CANARIE
“Community Condo Fiber Networks”
The Customer Empowered Networking Revolution
http://www.canarie.ca
http://www.canet3.net
Bill.St.Arnaud@canarie.ca
Tel: +1.613.785.0426
CANARIE Inc
 Mission: To facilitate the development of Canada’s communications
infrastructure and stimulate next generation products, applications and
services
 Canadian equivalent to Internet 2 and NGI
 private-sector led, not-for-profit consortium
 consortium formed 1993
 federal funding of $300m (1993-99)
 total project costs estimated over $600 M
 currently over 140 members; 21 Board members
CA*net 3 National Optical Internet
Consortium Partners:
Bell Nexxia
Nortel
Cisco
JDS Uniphase
Newbridge
CA*net 3 Primary Route
CA*net 3 Diverse Route
GigaPOP
ORAN
Condo Fiber Network
linking all
universities and
Netera
hospital
BCnet
Calgary
Deploying a 4
channel CWDM
Gigabit Ethernet
network – 400 km
SRnet
MRnet
Regina
Condo Dark Fiber
Networks
connecting
universities and
schools
Winnipeg
ONet
Vancouver
Seattle
16 channel DWDM
-8 wavelengths @OC-192
reserved for CANARIE
-8 wavelengths for carrier
and other customers
Chicago
Multiple Customer
Owned Dark Fiber
Networks
connecting
universities and
schools
Deploying a 4
channel Gigabit
Ethernet transparent
optical DWDM–
1500 km
ACORN
St. John’s
Charlottetown
Fredericton
RISQ
Montreal
Halifax
Ottawa
STAR TAP
Toronto
New York
CA*net 3 & Community Networks
 E-research grids
 Researchers will want to use computing resources of
schools and homes
 SETI@Home
 New grid projects in bio-informatics, pharmaceutical
research, particle physics need access to millions of
computers
 Democratization of research
 Next big discovery in cancer or particle physics could
be made at your local high school
Customer Empowered Networks
 School boards and municipalities throughout North America are building
condominium dark fiber networks in partnership with next generation
carrier
 Individual institutions – the customers – own and control their own strands
of fiber
 Fiber are configured in point to point private networks; or
 Connect to local ISP or carrier hotel
 Private sector maintains the fiber
 Low cost LAN architectures and optics are used to light the fiber
 These new concepts in customer empowered networking are starting in the
same place as the Internet started – the university and research community.
 Customers will start with dark fiber but will eventually extend further
outwards with customer control and ownership of wavelengths
 Extending the Internet model of autonomous peering networks to the
telecom world
Examples of CEN
Customer Empowered Networks
 Universities in Quebec are building their own 3500km “condominium” fiber
network in partnership with 6 next gen carriers- $US 2million
 Will deploy and manage their own optics and long haul transmission gear
 Universities in Alberta are deploying their own 400 km 4xGbe dark fiber
network - $US 200K
 Deploy and manage their own optics and long haul transmission gear
 Chicago is building a fiber networking linking all public sector institutions $US 250m
 City of Montreal is second most fibered city in the world because of
municipal owned open access conduit
 In Ottawa is deploying a 85km- 144 strand “condominium” network
connecting 26 institutions – cost $1m US
 Peel County – Missassuaga & Brampton has built a 200km public sector
fiber network - $US 5m
 Many other cities including Ashland OR, Halifax, Toronto are looking at
similar initiatives
Market Drivers
 First - low cost
 Up to 1000% reduction over current telecom prices. 6-12 month payback
 Second - LAN invades the WAN – no complex SONET or ATM required in
network
 Network Restoral & Protection can be done by customer using a variety of
techniques such as wireless backup, or relocating servers to a multi-homed site,
etc
 Third - Enables new applications and services not possible with traditional
telecom service providers
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Relocation of servers and extending LAN to central site
Out sourcing LAN and web servers to a 3rd party because no performance impact
IP telephony in the wide area (Spokane)
HDTV video
 Fourth – Allows access to new competitive low cost telecom and IT
companies at carrier neutral meet me points
 Much easier to out source servers, e-commerce etc to a 3rd party at a carrier
neutral collocation facility
What is condominium fiber?
