NC Communications Interconnectivity Strategy

Introduction

The 1995 General Assembly directed the State Controller to assess the costs, benefits and effectiveness of the North Carolina Information Highway (NCIH). As an extension of the NCIH assessment and evaluation, a Connectivity Steering Committee was formed to assess the overall communications interconnectivity needs of the state, and to develop appropriate strategies for best addressing those needs. An objective of the Steering Committee was to present its vision of a statewide connectivity strategy to the 1996 General Assembly, along with the NCIH Evaluation Report. Because of the limited timeframe, the Steering Committee’s information and recommendations to the General Assembly will be a two phase process:

Short-Term (1996 General Assembly) - Vision and general strategy
Long-Term (1997 General Assembly) - Specific plan and recommendations

This document presents the Steering Committee’s broad vision for statewide electronic interconnectivity, recommended strategies for short-term policy, and suggestions on funding that would be informative to decision-makers.

These recommendations support the GPAC Study recommendations for the state’s telecommunications direction.

Baseline Beliefs

As a general framework for the Steering Committee’s activities, the following beliefs were developed as a fundamental foundation for a connectivity strategy:

The general strategic direction should preserve and build upon the very substantial existing strengths of the state’s communications infrastructure, and that specific strategies should address providing government workers with electronic access to information, and establishing standards and guidelines to ensure connectivity between using agencies and among network services.
A determination of benefits should focus on whether the strategies and technologies deployed by the state will result in an affordable, interoperable, interconnected statewide communication system in the next 5-10 years.
A new statewide technical architecture is being developed based on enabling agencies to acquire, or develop, flexible and adaptive systems that can respond quickly to the changing business cycle. Likewise, a flexible strategy is needed to guide the state toward establishing, modifying, and evaluating the benefits of its communications connectivity.
There should be a strong focus on the identification of the type of service (data, voice, video, image) that meets the needs of the state agency/department that enables them to more efficiently and economically meet their mission.
The state’s connectivity strategy should incorporate:
- Consideration of a variety of telecommunications service and equipment options, if each is inter-connectible and affordable,
- Comprehensive and simple electronic access to meaningful services and applications by all state and local government entities,
- Extensive attention to negotiating the most effective pricing and management arrangements so that this innovative communications mode is affordable and addresses future customer needs promptly, and
- On-going input so that strategy updates and improvements occur, adjusting to changes in technologies and in the state’s telecommunication needs.

What is Connectivity?

Connectivity is defined as an advanced telecommunications infrastructure that will provide electronic access and exchange of information needed by North Carolina public agencies, citizens, and businesses, no matter where they live or work. These communication linkages cover data, voice, video, and image technologies.

A communications connectivity strategy is a game plan for defining and deploying such an advanced telecommunications infrastructure.

Why is a Connectivity Strategy Needed?

The Connectivity Steering Committee believes that comprehensive statewide interconnectivity capability is essential if the state is going to effectively compete in a different and rapidly changing world. Change cycles are occurring much faster, necessitating the need to establish a communications connectivity platform that can respond quickly to changing needs and opportunity.

Justification for connectivity can be illustrated as follows:

A very large percentage of state and local government employees are ‘information workers’. They process or use data/information as a primary function in their job.

Examples:
DOT/DMV Offices

Social Services

Health Services

Law Enforcement

Education
The business community is rapidly improving the methods of interchanging information with respect to speed, accessibility, and quality.

Examples:
Internet

Electronic funds and benefit transfers

On-line education and training

Local and wide area networking
The state’s information needs parallel those of the business community only at a larger and more complex scale than most business enterprises. Our information needs are pervasive and geographically distributed over the state impacting users that in many cases are not trained or conversant with information and communications systems. Providing electronic information access for state information workers is seen as a key step for changing the way government works by effectively using information technology. We already have numerous applications that demonstrate the need to improve the speed and efficiency of information processing.

Examples:
Geographic Information Systems (GIS)

Medical Diagnosis

Distance Learning

Immunization

Job Search Program

Access to Convenience Contracts
The state has seen similar statewide requirements for coordinated systems before, and has responded with shared services that are used by all agencies, resulting in cost savings while providing improved and reliable services.

Examples:
Telephone services (SIPS)

Computing services (SIPS)

Courier services

State Motor Fleet
Likewise, the state has recognized the necessity for investment in crucial infrastructure initiatives many times.

