Quilt News

Overview

One of the goals of The Quilt is to provide advanced network services at a lower cost. Toward this goal, the coalition of Quilt members and Authorized Quilt Buyers purchase Commodity Internet Services (CIS) through several approved CIS providers who participate in the program.

Quilt Community collectively purchases 220 Gbps of committed commodity bandwidth from Quilt approved providers established from The Quilt's 6th RFP effort in 2010.

The Quilt's Commodity Internet Service RFP Process

Through the RFP process, our goal is to identify those providers who, through their IP transit Internet service offerings, are willing and able to be partners in the delivery and development of our research and education networks through the United States. We will look to our approved commodity Internet services providers for pricing discounts appropriate to our levels of bandwidth consumption. We seek provider partners who are not only able to provide the best value, but are also at the forefront of technology and are willing to work closely with Quilt members to develop and expand technology beyond that of a standard provider-customer relationship.

The Quilt's 2012 Commodity RFP Information

2012 CIS RFP Documents

The three components of the RFP are available below as of January 9, 2012:

1. 1. Letter from the President and CEO with CIS RFP Overview Document (PDF)
   2. CIS RFP Essay (MS Word)
   3. Quilt Participant PoP Locations (MS Excel)

Summary of The Quilt's CIS RFP Question and Answer Sessions - January 31, 2012 & February 1, 2012

1. Q: Will the RFP Response deadline be extended?
   A: At this time we will not be extending the deadline. We will monitor the responses and feedback from participants and communicate if there are any changes to the February 17, 2012 deadline.
2. Q: Today the number of Authorized Quilt Providers is 7. Will there be 7 or more providers going forward?
   A: No, there is no set number or quota for the number of Authorized Quilt Providers selected out of the RFP effort.
3. Q: Will the Quilt make available the Master Service Agreements with its current list of Providers?
   A: Within the contents of RFP overview document, there is a sample master service agreement. This provides an idea of what the current provider agreements look like. The details of the executed agreements with the current Authorized Quilt Providers will not be made available.
4. Q: How long is the term for the purchase contract?
   A: The term of the contract is for one year. If there is a change during that time, or a further discount beyond the MSA price is offered to a buyer, than all other Authorized Quilt Buyers will be offered that same price. Please see the top of page 7 under Some Common Questions About Being an Authorized Quilt Provider in the Overview Document
5. Q: Who manages the Authorized Quilt Buyers List?
   A: It is managed by Quilt staff on behalf of Quilt Members. There are over 250 educational institutions listed on our current Authorized Quilt Buyers list. As updates are made to this list, our Authorized Quilt Providers receive an updated copy.
6. Q: What are the requirements in becoming a Quilt Authorized Buyer particularly in how it relates to the providers ultimate risk in controlling the list so it doesn’t become a market rate?
   A: Quilt Members serve educational and research institutions within a given geographic territory. Because they have specific connected institutions to their network, those institutions may show up as part of the AQB list. It is intended for educational institutions and other non-profit s that are similarly missioned in support of education and research.
7. Q: It is stated in the RFP documents that The Quilt doesn’t make any volume commitment as part of the RFP process. Is this still the case?
   A: Yes, it is still the case today. The Quilt makes no volume commitment as part of the RFP process.
8. Q: How does The Quilt assist an Authorized Quilt Provider in marketing to the Authorized Quilt Buyers?
   A: Once the MSA is signed, the Quilt creates a webpage for the provider on the private side of the Quilt Website. Provider announcements are distributed as available to Quilt members. Typically our Quilt member meeting that is held after the completion of the Master Service Agreements, providers are invited to sponsor a dinner event to meet with members and distribute marketing material as desired. The Quilt’s provider liaison acts as a communication conduit and point of contact for provider support as well. The best outreach to our members comes through the opportunity to announce that bandwidth has grown to a point that a new pricing tier has been reached.
9. Q: Does this bid support a “not to exceed” type pricing?
   A: While not explicitly laid out as a not to exceed price in the RFP documents, it is the expectation that all institutions listed on the Authorized Quilt Buyers list receive the same price per meg contract price as part of the program contract.
10. Q: How does a vendor show access pricing since demarcation locations are unknown?
    A: Within the RFP documents there is a PoP spreadsheet. We do not as for specific pricing, but do ask for information on what additional types of charges would apply at a specific location, i.e. cross-connects fees and backhaul charges.
11. Q: For organizations or institutions with a pre-existing contract in place with a provider ahead of that provider’s selection to the program, how will prior contracts for Authorized Quilt Buyers transition over under a new MSA?
    A: Once a provider is selected to be a part of our CIS program as an Authorized Provider, The Quilt liaison will work directly with the provider to help negotiate the most appropriate transition for these contracts on an individual case basis. This transition will depend on the individual terms of an impacted contract.
12. Q: To what extent are customers buying theses services co-located at large carrier neutral facilities?
    A: It is our best assessment that there is about an even split between customers located at carrier neutral facilities and customers located in other locations.
13. Q: Are the Q&A calls the only venue for questions?
    A: For further questions, you make contact Cas D’Angelo who is chair of this year’s RFP effort. Contact information is available in the RFP documents. To the extent possible, responses will be provided to these questions. Further, these questions will be generalized and posted to this list so others will have the opportunity to view.
14. Q: Can you please provide us a with the E911 address for the following location:
         Computer and Space Sciences Bldg 224,
         University of Maryland
         Room 0312A (old building),
         College Park, MD 20742"
         According to the Google maps, I show it on Stadium Drive, but if you could please verify the address.
    A: Bldg 224 is on Stadium Drive. We do not have street numbers for locations on campus.
15. Q: When notifying the members of the group on the vendor page that a new file has been uploaded, will the files be private when the "All of the Quilt" box is checked?
    A: Yes - When you choose "All of the Quilt" it is referring to the people listed on that particular private vendor page.

