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A Brief History of the Kentish MAN

 

Establishment

From the late 1990's JANET(UK)'s strategy has been to use Regional Networks (i.e. MANs) as an essential component of the provision of network services to institutions. JANET(UK) is also committed to upgrading the national backbone (SuperJANET) to which the MANs are connected.

 

The Kentish MAN was established with funding from the HEFCE MAN Initiative of 1998-99. Initially four Kent-based HEIs collaborated to draw up a specification and agreed to pay 25% of the £620k total cost with HEFCE paying the remainder. The most cost-effective solution at the time was one based on microwave radio technology which provided 155Mbit/sec ATM circuits at a lower cost than 34Mbit/sec ATM leased lines. Phase I of the Kentish MAN provided connectivity to the main sites from Canterbury to Wye via Chatham, at 155Mbit/sec.

 

Before Phase I was fully completed, advantage was taken to expand the network under the HEFCE MAN Initiative of 1999-2000. The Kent Institute of Art and Design (KIAD) joined the consortium, and a bid totalling £487k was made to provide 34Mbit/sec connectivity to its three campuses and to subsidiary campuses of the University of Kent in the Medway towns and Canterbury Christ Church University College near Tunbridge Wells. Again 25% of the cost was funded by the partners in proportion to the number of new links to their campuses. The Phase II bid was partially successful. Canterbury Christ Church University College (CCCUC) also funded a connection to its new Thanet campus via the University of Kent. The total cost to HEFCE and the consortium had just exceeded £1m with the consortium paying those costs not covered by HEFCE.

 

SuperJANET4

The Kentish MAN's role in the delivery of network services to Higher and Further Education in Kent became a key part of UKERNA's strategy for SuperJANET4. In October 1999 the five HEIs in Kent signed a Memorandum of Understanding to form a consortium to operate the Kentish MAN. UKERNA made an allocation of capital funds to each MAN (£144k for the Kentish MAN) and the consortium bid for a further £343k. This was known as Phase III and provided additional resilience by 'completing the ring' from Wye to Canterbury. The bid to purchase the spares holding for the radios to reduce the recurrent costs of the leasing agreement was unsuccessful at this stage but funding was forthcoming at a later date.

 

Formation of Kent MAN Ltd

The consortium was requested to sign a contract with UKERNA to operate the network from 1st October 2001. After obtaining legal advice, it was decided to form a not-for-profit company, Kent MAN Ltd, to operate the network under an RPAN contract with UKERNA. Kent MAN Ltd was established in April 2002. The following institutions were the founder members of the Kentish MAN consortium and became the members of Kent MAN Ltd when the company was established:

One of the responsibilities of Kent MAN Ltd is to manage the connections to various nominated organisations in the region, including the FE Colleges in Kent.

 

An upgrade plan was designed to accommodate the requirements of the Kent New Technology Institute (KNTI) and capital funding was provided. As far as the Kentish MAN was concerned this resulted in upgrades to network links to most of the FE College sites which for many meant connecting them to the MAN rather than the University of London Computer Centre (ULCC) for the first time. Resilience was also increased in parts of the network. Some funding was also used to appoint a fixed term support post for the NOC team.

 

In 2004 some 'Quick Wins' funding was forthcoming from UKERNA to replace three radio links that had proved particularly troublesome. It also provided a new router and some consultancy to replace LANE with PVCs. The results have been reflected in improved performance statistics.

 

Replacing the microwave radios

In May 2004 Kent MAN Ltd was invited to apply for some additional SuperJANET4 funding from HEFCE. This resulted in an OJEU procurement run to an extremely tight timetable. The result has been the first stage of the new phase of Kentish MAN, 'Kentish MAN II'. Gigabit links using BT Wavestream circuits provided by Logicalis were installed between Canterbury and Chatham and between Chatham and the University of Greenwich's Avery Hill campus. The latter allowed the completion of the last FEC upgrade under the KNTI programme - the link to North West Kent College at Dartford.

 

For some time Kent MAN Ltd has been seeking to work with other partners in Kent and this procurement coincided with a new rollout of the Kent Community Network (KCN2) which provides connections to schools and libraries in Kent. A Gigabit Wavestream link was provided from Chatham to the KCC EIS Centre in Maidstone. UKERNA provided backhaul for KCN2 via the Kentish MAN's SuperJANET4 connection. KCN2 connects to the Kentish MAN at Maidstone and Canterbury.

 

The HEFCE SuperJANET4 funding amounted to £1m and a further £400k was provided by the members of Kent MAN Ltd mainly for the Maidstone to Chatham connection. Although this had no immediate benefit for the Kentish MAN it is a strategic component of the upgrade programme of Kentish MAN II.

 

SuperJANET5

In October 2006 two 10Gbps connections from the Kentish MAN to SuperJANET5 (SJ5) at the Medway (UoG-M) and Canterbury (UoK-C) PoPs went live. By a few minutes the Kentish MAN was the first regional network to connect to SJ5. At around the same time the core network capacity was doubled to 2Gbps.

 

JANET Partner Agreement

In June 2007 UKERNA became JANET(UK) and embarked upon a new contract with the regional network operators. This is known as the JANET Partner Agreement (JPA) and came into force on 1st October 2008. JANET(UK) have given notice that the JPA will not be extended beyond 30.9.2011, hence Kent MAN is working with JANET(UK) and KPSN (see below) to transition the network as part of the KPSN.

 

UCA

The University College for the Creative Arts ceased to be a member of the company in February 2008 but subsequently rejoined the company on 1st January 2010.

 

Kent Public Services Network

Having worked closely with the Kent Public Services Network (KPSN) and its predecessor KCN, Kent MAN Ltd became a partner of KPSN in April 2010.