Present:

Apologies were received from:

1. Notes of previous meeting

The notes of the meeting held on 15 January 2002 at ULCC were accepted as an accurate record of the meeting

2. Matters arising

2.1 FE connections

Mick Kahn had yet to clarify the funding model with UKERNA. There was still a need to agree the model with UKERNA. It was noted that in Scotland higher bandwidth connections were being funded. Ian Griffiths suggested that MANs should include clarification of this issue as an action on UKERNA in their transition plans.

Action: Mick Kahn

2.2 Network Services Agreement

Denis Russell reported that the negotiations with UKERNA had gone very well and had been productive.

Some questions were raised regarding the requirements for insurance and it was agreed that a brief paper was required to identify the issues that may require modification of the NSA or action elsewhere.

Action: Denis Russell, Ian Griffiths and Mick Kahn

2.3 Sponsored connections

Scott Currie had drafted a note to UKERNA, but this had not yet been completed. It was unlikely that much progress could be made with the issue until JANET charging had been sorted out. The proposals would be ask UKERNA keep the current arrangements until 31 July 2003 and to merge the proxy license with the main license (to reduce paperwork).

Action: Scott Currie and Mick Kahn

Whilst some MANs may wish to force all sponsored connections to be provided by the MANs, some MANs did not wished to be involved and it would not be either possible or always desirable to do so. One concern was that sponsored connections could be offered by institutions with insufficient technical expertise which might mean that MANs had to sort out problems. There was a need for some formal involvement of the MANs in the process, for example, to be able to deal with security incidents. At the very least MANs needed a list of sponsored connections provided by its sites. It may be appropriate to place and action on UKERNA in the transition plan to provide this information

The need for sites to have proper contracts, covering similar areas to the NSA, with their sponsored connections was noted. This needed to be discussed with UKERNA.

2.4 SLA review

This was progressing satisfactorily and there were no MAN specific issues.

2.5 JANET charging

The UK MANs response to the JISC consultation had been submitted. The current proposal was for a charge to HEIs based on institutional size, which would require no involvement of MANs in administration or measurement. The impact of the increase in the total to be raised was noted as a problem as it was likely to come out of the same budget as MAN contributions.

The consultation on the national web caches was noted and Tim Robinson indicated that one option was to convert to an advisory service.

2.6 GRID and QoS

The meeting to be held in Edinburgh on 1 May to discuss computing services involvement in e-science was noted. MANs were not specifically mentioned in the agenda, but they should be involved. Scott Currie will represent the UK MANs Group at the meeting.

Action: Scott Currie

The lack of an SLA for the JANET multicast service was noted and clarification was needed from UKERNA.

Action: Mick Kahn

UKERNA’s call for expressions of interest in the QoS pilot was noted. This would necessarily involve MANs. A workshop will be held and John Linn will liaise on behalf of the Group, subject to his proposal being accepted.

Action: John Linn

3. Transition plans

Dave Vinograd reported that his contract with UKERNA had now finished and that UKERNA were satisfied with the process.

There were potential cash flow problems for telecommunications recurrent funding for those MANs operating as companies as UKERNA appeared to want the actual invoice from the telco before paying. However, not all MANs seemed to be getting the same story from UKERNA and Ian Griffiths will follow this up.


Action: Ian Griffiths

The needs for PoP contracts would be similar across MANs. The relevant parts of the RDN contract would form the basis.

Kit Powell is producing a contract for locally provided fibre connections and will circulate this.

Action: Kit Powell

Insurance issues had been dealt with under a previous item.

Scott Currie reported that there were possible data protection issues related to data transmission over MANs.

4. Licensing

Chris Cheney had reported by email that there had been no significant developments. The Group will continue to monitor the situation.

5. News from MANs

Wallace Ewart described the development of the NI MAN. The first step had been the connection of the 17 FECs to the Belfast PoP. The second stage was the procurement of a MAN for FE and HE. The third stage will be exploring collaboration with other learning communities and the wider public sector to benefit from economies of scale.

C & NL MAN would be moving from Network North West to connect directly to JANET. Network North West were considering increased FE involvement in governance and liasing with the NHS.

FatMAN were operating as a consortium. Some VAT issues with medical links had arisen.

UHI were continuing to use ATM and would welcome any redundant kit. They were recruiting more local authority schools and libraries.

AbMAN were making progress with setting up procedures for the new company. A Scottish framework agreement for video conferencing kit had been signed with McMillan for Tanberg codecs.

EMMAN were completing their transition plan. There had been major problems with telecomms costs, but a solution had now been identified and agreement with UKERNA was expected soon.

Paul Kentish reported that he was now chair of the Kentish MAN. A resilient link was being installed and an NTI bid will give 10Mbps/34Mbps to FE if successful.

LMN was having some problems with circuit repair of 100Mbps circuits subcontracted to BT. Compensation for late delivery was being used to provide resilience to HEIs and options for resilience to SuperJANET was being explored.

SWERN had had problems with STM-4 links, were re-procuring the Southern links and had submitted their final upgrade plan.

NorMAN had signed a contract for Gigabit replacement connections to HEIs with star connectivity provided over a resilient ring. They are using Thus for out of hours support.

EaStMAN had ordered new 1Gbps connections for all HEIs and some FECs. It was concentrating on HE and FE only.

6. Dates of future meetings

The next meeting will be on Tuesday 2 July 2002 in London. A date for the following meeting in London in October will be arranged by email.

Action: Mick Kahn

7. Any other business

The funding councils review of UKERNA had been published. Ian Griffiths reported that UKERNA had been consulting with its members on its governance with a view to implementing the changes proposed by the report. Robin Arak had made a good (but confidential) presentation on the drivers for strategic change for UKERNA. The identification in the report of need for continuing discussion with MANs was noted. It was agreed to invite Robin Arak to the next UK MANs Group meeting.

Action: Ian Griffiths

There will be second meeting of the MANs Chairs Group on 10 May 2002. UK MANs members should brief their chairs.

It was noted that the RUGs were not very active, but did provide a useful channel to JISC. It would be helpful if the relationship with MANs were clarified. Kit Powell will be consult with Ian Campbell, the chair of JNUG.

Action: Kit Powell.

The Group thanked the University of Ulster and the NI MAN for its hospitality and excellent lunch.