The planning horizon for remote access technologies, given the rapid evolution of
technology, is a maximum of three years beyond the two-year interim solution (for a
total of five years). Three years is also the maximum recommended replacement cycle
for any equipment purchased. The potential for high-speed networking in xDSL or cable
modem service offered to the home desktop, as well as the evolving standards for voice
over data, reinforce this need for this narrow planning window.
The remote access technologies discussed in this section include:
- Analog modems
- ISDN
- XDSL
- Cable modems
- Wireless
These technologies are compared, both in the narrative below, and in the "Remote
Access Technologies Comparison Table" which follows the narrative.
A minimum remote access telecommunications infrastructure is based on the
telephone system, whereby data communications is provided through dial-up services,
using modems at each end and a communication server at the host end.
The most common method of Internet access is via modem. Relative to the speeds of
other networking technologies, modem speeds are lowest, although recent standards
development has increased speeds to 56Kbps. Attractive as the higher speed sounds,
transmission uncertainties in the public switched network and aging copper loops
mean that most phone systems are not capable of supporting higher data rates reliably.
Modem configuration for use with a particular remote access service can be moderately
difficult, but once connection scripts are set up, actual use is straight-forward.
In general, dial-up modem services are well-understood, basic, reliable
and "no-frills," and are likely, in one form or another, to continue to be
the most common remote access connection method for the next decade. According to the
Gartner Group (Remote Access Conference presentation, 4/98), "modems rule in
2002." Modems have the dominant "market share" currently, and GG predicts
that analog modems will continue to dominate with 64% of the remote access market share
through 2003 (.9 probability). Analog modems will continue to be the easiest-to-use,
universal-connection method, for the following reasons:
- Start-up costs for modems are lower than any other connection method.
The price of analog modems (end-user equipment in particular) is lower than for any other connection device, and will continue to be so. For the most part, modems have become standard issue for new computers, so the end user doesn't even see the cost as separate. In addition, many end-users can utilize their existing phone lines for analog service. From this perspective, their effective start-up cost to use an analog modem is zero. Even if it were necessary to purchase a modem, the cost is typically under $150. In contrast, initial costs for getting an ISDN line installed can be as much as $220 (if business Centrex service is used), and even the cheapest ISDN devices are several hundred dollars. From the end-user perspective, even ISDN, as the next lowest cost approach to analog modems, can represent a minimum initial investment of $500 or so. If the costs of installation complexity are factored in, the differential in start-up costs for modems vs. other technologies is even more marked.
- Total on-going costs for analog modems are somewhat less than those for other connection methods.
Unless a toll charge is involved or the phone line is a business line, users usually receive a flat-rate monthly bill for their phone service (whether used for data or voice). In comparison, monthly charges for ISDN are at least $30 from the telephone carrier, and the tariff provides for charging measured business rates during the business day (charge per minute); this does not include the monthly Internet connection charges, which typically start at $30 per month. Even for flat rate services such as AT&T's wireless data services, the monthly charge is steeper ($30/month for PocketNet; $50/month for packet data).
- The transport network on which analog modems depend is ubiquitous.
Analog modems depend on the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), which in the USA and most other modern countries is ubiquitous to the home. Other transport networks are less distributed. For example, the cable network in Davis is not presently engineered to support data, and there are no plans to upgrade it any time soon. While ISDN availability follows closely behind modems in geographic reach, availability is limited to a certain maximum distance from the Central Office, and installation in some areas of Davis has involved trenching in people's yards.
- The service is reliable.
While many have experienced cable outages, phone service interruptions are rare (which means that both ISDN and modem options are the most dependable). Wireless performance is sensitive to weather, especially rain.
- For many applications, the current speed of 56 Kbps is "good enough."
The PSTN does have a bandwidth constraint of 64 Kbps per channel, and there are often local loop limitations that restrict users' speeds even further. Even though the industry has been pushing hard to increase modem speeds through hardware and software enhancements, they have likely reached fundamental physical limits with 56 Kbps. However, with performance-optimization applications such as compression, caching, and deferred access (through middleware), this speed limit will be "good enough" for many remote access needs.
Back to top   |   back to Table of Contents.
The integrated services in "Integrated Services Digital Network" are voice, video
and data, transmitted digitally, over a telephone network. Existing pairs of copper wire that
service the home or business with bi-directional analog telephone service can also carry
bi-directional digital transmission with an upgrade to the switch at the phone company's
central office. This upgrade was carried out two years ahead of schedule at Pacific Bell's
Davis central office due to the combined efforts of UC Davis and the City of Davis.
Note that for Internet access, an ISDN connection in itself is not enough. The ISDN connection
to the public switched telephone network must be supplemented with a connection to an Internet
Service Provider's Point of Presence (POP).
A typical ISDN connection is a BRI (Basic Rate Interface). A BRI consists of two 64Kbps
B ("bearer") channels for carrying user information, and one 16Kbps D ("delta")
channel for signaling and set-up. Each 64Kbps channel has its own telephone numbers; most ISPs
will split the channels and assign them separately. Due to the way most telephone companies
communicate between central office switches, the actual speed of an ISDN B channel is 56Kbps.
