable storage works with emc file store
  • power usage down 75-80%
  • vmware; tried certification route - 2-3 days training a lot to absorb; instead, bring people in to train staff in doing task
  • problem with culture of dell's vmware subcontractor - caused delay
11.55 Building an institutional wake-on-LAN service to reduce costs and greenhouse gas emissions
Howard Noble and Kang Tang, Oxford University Computing Service
  • jisc low carbon ICT project
  • why comp left on?
  • wake on lan: uses magic packet: 6bytes of ones+16xMAC; most modern motherboards support this
  • free tools avail, not all working!
  • may need Broadcast Forwarding to be set on routers
  • they developed an institutional WoL service, matching their devolved organisation:
    - central server
    - gateway servers locally
    - mandatory registration for participation, using single signon
    - ID by MAC
    - https between servers
    - integrate with WSUS (Win updates) etc
  • local gateways have low hardware requirements
  • discover MAC address from ip
  • also do periodic scan of local network
  • broadcast locally
  • secure communication with central server
  • hourly data feed to central
  • policy aspects: sleep or hibernate modes have pluses and minuses, compared to truly off
  • Low-carbon desktop computing
  • PowerDown: Power-Saving for £0
  • EnergyStar - USA

LG18 Session 2b - Network security

Chair: Andrew Cormack, JANET
11.15 Securing the network: The Uphill Struggle
Alec Edworthy, Loughborough University
11.40 Using Argus and Postgres to analyse network flows for security
David Ford, Oxford University
12.05 The black art of Anti-malware testing
David Harley, ESET LLC

LG19 Session 2c - Network media innovations

Chair: Roger Bolam / Emma Smith JANET
11.15 Multicast and Beyond... (advances in network friendly delivery)
Nick Ruczaj, Inuk Networks Ltd
11.40 IPTV: A Year in Student Television
Gary Parker, Loughborough University
12.05 JANET Videoconferencing Service Developments
Roger Gachago, JANET Videoconferencing Service Centre

Session 2d - Exhibitor Session - Lecture Room 2 - West Road Concert Hall

11.15 Pervasive Wireless in Education
Roger Hockaday, Aruba on behalf of Pervasive Networks
11.55 More than NAC
John Sheedy, Bradford Networks Corporation on behalf of Khipu Networks

Session 2e - Exhibitor Session - Lecture Room 3 - West Road Concert Hall

11.15 P2P File-Sharing & Copyright Infringement: A practical approach to protecting your campus network and reputation
John Brosnan, NetFort Technologies
11.55 Bandwidth, Botnets, Zombies and P2P - The Modern Threats Facing Education Networks
Robert Hale, Wick Hill Ltd

12:45 - 13:45 Birds of a Feather Session - Faculty of Law

D. Videoconferencing

Birds of a Feather Faculty of Law LG17 Chair: Roger Gachago, The University of Edinburgh

