OSHEAN, The Quilt’s member in Rhode Island, along with many other regional research and education (R&E) networks, is using Broadband Technology Opportunity Program (BTOP) grants to improve infrastructure for the institutions they currently serve and extend these networks to more community anchor institutions (CAIs) in their state. These grants provide only the capital funds to build the networks. For R&E networks, this means not only supporting a greater number of CAIs, but also ensuring these new CAIs are integrated into the community that is the hallmark of these R&E organizations.

On its own, the OSHEAN BTOP project will be a major change agent for its operations, management and governance structure. In addition to implementing its BTOP project, OSHEAN is undergoing a merger with RINET, the state’s K-12 education network. The merger means that the combined organization, RINET and OSHEAN, will serve the majority of Rhode Island’s educational institutions as well as state government sites. The expanded participant base that will be served by OSHEAN through the RINET merger and BTOP project requires disciplined strategic planning, the use of scalable operational processes and sophisticated management tools to improve service delivery, reporting and analytics.

As OSHEAN enters its next exciting chapter, it has sought out its peers within The Quilt for an external review for insight and recommendations for OSHEAN in these new undertakings. For the peer review, organizations were sought who had undergone similar growth and organizational transitions. The result of the external peer review will be a final set of recommendations in the form of a report for OSHEAN and the OSHEAN Board of Directors.

Organized by the Internet Society, World IPv6 Day was held on June 8, 2011 and included nearly 400 participating organizations which enabled IPv6 on their main services for 24 hours. By providing a coordinated 24-hour “test flight”, the event helped demonstrate that major websites around the world are well-positioned for the move to a global IPv6-enabled Internet, enabling its continued exponential growth. Given the diversity of technology that powers the Internet, the global nature of the trial was crucial to identify unforeseen problems.

February 2011 marked the expiration of available IPv4 addresses necessitating the Internet industry to act quickly to accelerate full IPv6 adoption. World IPv6 Day participants came together to help motivate organizations across the industry—Internet service providers, hardware manufacturers, operating system vendors and other web companies-to prepare their services for the transition.

Among the participants in World IPv6 Day were Quilt members KanREN, the Kansas Research and Education Network, and the Great Plains Network.

Kansas Research and Education Network Celebrates World IPv6 Day With Free Services and Community Outreach.
April 28, 2011
The Kansas Research and Education Network, KanREN, Inc., announced free events and services in celebration of World IPv6 Day. The free events and services were offered to all businesses, state agencies, and community anchor institutions within the state of Kansas as part of a worldwide effort to encourage adoption of the next generation of Internet protocol. Full Article.

Great Plains Network Consortium Members Gearing up for World IPv6 Day on June 8
June 7, 2011
As Internet providers like Google prepare for a one-day test of the new Internet Protocol, version 6, on World IPv6 Day on June 8, members of the Great Plains Network, a consortium of leading universities in the Midwest, believe that the inevitable may finally happen. Their support for pervasive and advanced networking in all areas of research, education, health care and learning depends on the successful deployment of this new technology. Full Article.

The Global Network Development and Deployment Initiative Formed to Facilitate Research on New Platforms and Architectures Based on OpenFlow Technology.

By Chandler Harris InformationWeek April 25, 2011
The Internet2 networking consortium, Indiana University, and Stanford University’s Clean Slate Program have launched a research center that will create a new network platform for global scientific research.

The Network Development and Deployment Initiative (NDDI) will create multiple virtual networks that allow network researchers to test and experiment with new Internet protocols and architectures. It will also enable domain scientists to accelerate their active research with collaborators worldwide.

Full Article
http://www.informationweek.com/news/infrastructure/ipv6/229402172