 A number of organizations such as schools, hospitals, businesses and universities
get together to fund and build a fiber network
 Carrier partners are also invited to be part of condominium project
 Several next generation carriers and fiber brokers are now arranging condominium
fiber builds
 IMS, QuebecTel, Videotron, Cogeco, Dixon Cable, GT Telecom, etc etc
 Fiber is installed, owned and maintained by 3rd party professional fiber contractors
– usually the same contractors used by the carriers for their fiber builds
 Each institution gets its own set of fibers, at cost, on a 20 year IRU (Indefeasible
Right of Use)
 One time up front cost, plus annual maintenance and right of way cost approx
5% of the capital cost
 Institution lights up their own strands with whatever technology they want –
Gigabit Ethernet, ATM, PBX, etc
 New long range laser will reach 120 km
 Ideal solution for point to point links for large fixed institutions
 Payback is usually less than 18 months
Alberta SUPERnet
• Province wide network of condominium fiber to 420 communities
in Alberta
• Guaranteed cost of bandwidth to all public sector institutions
• $500/mo for 10 Mbps, $700/mo for 100 Mbps
• Network a mix of fibre builds and existing supplier infrastructure
(swap/buy/lease)
• Condominium approach: All suppliers can
• Buy (or swap) a share of the fibre (during build or after)
• Lease bandwidth at competitive rates
• GOA has perpetual right to use (IRU)
• Ownership will be held at arms length
• GOA/stakeholder rates are costs to run divided over users
• Because of fibre capacity, bandwidth can be made available to
businesses at urban competitive rate
• Total cost $193m
• Bell Intrigna prime contractor
Alberta SUPERnet IRUs
Extended Area
• 372 communities
• GOA/stakeholder needs
• Proceeds from businesses
(urban benchmarked
rates) to GOA to further
network
Base Area
• 48 communities
• GOA/stakeholder needs
• Business proceeds to Bell
(urban benchmarked
rates)
- $143 Million GOA
- 100% GOA IRU
- $50 Million
- $102 Million
GOA
Bell
- 33%GOA IRU
- 67% Bell IRU
Aspen View Regional Division # 19
Alberta SUPERnet Example
St. Paul Education Regional Division # 1
Elk Point
Willingdon
BUFFALO TRAILS SCHOOL
DIVISION
Hairy Hill
Two Hills
Elk I sland Public Schools Regional Division # 14
Dewberry
Clandonald
Vegreville
Lavoy
Combination:
Tulliby Lake
Myrnam
Vermilion
I nnisfree
Mannville
Holden
Marwayne
Kitscoty
Lloydminster Public School District # 1753
• Fibre build
Viking
Paradise Valley
• Use of Existing
Infrastructure
Battle River Regional Division # 31
I rma
Wainwright
Strome Killam
Sedgewick
Edgerton
Hardisty
Heisler
Chauvin
Forestburg
Amisk
Galahad
Czar
Alliance
Bell Legend
Extended Fibre Network
Provost
Base Fibre Network
Backhaul From Other Vendor
Clearview School Division # 71
Coronation
Communities with one or more school
Veteran
Consort
Alberta SUPERnet Impact
RURAL COMMUNITIES
Current (Typical)
Future (Everywhere)
Residences
• 56 Kbps dial Internet
($85/Month)
• No high speed Internet
Businesses
• Some T1 Facilities
($2000/Month average - rates
distance sensitive)
• Some high speed business
service on special setup
arrangement
Residences
• High speed DSL residential
Internet at urban rates
($40/month)
Businesses
• High speed business services
available at competitive urban
rates (eg $820/month - T1)
• Higher speeds at comparable rates
Chicago CivicNet
•CivicNet - A City-Wide Condominium Fiber Project
•connecting up 1600 public sector institutions
•Oriented to Development of Backbone Infrastructure
•With Gateways to Tributary Systems
•More Fiber in More Places Faster
•Ubiquitous, Pervasive: 1,600 Locations
•E-Z High-Performance Low-Cost Internet Connectivity
•Foundation = Existing City Fiber Builds
Quebec University Condo Network
Construit
Projet démarré
À venir
Bande passante louée
Val d’Or/Rouyn
MAN de Montréal
MAN d’Ottawa/Hull
