Infrastructure

Internet and Wide Area Network.  The strategy for Internet Access is to ensure adequate bandwidth, high reliability, and low cost.  To accomplish this goal the districts have the following architecture:

In the Regional School District a Verizon T1 line provides access to the Internet via our Internet service provider (ISP) the Merrimack Education Collaborative (MEC). This is the primary means of data communications outside the district.  The T1 line is located in the Middle School.  The High School, Lindquist Commons, and the Administration Building are connected to the Middle School via 6 strand single-mode and 12 strand multi-mode fiber optic cables.

Routing and control to the T1 is provided by a CISCO 1751 router and a Sonicwall 300 firewall.

The Chickering School in Dover is connected to the Middle School via a wide area network (WAN) called the I-Loop or I-Net.  This is a coaxial connection provided by COMCAST as part of the community contract for cable service.  The districts provide the Bay Network Routers and Zenith Metro Access Modems that provide the active source to the passive lines.  

Each school is also outfitted with a free COMCAST residential cable modem under the former AT&T Schools Connection Program.  In addition to the broader bandwidth these modems supply they also act as a backup to the T1 line, and vice versa, to ensure connectivity to the Internet is not disrupted.

At present, the T1 and the cable modems provide adequate bandwidth; however, in 2003 we began seeing some peak use on the T1.  To see a sample bandwidth use graphic for the T1 line Click Here.  There will likely be a need to consider a second T1 for school year 2005-2006.

The Pine Hill School in Sherborn is not connected to the I-Loop.  Its only connection to the Internet is its COMCAST residential cable modem.  It is highly desirable to connect the Pine Hill school to the other buildings in the district.  This will permit Pine Hill to connect to District resources such as financial and budgeting systems and benefit from remote technical support.

Alternative Internet access was budgeted for Pine Hill in school year 2002/2003, but was not executed due to budget freezes.  An alternative path for the Pine Hill School continues to be pursued.  DSL is not available in the area due to the distance from a Verizon central office. 

One possibility for Pine Hill is to connect the building to the Dover I-Loop.  This option is under discussion as part of the Sherborn cable access negotiations with COMCAST.

Strategic Goal:  The Regional Campus was linked via fiber-optic cable in 2004.  A priority goal is to now connect the Chickering School and Pine Hill School to the Regional Campus via fiber-optic cable.  This will permit the bandwidth needed to fully integrate data, voice and video in the future.

The future of video, voice and data communications demands fiber-optic connectivity.  The districts are examining options in this area.  There are many considerations.   One option is to connect the Pine Hill and Chickering Schools to the Middle School with fiber-optic cable.  This option would cost approximately $170,000. A second option is to include the municipal government buildings of Dover and Sherborn as part of the project.  This option would cost approximately $300,000.  A great deal of research and analysis is required before any proposals are made. Funding options include: 

COMCAST is presently required to provide and support an I-Loop connection to municipal buildings, but has a desire to withdraw from these commitments. Potentially, approximately $200,000 in funding for Sherborn, and $165,000 for Dover could be provided by COMCAST for a portion of the fiber-optic installation in exchange for dropping the I-Loop commitment.

VERIZON is introducing its Fiber to the Home product (FiOS) to Sherborn and Dover. Under existing law VERIZON must provide an equivalent investment in the towns to that provided by COMCAST.  This could amount to several hundred thousand dollars.

Application for a Homeland Security Safety Grant to install video monitoring of all government buildings is possible. 

There are also potential savings offered by the creation of this high speed WAN.  Phone systems could migrate to a central VoiceOverIP system saving considerable monthly phone charges.  Data storage and services could be consolidated at a single location with greater capacity, security, and efficiency.

Strategic Goal:   Create a fiber-optic link to the ISP in order to expand bandwidth to the Internet to the Gb range for the future. 

The districts now use a combination of cable modems and a Verizon T1 line for Internet access.  A fiber-optic link to the ISP would provide hundreds of times more bandwidth than the combined resources of today.    If the two municipal governments were to participate in the creation of the fiber-optic WAN they could also receive Internet bandwidth through this connection with much greater speed, and eliminating the dial-up and cable connections they now use.  This service would likely be leased from the ISP. The price would be similar to the present T1 cost.

Firewalls and Filtering.  The Districts use firewalls and content filtering to decrease vulnerability to hackers and to protect students from inappropriate materials in accordance with the Child Internet Protection Act (CIPA).  A  Sonicwall 300 is the primary firewall and is connected to the T1 line at the Middle School.  All COMCAST residential cable modems have either a Sonicwall 230 connected for firewall services.  Content filtering is performed using the CyberNot database provided by Sonic. 

Email.  The Districts use Open Text FirstClass for email services.  All staff, and High School and Middle School students have email accounts on the FirstClass server.

Local Area Networks.  The local area networks (LAN) in each building are 100mb per second to the desktop.  100% of all classrooms in all buildings have access to the LAN and Internet. In addition, wireless computers use 802.11b standards for 11mb per second access.  Bay Network 450T switches are used at Pine Hill School.  All other buildings use CISCO switching.

Operating Systems.  The Regional High School, Middle School and Chickering School use Windows 2000 Servers and Windows 2000 Professional clients.  The Pine Hill School is a mixed client environment.  It operates four Windows 2000 Servers, two OSX Servers, and one Apple Share IP server.  This permits students to login to either a Mac or PC and access their files from a common location on a Windows 2000 file server.

Security.  The districts employ a layered defense for security.  Physical security is the first layer of defense.  Offices and classrooms are locked when not occupied by a staff member.  Virtual LANs (aka VLANs) are used extensively as a primary defense method to isolate and protect databases and resources.  Subnets are also employed to further isolate resources.  All available security techniques are employed to isolate and protect wireless networks.  All students and staff have individual network logins.  File level security on NTFS partitions are employed.

Disaster Recovery.   A disaster recovery plan is in place and actively employed to ensure vital databases and files can be reconstituted at another location should a catastrophic event occur at one site.

Alternative Internet Access.   Surveys within the districts and collection of parent/guardian email addresses indicate that at least 98% of student homes have Internet access and the majority have high speed broadband access.  Students who do not have Internet access at home can work in school libraries before and after school hours according to posted schedules.  Also, the Dover and Sherborn Public Libraries offer free Internet access.