Examples:
Roads and Highways

Water Systems

Sewer Systems

Nearly all successful businesses, particularly the very large ones similar to the state, make extensive use of the electronic information exchange for business, training, marketing, communication, and more. Currently there is an explosion in the use of on-line services by individual citizens to conduct business and to educate themselves and their children.

In short, the fundamental methods of communicating information and ideas are changing rapidly. The state must proactively move to take advantage of the evolving communications technologies and infrastructures that are rapidly becoming a part of everyday life. Rational evaluation and economic-based decisions will enable the state to meet the needs of its citizens, business, and industrial community. In the absence of this coordinated, structured approach, the state will be faced with the massive challenge of bringing together the myriad of isolated local and regional networks that will inevitably spring up in the absence of a state connectivity strategy.

The state has the opportunity to take advantage of the experience of business and industry in many areas. The ability to implement a "fast follower" strategy coupled with a statewide broadband backbone offers both economic and strategic advantages for North Carolina.

Source: Telecommunications, October, 1995

Eventually the state will have to incorporate those methods, for if we do not, the state will be perceived as unresponsive and inefficient. The question for us now is ‘Do we lead?’ That is, are we going to take advantage now and progressively lead, or stand back and miss the opportunity to leverage the state’s resources to develop a well structured, integrated network that will benefit all levels of government and provide the foundation for citizens to benefit?

What are the Major Components of Connectivity?

Connectivity consists of a variety of components that can be categorized into four basic groups:

Communications and Computing Hardware
Software
Network Access Facilities
Network Backbones

The underlying fabric that makes these components interoperable, and thereby produces connectivity, is a standards-based architecture. Each connectivity component should be structured so that it can be sized to meet unique requirements and offer interoperability with a range of components from the other groups.

Definition of each group and general issues are as follows:

Communications and Computing Hardware - This component consists of the devices that serve as the interface for humans to access electronic information as well as the repository for information. These devices can take the form of stand-alone personal computers (PCs), PCs networked into local area networks (LANs), servers, mid-range computers or mainframe computers. Selection and incorporation of equipment into a statewide connectivity platform should require each type system to inter-communicate. It is extremely critical that these devices be selected for ease of use as well as conformance to industry standards and the overall statewide architecture.

Software - Connectivity requires compatibility at all levels of systems and applications software. A statewide connectivity strategy must address and incorporate answers to software issues such as communications protocols, addressing schemes, applications interfaces, message and document exchange standards to name a few.

Network Access Facilities - These facilities provide a point of entry into a statewide network. In today’s environment a variety of technologies including terrestrial fiber, hybrid coax, satellite, and wireless can provide network access facilities. The key to connectivity is to ensure the technology providing this component is transparent to the first two components and compatible with the network backbone component. The state’s connectivity strategy should include a variety of network access facilities thereby ensuring a range of choices and prices for clients.

Network Backbone Facilities - These facilities provide for the aggregation of the array of information, data, voice, video, and multimedia into a statewide transport mechanism. Compatibility with network access facilities is vital for connectivity. ATM regional data hubs connected to the network backbone facilities provide the lowest cost per unit for moving information. The state has leveraged the telecommunications companies to provide their advanced service offerings over the entire state. It is important from a cost standpoint to have multiple access points into this backbone spread across the state to minimize the length of network access facilities.

Connectivity’s effectiveness as a tool in either the public or private sector requires implementation of a thorough support infrastructure. An adequate support plan must include training on the effective use of tools, a pooled technical resource for planning, implementing, managing and maintaining an interconnected network, and a pooled resource for supporting applications and systems using the network, as well as a pooled resource for identifying and resolving problems.

General Objectives

The variety of information technologies available to the state will continue to increase and the overall cost of information processing capabilities will continue to decline. These trends will make it possible to further extend the use of computers and telecommunications in state and local government to accomplish work faster, better, and more economically. By defining and implementing the specific strategies that form the essential connectivity building blocks, the state can ensure that an effective communications infrastructure will result. Without such a defined pathway, the state will inherit a patchwork communications system over the next 3-5 years.