Where & When to Submit your CIS RFP, and Quilt Contact

Items 2 and 3 along with any materials requested in these documents must be completed and returned to the Quilt by February 17, 2012 by 11:59 pm Eastern Time. This set of materials will comprise a vendor's response to this RFP. All RFP submissions are to be uploaded by the Provider to an individual and secure Provider Page maintained by The Quilt through its Basecamp hub. Access information and submission hub use instructions will be forwarded under separate cover to individual respondents upon receipt of a non-binding Letter of Intent to Respond. If you did not receive the hub instructions or your password information, please contact Jennifer Griffin at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

RFP Documents must be in a .pdf or Microsoft Office software format. This is the only format in which RFP documents will be accepted.

If you have any questions regarding the documents or RFP process, please contact Cas D'Angelo at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or (404) 894-1356.

New Quilt Executive Committee Members
Tuesday, January 31, 2012

The Quilt Board of Directors recently completed its annual election for The Quilt Executive Committee. The Quilt is pleased to announce three new members will join the Committee as of 2012 for two-year terms: Don Welch, president and CEO, Merit Network; Veronica Sarjeant, Chief Operating Officer, Florida LambdaRail; and Claude Garelik, System IT Security Officer, South Dakota Board of Regents and Chairman of the Board for Great Plains Network. The nine-member Executive Committee provides ongoing oversight of Quilt affairs as delegated by the full Board.

The Board also completed its officer elections for 2012. Garelik was elected to the office of Vice Chairman for 2012. In accordance with Quilt bylaws, the 2011 Vice Chairman, Wendy Huntoon, Director of Networking at the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center who manages the Three Rivers Optical Exchange (3ROX), was elected to the Chair position for this year. Wendy replaces James Deaton, Chief Technology Officer of OneNet . Mike Phillips, Executive Director of LEARN, was re-elected to the office of Treasurer.

“As a member-powered organization, The Quilt is very fortunate to have not only a tremendous breadth of talent among our members but also a strong commitment to go above and beyond in contributing their leadership to the support of advanced regional networking for research and education,” said Jen Leasure, Quilt president and CEO. “I congratulate the new Executive Committee members and officers on their election and look forward to another highly productive year of working together.”

About The Quilt

The Quilt is the national coalition of advanced regional networks for research and education, representing 28 networks across the country. Participants in The Quilt provide advanced network services and applications to over 200 universities and thousands of other educational institutions.

The Quilt TelePresence Workshops

Following on to the success of its previous workshops. The Quilt TelePresence Working Group decided to host another workshop in October focusing on trends in the video conferencing for the research and education community.  With the new technology and focus on interoperability in the video conference space, the working group found it difficult to narrow the topics for the workshop to fit into a single session.  Rather than eliminate key topics, the decision was made to spread the program across two half day sessions instead.  Forty six individuals spanning 15 states joined the two interactive sessions with a choice of joining either by video through sites connected through the R&E TelePresence Exchange or by WebEx.   

