Washington State Deploys Network to
Transform Education
The K-20 Education Network utilizes Cisco networking and collaboration solutions to
enable videoconferencing to connect 1.5 million students statewide.
Executive Summary
K-20 Education Network
• Industry: Education; State and Local
Government
• Location: Olympia, Washington USA
• Number of Campuses: 476 campuses
across the state
CHALLENGE
• Support emerging education trends
and student demands
• Accommodate students in rural
communities and remote regions
• State law called for single, reliable,
cost-effective broadband education
network for all public K-20 institutions
SOLUTION
• Deploy high-performance, highly secure
Cisco routers to develop network core
• Implement Cisco optical switches to
reach urban and rural areas of state
• Utilize Cisco TelePresence MSE 8000
Series multipoint control units (MCU) to
provide voice and video collaboration
to students and faculty statewide
RESULTS
• Connected 99.8 percent of the
public schools, community colleges,
universities and libraries across the state
• Provided Internet and videoconferencing
capabilities to over 1.5 million students
statewide
• Enabled data traffic to increase by
5,000 percent over the past 10 years
“We needed an information
technology infrastructure
capable of breaking down the
digital divide to ensure network
quality, interoperability and
efficiency, not just in urban
areas of the state, but also in
rural communities.”
Tom Carroll, systems manager for the
K-20 Education Network
1
Challenge
In the mid 1990s, key Washington state legislators and local education leaders were
noticing a transformation in education statewide. With advancements in technology
and wide, mainstream adoption of the Internet, branch school campuses and education
centers were emerging, and the state saw distance learning opportunities beginning
to grow.
In 1996, to address the changing face of education, the Washington State Legislature
passed a bill calling for the creation of the K-20 Education Network. The goal of the
newly-formed K-20 Education Network was to deploy a single, reliable, cost-effective
broadband network to connect all public K-12 school districts, community colleges,
universities and libraries across the state of Washington, offering students with greater
access to courses, resources, programs and degrees.
“The biggest challenge for K-20 was that we were attempting to design and deploy a
high-speed broadband network during a time when the majority of computer users
in Washington and around the country were still connecting to the Internet by dial-up
modem,” said Tom Carroll, systems manager for the K-20 Education Network. “We
needed an information technology infrastructure capable of breaking down the digital
divide to ensure network quality, interoperability and efficiency, not just in urban areas
of the state, but also in rural communities where, in some cases, dial-up wasn’t even
available yet.”
In deploying the network, administrators wanted to ensure geographically-dispersed
schools, students and faculty would have optimum Internet access and interactive
videoconferencing to promote distance learning and establish collaboration across
the broad education community statewide.
Solution
After assessing different innovative technologies capable of growing with the initiative,
K-20 Education Network administrators deployed Cisco routers at regional aggregation
sites throughout the state of Washington in Seattle, Spokane, Tacoma, Yakima,
Vancouver and Pullman. The routers serve as the core of K-20’s broadband network,
increasing the power, performance and security of the network and optimizing branch
campus services throughout the state.
In complying with the state legislation by designing one, single network for nearly 500
schools, universities and libraries within the state to use, the K-20 Education Network
deployed Cisco’s Multiservice Provisioning Platforms (MSPP). The MSPPs serve as
optical switches for the network, making it possible to provide reliable Internet access
to students, faculty and administrators, in both rural and urban areas of the state, over
one network. The MSPPs also enable efficient Ethernet, bandwidth aggregation, data
storage extensions and highly flexible transport services.
© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
Washington State Deploys Network to
Transform Education
The K-20 Education Network utilizes Cisco networking and collaboration solutions to
enable videoconferencing to connect 1.5 million students statewide.
Product List
ROUTING AND SWITCHING
• Cisco edge routers 2921 and
3945
• Cisco ONS 15454 SDH
Multiservice Provisioning
Platform (MSPP)
VIDEO
• Cisco TelePresence MSE 8000
Series Multipoint Control Unit
(MCU)
With the core network up and running, K-20 adopted two Cisco TelePresence MSE
8000 Series multipoint control units (MCU) capable of providing high-quality, highcapacity voice and videoconferencing. The TelePresence units are the foundation for
delivering K-20’s large-scale, web-based collaboration and enable students, faculty
and administrators in one region of the state to connect, learn, teach and share
virtually, through real-time, face-to-face video interaction, with students, faculty and
administrators in another region of the state.
“The ease-of-use, scalability and performance of Cisco’s technologies, as well as
the company’s professional and knowledgeable engineering and support teams have
made Cisco an ideal partner in helping us to deploy the K-20 Education Network,”
said Carroll. “Cisco is constantly thinking ahead of the curve with their architecture,
which in turn, helps us plan for and expand K-20’s network capabilities and bandwidth
to better accommodate the growing number of students, faculty and administrators
on our system.”
For More Information
Results
To find out more about the Cisco routers,
go to: http://www.cisco.com/go/routers.
By deploying Cisco solutions, the K-20 Education Network is able to connect 99.8
percent of the classrooms, schools, community colleges, universities and libraries
in 476 locations around the state of Washington, including 295 public K-12 school
districts. Today more than 1.5 million students have access to the Internet and voice
and videoconferencing services.
To find out more about the Cisco
Multiservice Provisioning Platform,
got to: http://www.cisco.com/en/US/
products/hw/optical/ps2006/ps2010/
index.html.
To find out more about Cisco
TelePresence, go to: http://www.cisco.
com/web/go/telepresence.
As an unprecedented, high-speed, high-capacity network, the technology enables
high school students to take courses through partnerships with the University
of Washington, Central Washington University, Washington State University, and
Wenatchee Valley College, earning college credits through courses delivered over the
K-20 Education Network. In some rural regions of the state, including in Bridgeport,
the network has made it possible for high schoolers to access training programs that
have increased the number of students meeting reading standards by over 50 percent.
With the help of Cisco TelePresence, students are able to embark on virtual field
trips to museums, educational institutions and organizations without ever leaving the
classroom. State university hospitals have also utilized Cisco TelePresence. With
twenty telemedicine sites throughout Washington, medical students and professors
can reduce travel time and costs by attending virtual medical classes and training
sessions over high-quality, high-definition (HD), face-to-face videoconferencing.
As the K-20 Education Network continues to grow, with data traffic increasing 5,000
percent on the network over the past ten years, the efficiency and flexibility of
Cisco solutions have enabled network administrators to expand bandwidth to better
accommodate students, faculty and administrations using the network statewide.
Cisco and the Cisco Logo are trademarks of Cisco Systems, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and other countries. A listing of Cisco’s trademarks can be found at www.cisco.
com/go/trademarks. Third-party trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective owners. The use of the word partner does not imply a partnership relationship between
Cisco and any other company. (1007R)