Mt. Hood Area Institutional Network

Mount Hood Area Institutional Network

Serving Public, Educational, and Government Users with alternative high speed digital video, voice, and data services.

Background: An extensive optical fiber network was constructed by AT&T Broadband as part of a cable television upgrade mandated by a Franchise renewals in the Portland Metro area. The Franchises cover Portland, Gresham, Wood Village, Troutdale, Fairview, and unincorporated areas of Mulnomah County. The Franchises are all regulated by the Mount Hood Cable Regulatory Commission (MHCRC).

The Fibers were installed at incremental cost as the cable system was upgraded to optical fiber, wide bandwidth, and cable modem service capability. The incremental cost concept allowed the fiber based I-Net to be constructed at a fraction of the cost of a separate fiber network. The fiber network can be used by the schools as well as all city and county government agencies cooperatively, allowing tremendous potential cost savings and new capabilities for the Mt. Hood Area Community.

Technical Description: The Institutional Network (I-Net) is configured with a main ring connecting 6 Hubs. From each Hub, 6 fibers are extended to each residential node area. This configuration provides virtual connectivity to almost any location in Mulnomah County. Any site in the populated area is an average of less than 1/3 mile from I-Net fibers.

The multiple fibers provided in the network can support multiple independent networks. As part of the Franchise, one universal layer of the network has been activated as an Hybrid Fiber Coax (HFC) network, capable of supporting Video, Data, and Telephone services in an economical manner. This was done to provide cost effective services to even the smallest I-Net sites and users. The HFC layer was built using Harmonic Lightwave Dense Wave Multiplex hub concentrators and Harmonic HFC nodes. The I-Net has been activated to the first 210 sites, including most schools, fire stations, county buildings, city halls, police stations, libraries, as well as many selected community centers and parks.

A central I-Net headend is located at the AT&T Troutdale facility, and provides a CableModem Termination System (CMTS) for the purpose of handling system wide Video Conference, and Distance Learning Switching. The Headend also provides a channel lineup of local off-air and Public, Educational and Government (PEG) channels as well as selected educational channels for the schools including CNN, Discovery Classroom, and C-Span.

As users outgrow the capability of the HFC network layer, other layers of fiber can be activated to support full network level connectivity using modern SONET, ATM, or Gig-E type architecture.

Demonstration Project: With the installation and commissioning of the I-Net, a demonstration is planned to show the capabilities of the system to the potential users and the community. A demonstration of Video capabilities, including MPEG2 broadcast quality transmission, and H323 digitally switched video will be shown on June 1, 2001. Partners in the Video demonstration include Mount Hood Community College and Portland Community College, who are already pioneers in Distance Learning. Equipment shown will include MPEG2 video transmission of outgoing classes, and H323 video between classroom and sites. PolyCom video H323 cameras will be shown in some locations.

One week later, a Data and IP telephone (VoIP) will take place on June 28, 2001. The Multnomah Educational Service District will be the partner in this show. High speed data transfer from the MESD central server to work stations at Reynolds and Riverdale schools will be demonstrated. Various VoIP telephone devices will also be shown.

Updated June 20, 2001