[comm]2001Nov8 Qwest meeting notes

[Gene Runion]

Qwest Meeting Notes
Date: 2001 Nov 8
Time: 10:30
Place: Qwest Office
       8180 Greensboro Drive, Suite 400
       McLean VA

Participants
  Qwest:
    Haris Boota
    Major Account Executive, Northeast Region
    703-744-5051
    haris.boota at qwest.com

    Steven Gallagher
    Sales Engineering Specialist
    703-744-5024
    steve.gallagher at qwest.com

  NRAO:
    Gene Runion
    Tracy Effland

Purpose:
  This meeting served two purposes.  First we wanted to establish an
avenue of communications with Qwest for exploring the feasibility of
connecting the VLBA sites together for real time operation.  The second
item discussed was our current intranet.

Notes:
  As a starting point Gene Runion gave an overview of NRAO and the VLBA
instrument by presenting Gareth Hunt's "VLBA Direct Data Connection"
slides dated 3 Arp 2001.

  Qwest said they their backbone operates over OC192 links and their
typical city loops are OC48.  They currently have eight OC192 wave lengths
over one fiber light.  Qwest backbone was built along railroad right-aways
in the mid 1990s.  After they had their backbone in place they acquired US
West for local access.

  Qwest indicated that their backbone could easily accommodate our data
requirements.  The problem would be provisioning fiber to their network.
Qwest mentioned that they currently support networks with very high data
requirements but none with as many nodes that we require.  Qwest was most
willing to engineer the network and provide pricing.  A target date of
February was set for the preliminary engineering and pricing.

  As a separate project Qwest will provide pricing to replace our existing
frame relay network.  Gene Runion gave a requirement of T1 access to all
the VLBA stations and T3 access to CV, GB, AOC, & TUC.  Their solution
would provide VPN connections between sites with guaranteed SLA, each site
would have their own internet connection and Qwest would provide
firewalling.  They will be able to provide pricing for this with 45 days.
(I realize that the T1 and T3 access may be not be within our budget,
but we do need to  know these types of costs).