E. Netsight

Birds of a Feather Faculty of Law LG18 Chair: Mark Leese, JANET

14:00 - 15:30 Plenary Session - West Road Concert Hall

Chair - Andrew Cormack, JANET
14.00 Research use of JANET
David Salmon, JANET
  • janet lightpath - p2p circuits - about 30 so far - mostly 1Gb - used by 15 projects
  • new lightpath infrastructure nearly ready: - transfer cd 6s at 1Gb - transfer dvd in 40s - there are wrinkles in achieving full speed
  • HEP (High energy physics) - CERN LHC circuits: tier 1 & tier 2 sites for receiving data
  • High End Computing/supercomputers for e.g. QCD, meteorology, neurosurgical imaging (eg brain blood flow simulations)
  • radioastronomy: VLBI - realtime correlation; single radio dish resolution is like just 3x3 pixels for the moon
  • janet traffic data research
  • janet aurora dark fibre for research in photonics and optical networks; needs real, dedicated fibre
  • future: national grid service - NGS3; lightpath links for central services; high-res media; interfaces on campus (rather than at JANET PoPs); topologies for overlay networks.
14.30 Effective Email Spam Control from Traffic Analysis
Richard Clayton, University of Cambridge CompLab
  • he was at Demon
  • big issues for ISPs in filtering outgoing - volume is not good indicator - daily limits ditto - only for consumers: an incorrect sender is not always clear, due to customers with multiple domains (e.g. companies)
  • spam - to duff addresses, so look for failures, especially old addrs, invented addrs
  • analyse outgoing mailserver logs: 'too many' failures to deliver
  • ignore mailing lists
  • technique is good for picking worms - harvest addrs from addr books
  • viruses rarely say SMTP HELO properly (should be sender's true host name)
  • detect mail loops
  • ISP typically:
    cust -> smarthost -> outgoing
    incoming -> sep serv (MX host)
  • very good to separate these streams
  • but difficult to restrict isp's business customers to send via smarthost
  • malware may try to send out via incoming MX host, via MX lookup, so important to block outgoing attempt via incoming host
  • spot SMTP HELO with varying names
  • www.ceas.cc conference papers
  • www.lightbluetouchpaper.org CompLab security research group
  • did study of traffic based on first letter of local part - studied just a compared to z: does candidate addr get any real email in time period - or all spam?
  • conclusion: to get less spam, use z names and/or rare names - ideally unique ones
  • consider separate servers for eg facebook/gmail - forwarded traffic
15.00 Future of UK Broadband Infrastructure
Antony Walker, CEO, Broadband Stakeholder Group
  • they work at the policy level, not technical
  • there has been a window of opportunity, closing about now, for progress
  • 1. understand value of NG broadband: saving time, doing more, doing new things; politicians and regulators seem to have got it
  • 2. monitor demand: iplayer high demand; BBC proj canvas - integrate broadcast & IP tv
  • 3. benchmark for 2012: international comparisons, OECD tables (Portal), WEF work, LECG study
  • UK gov needs to do own study
  • 'Digital Britain': proposal to explore access to other ducts & other infrastructure; OfCOM studied BT ducts - limited use for other operators; H2O & Fibrecity in gas/sewer
  • critical success factors
  • rural??
  • community BB networks doing good stuff
  • assorted regulatory barriers, eg streetworks, non-domestic rating for installed fibre
  • BB universal service committment proposed, not like old Universal Service obligation; 2Mb/s as basic?
  • Virgin Media - DOCSIS 3.0, 48% homes passed, may extend further
  • H2O FTTH Bournemouth + Dundee
  • BT recent FTTC announcement (included Chelmsford); competing with VM & other isps in first wave
  • community-driven projects have proved effective elsewhere

16:15 - 17:30 Parallel Sessions – Faculty of Law

LG17 Session 3a - Network infrastructure

Chair: Rina Samani, JANET
16.15 Deployment in Fibre Duct Solutions and Cable Deployment Techniques
David Parsons, Emtelle
16.40 Cabling – CAT6 vs Cat 5
Simon Lane, University of Southampton
17.05 Managing fibre infrastructure
Adrian Crook, H2O / Fibrecity

LG18 Session 3b - Network monitoring

Chair: Mark Leese, JANET
16.15 JANET Netsight
Mark Leese, JANET
16.40 Evolution of monitoring on EMMAN
John Cheesbrough, EMMAN
17.05 Network Research and the Winds of Change
Andrew Moore, The University of Cambridge

LG19 Session 3c - Network mobility

Chair: Mark O’Leary and Louis Searchwell, JANET
16.15 Mobile IP
Tim Chown, University of Southampton
  • roaming during an IP session?
  • mainly relates to IPv6 (but some IPv4 work included)
  • have same static IP wherever curent location?
  • vendors (eg cisco wism/4400) not interoperable
  • ietf rfc3775
  • MObile Node registers to Home Agent, receives Home Address (HoA)
  • when moves, autoconfigs w/new temporary Care of Address (CoA)
  • Sends Binding Update to HA
  • HA forwards - tunnels - traffic for MN to its CoA
  • Correspondent Node sends to MN's HA, HA acts as proxy for absent MN
  • optimisation: route optimisation: CN learns MN's CoA, sends directly
  • security issues esp BU msgs - spoofed by any
  • 'return routability' test, for CN
  • janet project; case studies: MOUNTAIN RESCUE, COMMUNITY WIRELESS
  • LiveCD for quick linux deployment
  • Loughborough tested SIP variant
  • case of static devicess, forming temp. private net for inter-comm, using mobile techniques
  • issues: EG on a train - many on same moving site - optimise?
  • Mobile Router (MR) - NEMO RFC3963
  • MANET - mobile ad-hoc networks - dev to dev
  • manet/nemo used for mountain rescue
  • cicso mar3200 mobile router
  • no windows support yet
  • Birdstep ipv4 project, included assorted media
16.40 Location, Location, Location Awareness: Rewards and Pitfalls
Keith Mitchell, Lancaster University
  • janet location awareness trials; intelligent apps
  • net security & asset tracking - possible validity
  • RF firewalls
  • 'wlan off' switch eg exam rooms off, surroundings unaffected
  • easy to get locn from AP; otherwise...?
  • granularity of discovered locn?
  • gaming - implementing mixed reality
  • logistics tracking - water rifle converted for tracking trial
  • maps, sightseeing etc - "where's my nearest?" - friend finder
  • Cardiff SOTA report (state-of-art)

