Through the leadership of the executive and legislative arms of state government, construction of the ICN began in 1991. The initial two phases included 104 sites (one fiber optic endpoint for each of the 99 counties in Iowa, and an endpoint at each of the three State universities, one at Iowa Public Television, and one on the Capitol Complex).
The third phase of ICN deployment, begun in 1995, added another 482 sites including most public and private school districts, Area Education Agencies and Public Libraries throughout the State. Another 60 National Guard, 22 Federal Government, and 20 medical sites also planned to connect to the ICN.
The core network operates at OC48 (2.4 gigabits/sec). Major links including those to the universities operate at OC48. There are 15 regional hubs also operating at OC48. Each county has a POP that is fed by at least an OC12. The ICN operates video and telephone switches.
In 1995, in partnership with the state universities, the ICN became an Internet provider for Iowa education and government. By late 1995, the ICN offered ATM DS3 (45 Mbps) connections. This connection relieved the bottleneck that occurred due to the inadequacy of the previous DS1 connections. However, it soon became apparent beyond the local networking environment that the Internet was congested, extremely so at times. The quality of services now available, while affecting all users, has a pernicious effect on research endeavors, particularly those which depend on time dependent communications with other research sites on the Internet.
The relationship between ISU and UI as institutions and the ICN is twofold. One is that ISU and UI are customers of ICN in the ICN's role as an ISP (Internet Service Provider). Both ISU and UI are free to choose their ISP. The other relationship is that of partners. As agencies of the state of Iowa, all three organizations have collaborated to provide high quality, cost effective Internet access for state educational and governmental organizations.
In 2000, ISU and UI upgraded to OC12 connections to the ICN.
In 2004, the connections between ISU, UI and the ICN were changed to gigabit ethernet. UI established two gigabit lines to Chicago. One connects them to Cogent for commodity Internet bandwidth. The other connects to Internet2. At this point, the ICN became a backup ISP for UI. In addition, ISU set up a 75 Mbps to Qwest for a backup Internet connection.
In late 2005 and early 2006, the relationship between the partners changed once again. This time, the ICN dropped its other connections and ISU and UI became the ISPs for the ICN. Also at this time, ISU established a gigabit link to Wiltel (now merged with Level3).
Maintained by grpjl@iastate.edu. Last changed 18-Jun-2007.
