ITL Solicitation - Phase 1, Round 2 (Spring 2000)

Below is the formal ITL solicitation for ITL Phase 1, Round 2.

Background

In 1998, CAIDA (Cooperative Association for Internet Data Analysis) initiated efforts to establish an Internet Engineering Curriculum (IEC) repository for teaching materials from University courses, vendor training materials, tutorials, etc. The repository, funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and participating CAIDA members, provides a dynamic source of current, relevant materials that can be used by University faculty and others in designing or updating networking courses for their institutions. More information on the IEC is available at https://www.caida.org/projects/iec/.

As an extension of the IEC project, CAIDA will help develop Internet Teaching Laboratory (ITL) facilities at several U.S. Colleges and Universities. Few networking courses include a hands-on laboratory component, often due to a lack of equipment. CAIDA has received a generous donation of routers, interface cards, CSU/DSUs, software, and engineering expertise from Cisco Systems, Cable and Wireless, and MCI Worldcom. CAIDA solicits proposals from Universities who want to add labs to their networking courses and have an ITL located on their campuses.

Program Scope - Phase I

During Phase I of the ITL project, equipment to support roughly 25 ITL laboratories is available. This equipment was formerly used on backbone networks and is in good working order. Transfer of routers and associated equipment will be directly from Cisco to selected Universities teaching laboratories. In round 1 of this process, 12 schools were awarded ITL equipment.

The ITL equipment is to be used for teaching and research purposes only. It is not to be incorporated into any production networking efforts at the University.

Eligibility

Proposals for this Phase 1, Round 2 solicitation may be submitted by any U.S. College or University faculty member that will be teaching networking courses during the next academic year.

If your proposal is selected for an ITL award, the official University paperwork must be done. We require a letter of commitment from the University, signed by a cognizant official agreeing to the University's promises (if any), such as: space, power and cooling, faculty release time for curriculum development, lab support staff, etc.

Proposals

Proposals guidelines include:

Format: The length of the proposal should be a maximum of 5 pages of text, including any schematics or graphics. Do not use a microscopic font on your 10 page proposal, instead, be concise, direct, and focus on the primary issue -- how to use cisco routers in laboratories in your networking classes. It may include an additional diagram (page 6) of existing laboratory facilities if appropriate.
Lab Design: Describe your rough lab design. The proposal should describe your physical space including square footage, power available, cooling available, student capacity, etc. The routers are richly populated with interface cards -- not all of which are appropriate for each facility. The basic ITL configuration includes:
- 3 Cisco 7000 routers with RP/SSP or RSP processor
- 4 FDDI interface cards (FIP)
- 4 T3 interface cards (HIP)
- 4 T1 interface cards (FSIP)
- 1 Fractional T1/ISDN interface card (MIP)
- 1 rack-mount chassis of Verilink T1 CSU/DSUs
There are NO Ethernet interfaces and limited quantities of ATM cards. If your site has other ATM equipment used for teaching, please mention it in your lab design. Please do not ask for equipment we don't have. There are no ATM switches, workstations, gigabit Ethernet switches, etc. -- just Cisco 7000 routers and interfaces.

CAIDA has a modest budget available to assist with some incidentals required for the ITL labs. Universities are encouraged to supply their own racks/cabinets, cables, fiber, etc. The cost of any incidental items requested from CAIDA must be clearly specified.
Lab Usage: The proposal should include a section on how the ITL will be used by the University and how it will be integrated into existing or planned network engineering curriculum and research activities; include a timeline as appropriate.
Additional Considerations: CAIDA would like to ensure that these laboratories are well used. To that end, include in your proposal any intended use by other departments at your University, use by other schools in your area, and even prospective use during the summer when classes are not in session. Participating universities will share lab exercises via the ITL web page, facilitating collaborations and mentoring relationships.
Key Personnel: Include a short bio for the Principal Investigator, and any key faculty committed to using the ITL.
Submitting a Proposal: Proposals must be submitted via email to itl@caida.org in HTML (preferred) or plain ASCII text -- no fancy formatting needed. You must also complete the submission form located on the ITL web page (iec.caida.org/itl) to officially submit a proposal.

Evaluation

Proposals will be screened by CAIDA staff and then evaluated by the CAIDA IEC Advisory Board consisting of individuals from AT&T Research, Cisco Systems, Harvard University, MCI Worldcom, University College London, University of Kentucky, University of Massachusetts, and Verio Networks.

Evaluation criteria include:

identification of one or more keenly interested faculty member and description of their commitment to develop and to implement pragmatic curricula utilizing the facility;
the existence of undergraduate courses where an ITL laboratory component can be added or expanded to use the lab in the near future;
graduate courses or research projects where an ITL laboratory is needed;
quality and appropriateness of the laboratory exercises proposed for the ITL facility.
commitment by the Department to provide support for faculty involved with the labs (release time for curriculum development, student staff to help with laboratory exercises, etc.);
commitment by the University to provide adequate space, power, cooling facilities to house the equipment in a healthy environment;
commitment by the University to assign staff (career or student) to be responsible for local maintenance and operation of the lab;
commitment of the University to a plan to encourage cooperation between competing Departments (Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Telecommunications) in using and scheduling the labs;
identification of any plans to make the ITL facilities available to other community groups, e.g., other colleges and Universities, junior colleges or even high schools in the area;
identification of additional resources (if any) that will be available for the ITL, e.g., racks, console terminals, other networking equipment.
identification of any further contributions (network engineering curricula, training, manuals, outreach, etc.) that the applicant University is willing to make to the IEC project or to other participating ITL schools.

Please note that Cisco has not agreed to provide IOS source code for these routers. Therefore all projects that involve changing the operating system, changing the routing protocols may not be viable with the routers available. If you do not know the capabilities of the Cisco routers and where they might fit into your curriculum, contact your local network administration staff on your campus and ask them for ideas.

ITL Implementation

The shipment of routers to recipient schools is expected to occur within 1-4 weeks following notification of awards. CAIDA engineering personnel and participating commercial collaborators will assist with on-site installation if required. CAIDA personnel will also be available during the first year of operation to provide limited technical assistance (primarily email and voice) and assist in fostering a cooperative, collaborative relationship among the participating ITL schools.

Further Information

For further information on this solicitation, send email to itl@caida.org or contact Theresa Ott at 858/822-0956.