MAN de Québec
MAN de Sherbrooke
Observatoire Mont-Mégantic
Lionel-Groulx
Lanaudière
Sorel-Tracy
Montreal Public Sector
Condominium Networks
Marie-Victorin
Rosemont
Montmorency
Maisonneuve
Ahuntsic
Édouard-Montpetit
Bois-de-Boulogne
Vers Québec
St-Laurent/Vanier
Champlain
Vieux-Montréal
Gérald-Godin
Construit
Dawson
Projet démarré
À venir
John-Abbott
André-Laurendeau
Bande passante louée
Capitale
Région-de-Sherbrooke
Rivière-du-Nord
Seigneurie-des-Mille-Iles
Amiante
Laval
Saint-Hyacinthe
Affluents
Bois-Francs
Draveurs
Grandes-Seigneuries
Hautes-Rivières
Laurentides
Patriotes
Premières-Seigneurie
Samares
Trois-Lacs
Chemin-du-Roy
Marie-Victorin
Sir-Wilfrid-Laurier
x
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x
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x
x
x
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x
x
x
Engineering
Study
School Board
Construction
List of Schoolboard Fiber Builds
x
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PROJECT
140 km of fibre optics 80 schools
180 km of fibre optics 66 schools
175 km of fibre optics 52 schools
200 km of fibre optics 80 schools 4 partners
12 km of fibre optics 9 schools
170 km of fibre optics 111 schools 3 partners
250 km of fibre optics 51 schools
170 km of fibre optics 70 schools 4 partners
60 km of fibre optics 12 schools 4 partners
90 km of fibre optics 40 schools
210 km of fibre optics 58 schools
250 km of fibre optics 54 schools
200 km of fibre optics 35 schools
2 km of fibre optics 3 schools
190 km of fibre optics 73 schools
460 km of fibre optics 72 schools
45 km of fibre optics 15 schools
29 km of fibre optics 11 sites
6 km of fibre optics 5 schools
92 km of fibre optics 20 schools
South Dundas
IROQUOIS
MORRISBURG
South Dundas Results
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Morrisburg , Iroquios Have Fibre Hung
Electronics In and Fibre Lit
ISP’s , ASP’s all Want In he Fibre
Major Employers Inquiring
Very Positive Attitude in Community
Digital Desert to Digital Oasis
Peel County Municipal Fiber Network
 Mississauga, Brampton, Pell
 200 km of Fibre
 96 strand backbone
 “Enough for small country”
 12-60 strands elsewhere
 12,000 strand-kilometers
 Laid end-to-end = Victoria to St.
John’s …...and back again
Ottawa Fiber Condominium
 Consortium consists of 16 members from various sectors including
businesses, hospitals, schools, universities, research institutes
 26 sites
 Point-to-point topology
 144 fibre pairs
 Route diversity requirement for one member
 85 km run
 $11k - $50K per site
 Total project cost $CDN 1.25 million
 Cost per strand less than $.50 per strand per meter
 80% aerial
 Due to overwhelming response to first build – planning for second
build under way
Typical Fiber Capital Costs
 Average total cost between $7 and $15 per meter as follows:
 Engineering and Design:
 $1 - $3 per meter for engineering, design, supervision, splicing
 Plus Installation:
 $7 to $10 per meter for install in existing conduit; or
 $3 to $6 per meter for install on existing poles
 Plus Premise termination:
 Average $5k each
 Plus cost of fiber:
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
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15¢ per strand per meter for 36 strands or less
12¢ per strand per meter for 96 strands or less
10¢ per strand per meter 192 strands or less
5¢ per strand per meter over 192 strands
Condo Fiber Costs - Examples
 Des affluents: Total cost $1,500,00 ($750,00 for schools)
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70 schools
12 municipal buildings
204 km fiber
$1,500,000 total cost
average cost per building - $18,000 per building
 Mille-Isles: Total cost $2,100,000 ($1,500,000 for schools)
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80 schools
18 municipal buildings
223km
$21,428 per building
 Laval: Total cost $1,800,000 ($1,000,000 for schools)

