From ghunt at nrao.edu  Thu Mar  1 14:56:05 2001
From: ghunt at nrao.edu (Gareth Hunt)
Date: Thu, 1 Mar 2001 14:56:05 -0500 (EST)
Subject: [comm] Fyi: VLBA fiber initiatives
Message-ID: <200103011956.OAA12477@polaris.cv.nrao.edu>

For those of you not explicitly included on my list, you are obviously welcome
to attend.  It is unlikely that we will be able to use packet switching at the
rates desired (500Mbps now, 1Gbps soon, 100Gbps? in 10 years), so we may have
to concentrate on the availability of "dark fibers."

Cheers,
Gareth.
------- start of forwarded message (RFC 934 encapsulation) -------
From: Gareth Hunt <ghunt at NRAO.EDU>
To: Leon Abeyta <labeyta at aoc.nrao.edu>, John Benson <jbenson at aoc.nrao.edu>,
        Barry Clark <bclark at aoc.nrao.edu>,
        Mark Claussen <mclaussen at aoc.nrao.edu>,
        Tim Cornwell <tcornwell at aoc.nrao.edu>,
        Vivek Dhawan <vdhawan at aoc.nrao.edu>, Miller Goss <mgoss at aoc.nrao.edu>,
        Jim Jackson <jjackson at aoc.nrao.edu>,
        Peter Napier <pnapier at aoc.nrao.edu>,
        Rick Perley <rperley at aoc.nrao.edu>, John Romney <jromney at aoc.nrao.edu>,
        Ken Sowinski <ksowinski at aoc.nrao.edu>,
        Dick Sramek <dsramek at aoc.nrao.edu>,
        Jim Ulvestad <julvestad at aoc.nrao.edu>,
        Craig Walker <cwalker at aoc.nrao.edu>,
        Ed Childers <echilders at gb.nrao.edu>, Frank Ghigo <fghigo at gb.nrao.edu>,
        Phil Jewell <pjewell at gb.nrao.edu>,
        Mark McKinnon <mmckinnon at gb.nrao.edu>,
        Roger Norrod <rnorrod at gb.nrao.edu>,
        Richard Prestage <rprestage at gb.nrao.edu>,
        Steve White <swhite at gb.nrao.edu>, Gareth Hunt <ghunt at cv.nrao.edu>,
        Ken Kellermann <kkellermann at cv.nrao.edu>,
        Gene Runion <grunion at cv.nrao.edu>, Anton Zensus <azensus at cv.nrao.edu>
CC: Sheila Marks <smarks at cv.nrao.edu>
Subject: VLBA fiber initiatives
Date: Thu, 1 Mar 2001 14:32:14 -0500 (EST)

People,

As previously advertised to some of you, we will hold a brief multi-site
video meeting tomorrow Friday, March 2 at 15:00EST, 13:00MST to review
the status of fiber connectivity for the VLBA.

As Ken K wrote: "Mostly the goal is to replace the various bi-lateral
discussions with a multi-lateral one."

Initially, I had intended this as a small meeting, but we have been
encouraged by the wide interest expressed by both scientific and
engineering staff.  So I have explicitly invited those whom I know to be
directly interested and/or to be involved in related projects.  However,
the meeting is not closed, so please feel free to invite others whom I
may have missed.

Outline agenda:

  NSF/ITR proposal 
  Suggested prototype for Haystack to Green Bank
  Coordination with other organizations (Jive, etc.)
  Contact with vendors
  Future coordination

Cheers,
Gareth.
------- end -------


From ghunt at nrao.edu  Mon Mar  5 18:19:33 2001
From: ghunt at nrao.edu (Gareth Hunt)
Date: Mon, 5 Mar 2001 18:19:33 -0500 (EST)
Subject: [comm] No communications meeting tomorrow
Message-ID: <200103052319.SAA15252@polaris.cv.nrao.edu>

Guys,

Reminder: meetings will be held as needed.  I will circulate an agenda as
          necessary.

a) Gene and I expected another response from AT&T last Friday.  However, we
   didn't get one, so I don't have anything that we need to discuss.

b) Ed will probably be snowed in (out?) tomorrow anyway.

c) Ed will be in CV later this week to familiarize himself with the intranet
   layout with Tracy and Gene.

See you next week.

Cheers,
Gareth.


From ghunt at nrao.edu  Tue Mar 13 09:51:46 2001
From: ghunt at nrao.edu (Gareth Hunt)
Date: Tue, 13 Mar 2001 09:51:46 -0500 (EST)
Subject: [comm] No communications meeting today
Message-ID: <200103131451.JAA14420@polaris.cv.nrao.edu>

Guys,

Reminder: meetings will be held as needed.  I will circulate an agenda as
          necessary.

I think that there is no need for a face-to-face meeting today.  

There has, however, been significant movement on the intranet front.  We
did indeed get an updated quote from GRCI (AT&T) in response to some
questions that Gene and I had.

  The bad news is that the quote is actually higher than the previous
  quote.  Primarily, this is because of an increase in what they now
  want to charge us for the St. Croix link.

  The good news is that the business office has agreed that we should go
  ahead and accept this quote.  If everything goes according to plan, we
  will issue a contract to the Department of the Interior to manage this
  contract on our behalf until Feb 28 2002.

When is this all going to happen?  Good question.  We were party to an
amazing exchange between our business office and the DoI contract
office.  It seems that they can indeed accept an NRAO purchase order.
The only remaining issue is that DoI requires that they have a PO for
the amount for the entire contract period.  So we have to get approval
from the NSF to place the order, since the total is over $100,000.  (Of
course, in the past, the service was billed monthly by AT&T, so there
was no need for such approval. <sigh>)  I have provided text to Bill
Porter to use for the justification.  This may take a couple of weeks.
So to answer the question: at the beginning of April if all goes well.

Now I have to say that this is *supposed* to transition without a hitch.
However, Gene's experience is that no transition, however apparently
simple, goes smoothly.  So please be prepared for some "unexpected"
network outages at the beginning of April.  We will keep you informed of
progress.

Cheers,
Gareth.


From ghunt at nrao.edu  Mon Mar 19 23:45:02 2001
From: ghunt at nrao.edu (Gareth Hunt)
Date: Mon, 19 Mar 2001 23:45:02 -0500 (EST)
Subject: [comm] No communications meeting today + news
Message-ID: <200103200445.XAA26160@polaris.cv.nrao.edu>

Guys,

Reminder: meetings will be held as needed.  I will circulate an agenda
          as necessary.

I will be in DC at an FTS2001 meeting today and Gene is away for family
reasons, so I propose that we again have no face-to-face meeting today.

Some news.

Nothing much has changed on the intranet situation.  The progress is
that the letter has actually been written and sent to the NSF over Jim
Desmond's signature.

The big news is that a new position has been approved in the Data
Management group.  This is for a communications engineer/administrator.
I constructed a first draft and I will circulate it to this group for
comment when I get back.

Cheers,
Gareth.


From ghunt at nrao.edu  Tue Mar 27 10:30:09 2001
From: ghunt at nrao.edu (Gareth Hunt)
Date: Tue, 27 Mar 2001 10:30:09 -0500 (EST)
Subject: [comm] No communications meeting today
Message-ID: <200103271530.KAA18871@polaris.cv.nrao.edu>

Guys,

Reminder: We will meet on Tuesdays at 10:30 EST (8:30 MST) via video.
          Meetings will be held as needed.

Gene and I are otherwise occupied this morning.  Tracy is out sick.  So no meeting
face to face.  Sorry for the late notice.  I will send a brief update later.

Cheers,
Gareth.