The principal goal of state and local government is to serve the citizens of North Carolina with needed programs and services that operate efficiently and perform effectively. The Connectivity Steering Committee believes that a well planned and managed statewide connectivity infrastructure will enable this goal to be better accomplished by:

Providing government workers with easy electronic access to the vast stores of information they need, including images and maps.
Establishing the networks and interconnectivity necessary to enable any state or local workstation to transfer information to any other state or local workstation.
Establishing the capability to conduct electronic commerce with suppliers and business clients.
Establishing the capability for electronic access by citizens to government information and services.
Providing state and local government workers with the basic knowledge and skills necessary for them to use information technology in an effective manner.
Positioning the state and local government to be able to take advantage of new opportunities for effectively using information technology by monitoring and evaluating emerging technologies in a systematic manner, and
Encouraging the timely and effective use of information technology by state agencies through the support policies of the IRMC.

A relatively small number of strategies can be addressed by the 1996 General Assembly that will greatly facilitate the state’s movement toward meeting its communications interconnectivity needs and goals. These are listed in the following eight strategies. Implementation of some of the recommended strategies is already underway.

Strategy 1 - Connectivity funding by the General Assembly should focus primarily on a statewide infrastructure investment.

Building a comprehensive state connectivity infrastructure should be the starting point for General Assembly funding. The state infrastructure would consist of (1) the statewide transport backbone, and (2) regional network concentration hubs that connect to the backbone. Infrastructure funding would then consist of the cost of establishing the regional (LATA) hubs, and the on-going operational inter-lata long distance costs (i.e. IXC charges).

With a state funded infrastructure in place, agencies would then justify and fund their applications that operated locally within a LATA using the regional hubs, and/or services that go beyond the LATA boundaries using the statewide backbone.

Strategy 2 - Provide a menu of affordable connectivity options.

As large and diverse as North Carolina’s state and local governments are, communication needs will vary greatly. A connectivity strategy needs to assure that a variety of forms of communications options are available through an integrated statewide telecommunications network for users to subscribe to based on their information needs and budgetary constraints. It is essential that these options provide interoperability from one service to another so that as a user’s requirements change, different and more appropriate options can be selected without costly rework or reengineering.

State funding of connectivity initiatives should allow the flexibility for users to select the most appropriate and affordable options for their needs. Any agency should be able to spend monies on new technologies that can justify it within the connectivity strategy as approved by the IRMC.

The major components of this strategy involve:

Identifying all possible connectivity options.
Evaluating the price and performance of various options.
Establishing appropriate classes of connectivity.
Establishing standards and guidelines to ensure necessary interoperability among classes of connectivity.
Selecting the "best-in-class" option.
Establishing statewide contracts for the selected options that leverage the aggregate buying power of the state.
Providing network users a menu of service options, priced according to capacity.

Over the next five years the connectivity picture will change dramatically as the new technologies move into the public and private networks.

Strategy 3 - Provide a competent staff to support user community.

Business and industry have repeatedly demonstrated that the key to a successful implementation of communications technology and services is a knowledgeable support staff. Their experience has proven that this is the most cost-effective way to ensure that real needs are met and that the capabilities are fully exploited in the shortest possible time. A component of the central communications service organization (i.e. Office of the State Controller, State Telecommunications Services Section) must include a staff that assists new and existing users in making the appropriate technology selection and solving technological and operational problems. This staff should have the following skill sets and assigned responsibilities:

Service Awareness - Proactively interfacing with state and local government organizations to make them aware of how the state’s range of communications services can assist in improving services and/or reducing costs.
Applications Consultation - Working directly with agency and department representatives to identify and define target applications that improve the effectiveness and efficiency of operations.
Technical Consultation - Providing technical advice and problem solving assistance to user sites on an as-needed basis.
Help-Desk - 24 hour toll-free access for users to report problems and to dispatch appropriate assistance.

In addition, user sites can use OSC service and convenience contracts to acquire or supplement their in-house technical resources. LAN cabling, and installation and management of LANs are examples of these support alternatives.

Strategy 4 - Provide strategic direction from an overall state perspective, but allow access flexibility and control at the local level.

Network growth is primarily precipitated by local initiatives. The best connectivity infrastructure for today’s world is clearly defined interface standards to the state networks with broad flexibility for local communication initiatives. Within the state’s approved direction, the opportunity to build and customize individual local initiatives should be supported. The state’s connectivity plan should focus on the concept of community networks, where required, within an overall statewide infrastructure. This concept provides for an access point to a statewide network within a political subdivision and allows the political subdivision to provide access to the various points within the community. Collaboration and sharing of network resources could be determined and implemented as required by the communities.

An example of this would be for all schools in a district to share one gateway to the Internet.

