ITL Solicitation - Phase 1, Round 1 (Fall 1999)

ITL Phase 1, Round 1 is complete and no longer accepting solicitations. For the most up to date solicitation, please check the main ITL page. Below is the formal ITL solicitation for ITL Phase 1, Round 1.

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 commitment of routers, interface cards and software from Cisco systems. CAIDA solicits proposals from Universities who want to add labs to their networking courses and have an ITL located on their campuses.

The guidelines for submitting proposals for Phase I of the ITL initiative are described below.

Program Scope - Phase I

During Phase I of the ITL project, equipment to support roughly 15 ITL laboratories is available. This equipment is used, having been traded-in by backbone networks, and is in good working order. Transfer of routers and associated equipment will be directly from Cisco to selected Universities.

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

Future CAIDA ITL efforts are anticipated and may include additional Cisco hardware and equipment donated by other vendors. Several ISPs have also indicated interest in future ITL efforts, as have international universities. Understandably, vendors and ISPs alike are excited at the prospect that graduating computer science and engineering students will have had experience on modern networking equipment.

Eligibility

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

Proposals

Institutions interested in submitting a proposal are encouraged to submit a short 1-2 page letter (email) by September 3, 1999 describing plans for an ITL at your University. These notes will help us to gauge the breadth of interest from the community, and permit us to ensure that all interested parties are privy to any clarifications or other matters. Proposals will be reviewed in two rounds: (1) proposals received by September 17, 1999 and (2) proposals received by Round Two Proposal Deadline, TBA, 2000. Between 5-10 awards are anticipated based on each review group. Proposals not selected in the first round may be resubmitted in round 2.

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; allocation with adequate faculty release time for curriculum development; support staff time; etc.

Proposals and questions concerning the solicitation or equipment should be submitted electronically to itl@caida.org.

Proposals guidelines include:

Format: The length of the proposal should be a maximum of 8 pages, including any schematics or graphics and be written in plain ASCII or HTML.
Lab Design: Describe your rough lab design. Sample lab configurations are provided for illustrative purposes. 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 router configuration includes:
Router chasis (Cisco 7000 series)
Routing CPU
FDDI Interface card
T3 Interface card
T1 Interface card
There are also very limited quantities of Ethernet and ATM cards. If your site has other ATM equipment used for teaching, please mention it in your lab design. 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 contribute to the advancement of Internet engineering knowledge through making lab exercises or curriculum available for others' use via the ITL web page, facilitating collaborations and mentoring relationships with commercial organizations, extending availability of the lab to other colleges and universities, etc.
Key Personnel: Include short bios for the Principal Investigator, additional faculty committed to using the ITL, and any support staff/students.

Evaluation

Proposals will be 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;
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, e.g., serving as a mentor for newly formed lab facilities.

ITL Implementation

The shipment of routers to recipient schools is expected to occur within 3-8 weeks following notification of awards. CAIDA engineering personnel and participating commercial collaborators will assist with on-site implementations of most ITL facilities. Illustrative lab exercises are also being developed and will be made available on the IEC website. 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.