20040422:Level II second tier responsibilities

Hi Matt,

On Wed, 21 Apr 2004, Matthew Huber wrote:

> I believe a number of potential meteorology colleges and
> universities do not have I2 connectivity (or it isn't
> very good).


True, as mentioned earlier they would not be considered to be second tier
relay nodes in the IDD.

Also, if you are interested, there are over 200 I2 sites currently.

See:

http://www.internet2.edu/

and for Abilene

http://abilene.internet2.edu/
http://abilene.internet2.edu/community/participants/list.html

> It would helpful to know what the actual, factual criteria are for a
> second tier connection rather than playing twenty questions.

We've included the original RFP as a reference for the criteria we list
below.

  _____________
  Call for Participation from Academic Community in WSR-88D* Level II**
  Data Distribution

  The National Weather Service (NWS) has adopted Unidata's Local Data
  Manager (LDM)  technology to distribute Level II data using
  Internet2/Abilene to satisfy NWS requirements, including the delivery of
  Level II data to National Centers for Environmental Prediction and
  National Climatic Data Center.  The use of Internet 2/Abilene presents an
  opportunity for academic institutions to receive the data in the same
  manner in which they receive other data sets currently provided via LDM
  and Internet Data Distribution (IDD).  This call for participation is to
  inform the academic community of this activity and to solicit responses
  from institutions interested in being top-level relay node in the
  redistribution of the Level II data to:


  1)    University community free of charge and in an unrestricted manner; and
  2)    Private sector with only cost recovery


  It is expected that academic institutions that are selected to provide
  top-level service will enter into a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with
  the NWS.  The MOA will stipulate unrestricted redistribution and usage
  rights and not-for-profit cost recovery when distributing data
  (non-value added) to private sector customers.  The large volume,
  importance, and time criticality of the data necessitates stringent
  criteria in the selection of top-level relay nodes.  Due to network
  bandwidth constraints and NWS requirements, the opportunity to become a
  top level relay node is limited to one or two sites that can provide a
  sustained commitment to distribute the data to the academic and the
  private sector communities.  It is expected that sites will send data to
  approximately four second-tier Unidata member universities at no charge.

  The following list represents the minimum requirements the NWS is
  seeking for top level relay sites:

  --    Receive and relay data from all 132 and possible expansion to over 140
        participating radars
  --    Knowledge of Level II data format and use
  --    At least an Internet2 connection
  --    Capability for large product queue (> 2 GB) support in LDM
  --    Bandwidth to deal with projected volume of data by year 2005:
        o       minimum incoming bandwidth=80 Mb/second
        o       minimum outgoing bandwidth=400 Mb/second (based on four
                downstream sites)
  --    Access to commodity Internet to serve the private sector
  --    24x7 operations support highly desired, but not required
  --    UPS/power generation facilities and redundant disk arrays (RAID systems)
  --    Willingness to upgrade equipment if necessary
  --    Use of Unidata supported or approved platforms
  --    Willingness to upgrade LDM software when needed
  --    Staffed by Unidata workshop trained professionals or those with
        strong working knowledge of LDM software
  --    Working knowledge of Unix or one of its variants such as Linux
  --    Over 95% data distribution reliability, uptime, and  availability
  --    Provide LDM statistics

  Final decision on top-level relay site selection will be made by the
  Unidata Program Center, based on the requirements of the stakeholders
  and in consultation with the National Weather Service.

  Replies should be sent to the email address below by close of business
  on December 22, 2003.  Top level relay sites will be expected to have
  the MOA signed with the NWS and be ready for operation by January 31,
  2004.


The intent of the RFP requirements are:

1) Top level redistribution nodes will relay the full level II stream to
   approximately four second tier Unidata member universities at no charge.
   The desire is to propagate the data over I2, at least at this level.


2) The second tier Unidata member universities must be able to receive the
   full volume of the level II feed, and relay all or some subset of
   the feed to other Unidata member universities (that may or may not be
   connected to I2) at no charge and they may, in turn, relay the data to
   other Unidata member universities at no charge. This is the working
   structure of the Unidata IDD.

   Since the second tier sites will be receiving the full level II
   stream they should have the following capabilities:


   --    At least an Internet2 connection to allow feeding Unidata member
         universities who have I2 connections
   --    Access to commodity Internet to serve Unidata member universities
         not on I2
   --    Capability for large product queue (> 2 GB) support in LDM
   --    Bandwidth to deal with projected volume of data by year 2005:
                * minimum incoming bandwidth=80 Mb/second
   --    Use of Unidata supported or approved platforms
   --    Willingness to upgrade LDM software when needed
   --    Working knowledge of Unix or one of its variants such as Linux
   --    Provide LDM statistics to Unidata
   --    Provide best effort for uninterrupted service to downstream sites

   This is what is expected from all IDD relay sites.

Please let us know if we can clarify further, or if you have other
questions.

>>> I'll have John Jackson who is handling some of the server technology
>>> tasks give you a call.
>>> -m

Sounds good, we look forward to talking with John.

Cheers,

Jeff
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Jeff Weber                                    address@hidden        :
Unidata Program Center                        PH:303-497-8676        :
University Corp for Atmospheric Research      3300 Mitchell Ln       :
http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/staff/jweber      Boulder,Co 80307-3000  :
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