The first of the two workshops focused on networking to support video.  The program began with an excellent presentation by Ira Weinstein from Wainhouse Research providing workshop participants with a fast-paced and valuable overview of the current video marketplace.  Other workshop topics included an informative presentation from a K-12 school district in Arizona on its use of specific collaborative suite integrations such as WebEx and Google Talk.  Nick Ciesinski from the University of Wisconsin - Whitewater shared his experiences with interoperable point to point dialing plans.  Another highlight of the event was a presentation from Tim Poe of MCNC on various marketplace options to consider to keep down the costs of managing video ports.    

Our second workshop titled "Campus Delivery of Video" opened with a presentation from Mike Cardoza at Harvard University sharing his experience managing everyday campus requests for interoperable video sessions.  Several examples of new ideas for immersive video conferencing in classrooms and collaborative spaces were shared from Indiana University, Eastern Central Board of Cooperative Education in BOCES  ad the Utah Education Network. A full listing of the workshop agendas and presentations are available at:

Telepresence Workshop 2011

The Quilt Fall Member Meeting - Portland, OR

Portland, Oregon was the gathering site of over 50 individuals from Quilt member organizations and Quilt community partners for our Fall 2011 Member Meeting. We wish thank David Crowe and the Oregon GigaPoP for hosting our event at the University of Oregon - Portland campus in the recently renovated White Stag Block.  

Highlights from the member meeting include a BTOP Breakfast which was a roundtable discussion of updates from regional networks involved in BTOP infrastructure projects. Another program highlight was a panel of members speaking about the impact of the Quilt Peer Review Service on their organization and the value of the process in supporting our membership organizations in times of change.  Several Quilt members also shared brief updates on strategies to connect additional community anchor institutions in their states and opportunities for new "above the net" service offerings. 

Presentations about the efforts of research and education networks to deploy facilities capable of supporting 100G traffic flows was another key part of the program.  This topic was addressed by the meeting's guest speaker, Steve Cotter from ESnet, and also Quilt member organizations who shared their experiences  deploying 100G capable networks as part of the grants each received from the National Science Foundation's ARI program.   

Our member meetings always provide a forum for great discussions, idea generation and an opportunity to share news on individual member projects.  Thank you to all who joined us in Portland for the insightful discussions and informative presentations.  For those interested, presentations from the meeting are available here.  

We look forward to seeing everyone again at our Winter Meeting in February 2012.  

KINBER Joins Quilt as Associate Member

The Quilt is pleased to welcome KINBER (the Keystone Initiative for Network Based Education and Research) as its newest Associate Member.  Member based organization comprised of major institutions in the Commonwealth. KINBER will serve as the coordinator for the construction and management of a state-wide fiber optic network accessible to a host of educational, research, health care and economic development partners. KINBER's mission is to serve Pennsylvania through the establishment and sustainment of a high-speed research and education network, PennREN, which will connect Pennsylvania institutions of higher learning with K-12 programs to advance the education, health care, work force development and training programs across the Commonwealth.  KINBER is a member based organization comprised of major institutions in the Commonwealth. KINBER is overseen by a member-based Board of Directors. KINBER is the recipient of a Federal NTIA BTOP grant of $99.7 million to implement PennREN, the first major initiative launched by KINBER. KINBER is a 501(c)3 non-profit Pennsylvania corporation.

The Quilt looks forward to supporting Jeff Reel and the KINBER team in these initial stages of building the PennREN network.  

20+ BTOP Grants for Quilt Community

Quilt participants or their members were involved in 20 successful funding grants under the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP) over the past year or two. And many more BTOP grants received funding thanks to technical expertise and support provided by Quilt participants. This impressive result testifies to the critical role regional networks and their “middle mile” fiber routes play in realizing the goal of the National Broadband Plan that every American community should have affordable access to at least 1 gigabit per second (Gbps) broadband service.

These new BTOP funds will enable regional networks to improve existing broadband infrastructure to currently connected community anchor institutions and to extend their networks to reach more institutions within their own geographic area. And with lower fiber acquisition costs, regionals will be able to serve additional community anchors at only the incremental costs of reaching them.

Perhaps just as significantly, these new BTOP grants provide the opportunity for new conversations between regional networks and new partners, or to revive conversations with existing partners, and to think of private/public partnerships in entirely new ways to achieve improved broadband to a growing number of participants who are becoming part of these networking communities.

For a directory of BTOP awards received by regional networks, see: 

Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP)

Archive

"The Obama Effect" Chronicle on Higher Education, Wired Edition—An article about Jen Leasure's presentation at the Internet2 2009 Spring Meeting—April 30, 2009

The Quilt Announces Jen Leasure as The Organization's First President and CEO—February 1, 2009

"20+ BTOP Grants for Quilt Community"