  • Lancaster: 300 thin APs; LWAPP controllers; cisco location api - XML/SOAP
  • create RF (geographic) firewall - room-based resolution, not by building or AP
  • attendance registers
  • cisco location appliance had probs, poor api doc, an update messed stuff up... did get dev x,y; associated ssid with time
  • accuracy depends on: qual of map data - walls etc; device type/vendor; aP density;
    => confidence factor
  • if chop connection via LWAPP, clients don't re-associate, so need to restart interface

  • cardiff: custom open source solution for locn
  • cisco wism sends snmp assoc/disassoc traps...
  • results => google maps
    => usage hotspots/times

  • ulster: looked at how to compare vendors, eg with tags on humans
17.05 JANET Roaming Service & Eduroam - an update
Alan Buxey, Loughborough University
  • proxied radius auth system
  • %35 of hei signed up - 105+ sites
  • freeradius used by approx 50%
  • janet roaming now uses google mapping, not just 1 postcode per site
  • remote auth test - pseudo eduroam.ac.uk uni
  • new tech spec, cleaned up
  • freeradius 2.1.3+ tightens security
  • monitor.eduroam.org

Session 3d - Exhibitor Session - West Road Concert Hall Room - Lecture Room 2

16.15 Reducing Costs through Innovation
Paul Phillips and Paul O'Kelly, Extreme Networks
16.50 Next Generation Data Center Implementation at East China University
David Aviv, Radware

Session 3e - Exhibitor Session - West Road Concert Hall - Lecture Room 3

16.15 Importance of IP address management
Chris Marrison, Infoblox
16.50 How to Benefit from a Dedicated Fibre Network
Marcus Dorling and Jon Romano, Geo Networks

17:45 - 18:30 Birds of a Feather Sessions - West Road Concert Hall

E. Network access control, trusted computing and 802.1x

Concert Hall Chair: Mark O’Leary & Josh Howlett, JANET

F. IPTV

Lecture Room 2 Chair: Gary Parker, Loughborough University G. (TBC) Lecture Room 3

18:45 - 19:00 Coach pickups to St John’s College and tour of Cambridge

20:15 Conference Dinner - St. John's College

After Dinner Speaker – Mike Wells

Thursday 2nd April 2009

09:00 - 10:30 Parallel Sessions – Faculty of Law

LG17 Session 4a - Campus Networking

Chair: Roland Trice, JANET
09.00 Making a flat class B network resilient the Lancaster way
Richard du Feu, Lancaster University
09.45 Outsourcing IT services – the networking implications
Lynne Tucker and Miron Plessis, Kings College London & Shirley Wood, JANET

LG18 Session 4b - Networking engineering

Chair: Rina Samani, JANET
09.00 Lightpath re-engineering & 40Gbit/s upgrade work on JANET
Rob Evans & Dave Tinkler, JANET
09.30 Carrier Ethernet
Andy Reid, BT
10.00 The Road to 100Gb/s Optical Networking
David Boyle, Ciena