Strategy 5- Establish regional network concentration hubs across the state.

The telecommunication circuits that the OSC buys from the local telephone companies are priced according to the distance from the terminating location to the telephone company facility serving the using site. The OSC must pay based on mileage for every circuit used in the network. By establishing remote concentration hubs in each of the local exchange carrier’s assigned transport area (LATA) in North Carolina, the OSC can simultaneously increase the capacity of the network and reduce the cost for circuits outside the Raleigh area. This will help reduce the overall rates for data service statewide and help provide economical access to state data sources and to the Internet.

Because the NCIH SONET/ATM network has significant capacity for data service that is not used for video service and is not priced according to distance, it is the best solution for extending the network backbone statewide. This offers a significant advantage to users of the state network that can serve as a key in ensuring that the benefits of the "information age" are not restricted to the population centers.

Strategy 6 - Adopt a roll-out plan for connecting K-12 public schools and community colleges.

The purpose of a good connectivity infrastructure is to provide bandwidth as needed for the exchange of information. As a statewide initiative, this transcends any specific functional area. However, in the deployment of a state connectivity infrastructure, decisions have to be made relative to funding priorities for the applications that can benefit from the state’s communication infrastructure. Up front investment may be necessary to verify the benefits, or to accelerate the benefits of proven applications.

Because of the importance of making the benefits of easy and timely student access to information resources anywhere in the world, a recommended connectivity plan for K-12 schools and community colleges is shown in Appendix A and B. The Connectivity Steering Committee believes that implementation of this strategy will provide the greatest overall benefit for the least amount of dollars. Connectivity funding for the university system is included in the UNC General Administration and MCNC’s budgets and is therefore not shown in the attached plan.

In addition, it should be noted that the criminal justice community has defined a specific plan (CJIN) for connecting law enforcement agencies, emergency management units, fire departments, and court systems for the immediate exchange of current information. This initiative should be part of the state’s overall connectivity infrastructure.

Strategy 7 - Provide efficient and central capability for interstate and global videoconferencing.

Numerous technological approaches exist in today’s evolving videoconferencing environment. In order for North Carolina to maintain interoperability with these technologies it will be vital to provide reliable gateways to the other predominant technologies. The implementation of these gateways will provide users of the state’s communication services easy access beyond state boundaries.

Strategy 8 - Allow savings from network initiatives to go into a telecommunications evaluation and testing fund.

A coordinated statewide communications infrastructure will result in a two-fold advantage for the state: 1) overall cost saving for the state, and 2) the ability to deploy and implement services that will directly contribute to more pervasive services across the entire state. The ability to use a portion of these savings to evaluate and test new, promising communications products, services and initiatives will result in further savings, creating a multiplier effect. These savings could also go into a connectivity fund that could be used for grants for connectivity. Without this flexibility, the overall savings and benefits to the state will be much slower in coming, or may not be realized at all.

Next Phase

Publication of this document is only one step in an ongoing strategic planning process. The first objective of the Connectivity Steering Committee was to develop the initial components of a connectivity strategy for presentation to the 1996 General Assembly. Adoption of the proposed strategies is extremely important, but it should be understood that this will be one of many enabling steps in the necessary ongoing process. In addition to concurrence and support by the General Assembly, the implementation of each strategy will require active management participation throughout state (and local) government.

The OSC must be prepared to respond to the challenges arising out of agency efforts to implement the adopted strategies. The IRMC can also assist by making the issues associated with connectivity standards and guidelines enabling rather than restrictive.

In order to assure that the operational and tactical issues needed to successfully implement the proposed connectivity strategies are addressed, joint efforts between the OSC and representatives of the major user communities are expected to continue. The pace of technological changes and the potential benefits of appropriate use of technology are too great for strategic network planning to be an occasional activity.


Home Page	Foreword	Participants	Contents	Appendix A	Appendix B

Examples:	DOT/DMV Offices
	Social Services
	Health Services
	Law Enforcement
	Education

Examples:	Internet
	Electronic funds and benefit transfers
	On-line education and training
	Local and wide area networking

Examples:	Geographic Information Systems (GIS)
	Medical Diagnosis
	Distance Learning
	Immunization
	Job Search Program
	Access to Convenience Contracts

Examples:	Telephone services (SIPS)
	Computing services (SIPS)
	Courier services
	State Motor Fleet

Examples:	Roads and Highways
	Water Systems
	Sewer Systems