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111 schools
45 municipal buildings
165 km
$11,500 per building
Peel county: Total cost $5m – 100 buildings
 Cost per building $50,000
Typical Payback for school
(Real example – des affluents – north of Montreal)
 Over 3 years total expenditure of $1,440,000 for DSL service
 Total cost of dark fiber network for 75 schools $1,350,000
 Additional condominium participants were brought in to
lower cost to school board to $750,000
 School board can now centralize routers and network servers
at each school
 Estimated savings in travel and software upgrades
$800,000
 Payback typically 8 –16 months
 Independent Study by Group Secor available upon request
Reduction in the number of
servers
Before
fiber
Antennas
Novell Servers
SQL Servers
Lotus Notes Servers
Tape Backup Servers
Ethernet switches/hubs
Routers
Cache/proxy (Linux)
Fire walls (Linux)
78
82
13
2
12
10
108
12
1
After
fiber
0
1
3
1
4
98
3
0
1
Big Cost Saving in VoIP for schools
 Many schools are using dark fiber to enable VoIP telephones to
each teacher’s desk
 Also free phones in hallways for kids to all kids in other scholl
 With dark fiber only cost is the one VoIP phone itself
 VoIP gateway to PSTN is located at school board office
 Most teachers have never had a telephone in their classroom
 Has a bigger impact than multimedia, tele-learning etc
 Schools are ripping out old copper telephone systems and leaving
one copper telephone for emergency purpose
 For more details
http://www.canarie.ca/press/publications/pdf/workshop99/schweik
hardt.pdf
Condo fiber for Business
 Significant reduction in price for local loop costs
 No increase in local loop costs as bandwidth demands increase
 Ability to outsource LAN and web servers to distant location as LAN
speeds and performance can be maintained over dark fiber
 Access to lower cost competitive service providers at carrier neutral
hotels
 New entrants cannot afford high cost of building out their own
fiber networks
 Even small businesses with less than 20 employees can realize
significant savings and benefits
 Examples:
 Colgate-Palmolive build in Cincinnati
 Nortel, Cisco, Gov’t depts in Ottawa
Advantage of Condo Fiber
Carrier managed SONET ring
SONET Mux and ADM
ISP
ISP
Central
Monthly cost
Fixed Bandwidth Office
Central
Office
Today: Customer pays 2 telcos for SONET connections
Long reach lasers
Customer Owned Dark Fiber
ISP
$50K one time
Unlimited Bandwidth
ISP
$50K one time
Unlimited bandwidth
Tomorrow: Multiple Customer owned dark fiber links to ISPs
Condo fiber for cities
 In downtown core minimizes digging up streets
 If N carriers are trying to deploy service then number of times roads has to be torn up
is N squared
 However with condominium fiber road only has to be torn up once
 Produces a competitive market place and level playing field
 New competitive carrier can meet customers at carrier neutral collocation facilities
 Eliminates market advantage of incumbents
 In suburban areas eliminates duopoly of cable and TV companies
 The first company to install fiber into suburban neighborhoods will likely have a
natural monopoly
 In Stockholm home owners have a choice of 4 cable companies
 Makes cities a much more attractive place for new high tech businesses and service
Facilities based competition in
the residential neighborhood?
 Facilities based competition is alive and well in downtown core
 The biggest challenge for governments is manage and coordinate the
digging up of streets
 Outside of downtown in big cities
 Usually only a monopoly telecom provider
 At best a duopoly
 How do we introduce facilities based competition into this market (or at
least come as close as possible to true facilities based competition)?
 As well how can we assure scalable high speed Internet services to the
home that eventually will support Gigabit speeds or higher?