LG19 Session 4c - Futures: new technologies

Chair: Mark O'Leary JANET
09.00 Rapid Prototyping
Adrian Bowyer, University of Bath
  • Rapid Prototyping: RepRap - the open-source self-copying 3D printer
    [this has recently had a lot of publicity in other contexts, due to its 'third-world' implications]
  • his background: electronics - mech.eng. - computing overlap
  • an exercise in self-replication, self-assembly - arguably a biological phenomenon
  • samuel butler's erewhon - self-assembly, ~10y after 'origin of species'
  • symbiosis - eg. nectar & pollen - or cake, wheat & chickens - or breeding eg dogs
  • this machine: self-replication, symbiosis with people, evolved by breeding
  • basics: fused filament fabrication for rapid prototyping - plastic in wire form heated to form one layer of object at a time
  • rule: all machines to be either self-replicated or cheaply available anywhere in world
  • it is an x,y,z robot, rapid-prototyped
  • java s/w
  • 1st go: make the extrusion head
  • nuts, bolts, washers biggest group of non-plastic components
  • now trying manufacture of electric circuits, using low-melting-point alloy, into plastic grooves - John Sargrove after war had the idea (not followed up!)
  • GNU licence
  • spreading across world, approx 2000 so far
  • evolution - improvements will be on web for all to use
  • old m/cs can make new designs
  • eur 500 = raw materials, + assembly time
  • cost of 1st doesn't matter
  • cf 10-15k for commercial machines
  • bring manufacturing to poorest; make manuf. like agriculture
  • good for recycling, energy costs
  • polylactic acid plastic used - from starch, so biodegadable
  • perfect for v. small runs, specific/niche prods (otherwise uncommercial)
    world market for coat hooks > market for jet engines
  • eg water filter, 20mm diameter
  • cut milk bottle in to strip... becomes source material for eg child's shoes
  • to achieve repro, don't need accuracy or repeatability, just geometric complexity
  • reprap.org - see the World map
09.30 21st Century Learners
John Hickey, Head of HE Engagement, Apple Europe; Peter Scott, The Open University
Please note that this session will not be filmed
  • JH started...
  • Apple's influence on music, computer inteface
  • mobile coverage is c90% world population
  • by 2012 expect 1.5b phones sold, many smartphones
  • student expectations - they now see email and ethernet pre-uni
  • technologists: difficult to answer grandparents' question 'what do you do?'
  • technology is anything that wasn't around when you were born - JH's grandmother
  • tech. is important factor in school selection
  • don't be ID'd as tech guy at wedding - he was sent ALL pics taken at a wedding
  • Ipod is about the interface etc - not the kit and 'doomed to fail'
  • Duke U used them as content delivery
  • now iTunes U: 600 institutions, 18 countries
  • with iPhone, was hard to decide what not to do - to do later instead
  • mobile content categorised as: media, web, native apps (especially no net connectivity needed)
  • eg a uni lecture - delivery capacity considerations, sharing w/other institutions
  • iTunes U is a giant RSS feed; 125,000 items of media, all free - e.g. www.vanderbilt.edu/iphone m.acu.edu m.mit.edu (used open source toolkit; at MIT buildings have just numbers - and are not labelled! included bus real time display) aap.uc.edu/vision2020/attendee/ (all sorts - quick polls...)
  • internet-connected laundry machines - big issue for U.S. students how long till laundry ready / machine is free [shades of the 1st webcam - at UCam CompLab - the world-famous coffee pot]

  • PS, from knowledge media institute of OU
  • OU on bbc tv finished years ago, now cds/dvds ending, all online
  • Moodle is bane of their lives!
  • online vidconf mentoring
  • Second Life student parties; twitter; facebook...
    - he doesn't like Second Life
  • Podcasts; youtube - own channels
  • itunes.open.ac.uk
  • new youtube edu channel
  • itunes has 75m credit cards registered
  • on itunes still own one's own content, unlike youtube
  • no DRM to bother with
  • OU on itunes U: lots of non-students visiting, 88% of visits from outside UK; hosted in amazon cloud; load very spikey, so critical the hosting is someone else's problem
  • kmi.open.ac.uk/projects/microscope Virtual Microscope : rock studying...
  • steeple.org.uk jisc project - best practices around channels, federating content...
  • iCoper.org EU project for best practices
  • stellarnet.eu Network of Excellence
  • apple now has audio menus for ipod nano - the most popular model

11:15- 12:30 Plenary Session - West Road Concert Hall

Chair - Tim Marshall, JANET
11.15 Making super fast broadband a reality for UK plc
Chris Smedley, CEO & Co-founder, Geo
  • Geo came out of Hutchinson; now a strategic partner to JANET
  • speciality: fibre in gas, sewer pipes
  • South Korea Universal Service Obligation: 1Gb by 2012
  • Digital Britain still thinking up to 2Mb
  • FTTC: £5Bn est; FTTH: £30bn
  • opt 1: private sector cherry picks
    opt 2: PPP investment in Next-Gen networks
  • public investment requires proof of market failure, so ICT needs to prove market failure, which is not well defined
  • make cased based on economic impact: regional, local GDP; combat recession
  • fibrespeed in N Wales: market failure proved, no choice/provision; won competitive tender; 15 months to build, £30M, now is infrastructure of choice in area; 14 business parks plus BT exchanges; has brought infrastructure competition to area; there's no direct dealing with retail/businesses, only with service providers, which are mostly new companies founded to use the new infra.; these companies can access passive components, so can act as if they are a telco
  • ISPs see challenge is the spur off main trunks, not FTTC etc.
  • OfCOM still hasn't learned from past - letting BT do own thing
  • Geo uses the Bazalgette tunnels in London (ref. The Great Stink)
  • economic stimulus seems inevitable
  • business rates on fibre infra. seems crazy
  • why should BT open up? force from regulator? BT board determined to stay monolithic, vertically integrated
  • French putting in FTTH at behest of their regulator
12:00 Summing up and Close of Conference
Tim Marshall, JANET
    Kings College outsourcing talk - good example of sharing [possibly refers to this]
Next year: Manchester
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