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Membership

Types of Participants

An "Individual" SoX participant is any single university or organization with its own connection into SoX, acquiring Abilene connectivity and optional ISP services. This type of participant is the SoX "customer of record", receiving direct SoX support, with an individual MOU (contract) and invoicing. Each participant is assessed a full membership fee (what is takes to operate the Gigapop, divided by the number of participants).

A Sponsored Educational Group Participant (SEGP) is another type of participant which is generally a state educational networking organization responsible for connectivity to educational systems within its state such as the K-12 and the smaller college community. UCAID established the SEGP model to allow state networks to join and provide service to schools that could not otherwise participate, such as smaller non-research colleges and K1-12 schools. SoX treats SEGP participation as a full "Individual" SoX participant. All SEGPs must go through a connector, an Abilene regional Gigapop, such as SoX. The SEGP has a fiscal responsibility for both UCAID/I2 SEGP and SoX membership fees (see below description of charges in the "SoX Pricing Structure" section). Neither UCAID/I2, nor SoX, will allow a qualified participant to drop behind a SEGP. The SEGP is considered the customer of record and is responsible for support to its down stream entities.

Pricing Structure

The Southern Crossroads has a membership pricing structure that is based upon shared cost, equally divided among participants. This fee pays for the operation of the Gigapop, including the OC192 Abilene connection. Directly connected participants, including SoX "Individual" participants, I2 Corporate partners and I2 Sponsored Participants (such as SEGPs) are assessed a full membership share, invoiced annually for Abilene Connectivity through SoX (often referred to as the SoX membership fee). Indirectly connected I2 Sponsored Participants are not charged by SoX.

Through leveraging of connectivity, the SoX consortium was successful in securing competitive ISP services for our participants. Some of our participants were experiencing costly local commodity Internet service rates, often due to either locale or bandwidth restrictions. SoX was able to help provide relief from these high ISP costs by offering a set of services to those constituents desiring ISP (Qwest, Level3 and Cogent) services. Please see "Exhibit C of MOU" package for detailed pricing and bandwidth limitations.

Abilene/UCAID Membership Fees

Each individual participant (University) is responsible for membership fees to UCAID/Internet2. These fees are outlined on the Internet2 website. These costs are assessed by UCAID directly to all schools that connect to Abilene, whether it is direct connected or connected through an aggregator.

I2 Educational Group Participant (SEGP) Fees (one per state)

Each SEGP Member coming through SoX for Abilene connectivity must be a full "Individual" SoX participant and is responsible for membership fees outlined in the above "SoX Pricing Structure" section.

In addition, the SEGP member is responsible for an annual fee that is billed by UCAID to the Connector (SoX) and is passed onto the SEGP member by SoX. The fee is $30,000 + $2,000 times the number of state representatives in the SEGP member state. This fee is in lieu of the "Abilene/UCAID Membership fee" outlined above that each University that joins I2, must pay. The I2/SEGP fee is over and above the SoX Fees that are shared by all of the SoX participants mentioned above. UCAID bases the number of U.S. House representatives on the information contained in the 2000 U.S. Census Bureau web site.

Future

During calendar year 2006, SoX will continue to mature the operational model and refine the business process. As it continues to evolve, SoX will enable a highly functional, reliable communications system with the ability to integrate high performance voice, data and video services in a competitive multi-vendor environment at reasonable cost and with a quality of service standard.

SoX will continue to serve to connect both Internet2 and non-Internet2 members to each other, thereby enhancing opportunities for collaboration among university researchers at different institutions throughout the Southeast.

Planned future developments include, but are not limited to:

  • Provide opportunities for industrial participation and partnering to develop new national economic models for advanced, integrated services, such as the QUILT, USA Waves, and the National LambdaRail initiatives.

  • Continued support of high bandwidth connectivity to link researchers with increased capabilities via higher bandwidth links to campuses at reduced pricing via partnerships with vendors such as QWEST, Level3, and Cogent;

  • Provide access to other resources, such as the Department of Energy's ESnet, the Oak Ridge National Lab (ORNL), the UCAID Abilene network, and commodity Internet Service Providers (ISPs), and other evolving connectivity models such as lambda based network connectivity via the National LambdaRail initiative

  • Promote research of high bandwidth networks and their operation;

  • Build communities of interest through workshops and other information dissemination means;

  • Enable K-20 schools and others to achieve connectivity by sponsoring state run SEGP network organizations such as the Georgia Board of Regents (PeachNet), Kentucky SEGP, State of South Carolina (SCINET), and the Alabama Supercomputing Authority (ASA);

  • Ensure that potential partnerships and projects involving Federal Agencies and other nationally supported activities utilizing SoX are encouraged and facilitated such as the QUILT, the National LambdaRail, and the Georgia Bioring initiatives.

SoX Membership Agreement

Each SoX participant will sign an agreement in the form of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) before they become a SoX participant. Below is a list of items that make up the MOU package that each participant receives including information on SoX services and pricing.

  1. MOU: an example of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) you will be required to execute. This is an example and if you choose to join SoX an official MOU package will be sent to you. Informational only

  2. MOU Exhibit A: Abilene Connection Agreement between SoX, as the "Connector", and UCAID. Informational only

  3. MOU Exhibit B: Description of SoX services. Informational only

  4. MOU Exhibit C: Description of the SoX ("membership") Abilene connection fee. Invoiced annually to all SoX participants to support the SoX Gigapop and Abilene connection and a description of Commodity Internet charges (optional services for SoX participants) - These are current bandwidth limitations and charges for ISP services. Informational only