Community Fiber Architecture
 A community consortia would put together a plan to fiber up all public sector
buildings in their community
 A community can be a province, a municipality, village, etc
 A fiber splice box that terminates the fiber at the street side nearby each public
sector building such as school, hospital, library is called a “Node”
 Community should must insure that potential facilities exist near the for private
sector equipment to connect up future home owners – colo facility
 Colo facility allows private sector to extend wireless, VDSL or HFC services to the
neighbourhood around the school
 Public sector buildings will have dedicated fiber strands that connect to a
“Supernode” which is a fiber splice box on the street beside outside of major
public sector central facility such as school board office, city hall, university,
etc
 Community should insure that facilities exist nearby the Supernode for the
private sector to install equipment to service home owners and businesses –
colo facility
 Additional fibers are made available from the Supernode to all Nodes such that
competitive service providers can purchase fiber to the node at some future
date
Possible architecture for large town
Central Office
For Wireless
Company
Carrier Owned
Fiber
School board office
Cable head end
Telco Central
Office
Condominium Fiber
with separate strands
owned by school and by
service providers
School
VDSL, HFC or Fiber
Provisioned by
service provider
Colo
Facility
School
802.11b
Average Fiber
Penetration to 250-500
homes
Marriage of wireless and fiber
 Many companies building longer range and higher speed
versions of 802.11b (11 Mbps)
 Devices are low power and can be attached to fiber cable to
provide inexpensive high bandwidth service for approx 1 km
 No licensing requirements so can be installed easily and
quickly
 Allows easy extension of school or university LAN into the
community
 Student can access university LAN from just about
anywhere in the community
 Ideal for low cost – high bandwidth Internet service to the
community
 No complex traditional wireless systems to manage
Benefits to Industry
 For cablecos and telcos it help them accelerate the deployment of high speed
internet services into the community
 Currently deployment of DSL and cable modem deployment is
hampered by high cost of deploying fiber into the neighbourhoods
 Cable companies need fiber to every 250 homes for cable modem
service, but currently only have fiber on average to every 5000 homes
 Telephone companies need to get fiber to every 250 homes to support
VDSL or FSAN technologies
 Wireless companies need to get fiber to every 250 homes for new high
bandwidth wireless services and mobile Internet
 It will provide opportunities for small innovative service providers to offer
service to public institutions as well as homes
 For e-commerce and web hosting companies it will generate new business in
out sourcing and web hosting
 For Canadian optical manufacturing companies it will provide new
opportunities for sales of optical technology and components
Historical Reference Points
 There is a clear trend in all formerly monopoly services to move to
unbundled competitive services
 Roads and highway systems vs railways: infrastructure was largely
“public”, but the services (e.g. trucking) were private and competitive
 Electrical distribution systems: regulated monopolies (unbundling is on
horizon)
 Gas distribution systems: regulated monopolies (unbundling is well
underway)
 Legacy telecommunications systems: moving to unbundled fiber and
facilities based competition
Carriers are not the only
decision maker in the last mile
 Governments and consumers are becoming more active voice in determining
the future of broadband to home
 Do not assume that carrier best technical solution is the only approach
 Open access is becoming a critical political issue
 Consumers want more than duopoly of cable and telco
 Facilities based competition the best
 Municipalities object to their streets being torn up
 Dig once – bury lots of fiber
 Residents object to street furniture and antennae
An important Role for Government
 Governments promote the framework for GITH networks by funding schools,
universities, libraries, hospitals and municipal buildings as first customers and
early adopters of dark fiber and optical networks
 Private sector leverages that investment by government to promote high speed
Internet access to schools and universities to extend the fiber to the home
 Electric utility companies, municipal governments, CLECs, SMEs,
entrepreneurs, as well as traditional telcos and cablecos can participate as
providers, provided they subscribe to the architecture of open access, facilities
based competition through dark fiber (or wavelengths)
 Emphasize the development and use of technology that specifically addresses the
new architecture and the last mile, which must therefore be open, cheap and
Internet-only
National Broadband Task Force
 Mandate:To map out a strategy and advise the Government on
best approaches to make high-speed broadband Internet
services available to businesses and residents in all Canadian
communities by the year 2004.
 To ensure Canada’s competitiveness in a global economy
 To address the Digital Divide
 To create opportunities for all Canadians
 35 members including carriers, educators, librarians,
communities, equipment manufacturers, etc
 Chair – David Johnston
Conclusion
 Many governments have recognized the
importance of access to low cost dark fiber
as fundamental economic enabler
 It will be the 21st century equivalent to the
roads and railways that were built in the 20th
century