Vendors have developed their own proprietary compression methods, which means that the best
performance is generally achieved when the hardware at each end is from the same manufacturer,
or when the end user hardware is capable of using the hub manufacturer's compression.
ISDN services can either be dedicated or contended. Dedicated service provides a full-time
network connection, and is suitable for maintaining a server. Contended service provides for
resources that are shared at the host end in much the same way as a modem pool, and provides
what is often called "on-demand" service. From the user's point of view, the
connection is always available without login, but at the host end the service is dropped
after a certain period of inactivity (two minutes, for example). When the connection is
needed, the ISDN device sets up a call to the remote site, and handles authentication. This
happens very quickly (usually two to five seconds), where a modem connection routinely takes
30 to 45 seconds. For example, a user may double-click on a Web browser, and a network
connection is made to download the page. As the user reads through the Web page, the connection
is no longer necessary, and when the connection has been idle for a programmed amount of time,
the call is disconnected and that line becomes available for another ISDN user. If the previous
user clicks on a new link that requires a network connection, the ISDN line again becomes active
and the network connection is made. Assuming an acceptable contention ratio, this process is
transparent to the user, and appears to be a full-time network.
ISDN is suitable for electronic mail, active Web use, teleconferencing, and even transmission
of complex still images (e.g., medium resolution x-ray images).
From the point of view of the end-user, ISDN hardware and communication costs are more
expensive than a modem. Prices for hardware range from $200-1500, depending on the
required features, and purchase of an Ethernet card is necessary if the computer is
not already equipped with one. In addition, there are installation charges (from $159.75
for residential to $220.70 for business Centrex) and monthly costs as follows:
- Flat monthly rate from the phone company for the ISDN line (either $29.50 or $33.55, depending on whether the line is residential or business);
- Connect charges from the phone company for time the ISDN line is in use. Local usage is billed at regular business rates Mon-Fri 8 a. m. - 5 p. m. (approximately $.04 for the first minute, and $.01 for each additional minute). All other times, usage for the first 200 hours per month is flat-rated, with the regular charges applied after that. These rates apply to each B-Channel used.
- Note that for Centrex ISDN services, there are no connect charges for connections within the Centrex. This type of service is available where the ISP can be guaranteed that some other organization or institution (such as the university) will be ultimately responsible for the Centrex bill.
- A flat monthly rate for the ISP (may range from $30/month to $315/month, depending on the combination of number of B channels and service level hours of connectivity up to full-time, dedicated connectivity)
- Sometimes, the ISP may also charge a per hour connect charge for any time beyond the upper limit defined in the service level agreement.
- At the host end, many dial-up communication servers already come equipped to support ISDN connections. For example, the Cisco equipment purchased for the Interim Remote Access Service came with ISDN capabilities at no extra charge.
Service deployment of ISDN has been slow due to configuration and installation
complexity, limited availability, and a lengthy standardization process. As a consequence,
although ISDN has become more widely available and costs have decreased, Gartner Group
classifies this service as "too little, too late." Because of the increases in
modem speeds, and the significant cost premium to the marginal speed improvement offered
by ISDN, ISDN will be limited to a remote access niche solution, for faculty and staff who
are fixed-location telecommuters, and for remote offices as a back-up service
to mission-critical WAN service. Gartner Group gives the emerging technologies of wireless
and xDSL the competitive edge.
Back to top   |   back to Table of Contents.
XDSL is similar to ISDN in that, with an upgrade of central office equipment and the
installation of special end-user equipment, it takes advantage of existing telephone lines
to support digital signaling, although at a higher data rate than ISDN. Typically, the data
rates are asymmetric (the data rate from the subscriber to the Internet, the
"upstream" data rate) is slower than the data rate from the opposite direction
(the "downstream" rate). The upstream rate is similar to ISDN ranging from 64Kbps
to 1.5Mbps; the downstream rate is 1Mbps to 8Mbps.
The same barriers that prevented swift, wide-scale adoption of ISDN are present for xDSL
technologies. These include:
- Standards stability
hasn't been achieved yet, although there is some standards convergence to ADSL in near term. Competing standards include ADSL, G.Lite, HDSL, RADSL, SDSL, VDSL.
- End-user costs for equipment and monthly charges are high.
Currently, equipment prices are too high for the typical consumer ($500 to $1,000), although prices are expected to drop to modem levels by 2001. Monthly costs are estimated at $150 per month.
- Upgrades
to central office equipment necessary to support the service will be phased, resulting in limited service availability. For example, UC Davis staff met with Pacific Bell, and were told that there are no plans to upgrade the Davis central office equipment to support xDSL. In order to expedite this upgrade, the university would need to work with other area institutions (City of Davis, apartment complex owners, school districts) to aggregate the market enough to meet Pacific Bell's minimum market demands.
- Set-up, installation and configuration is complex and difficult to support.
Most phone companies don't have a long history of experience with supporting a wide variety of customer premise equipment (consumer computer platforms are much less standard than phones).
- Gartner Group's recommendation is that, "through 2002, enterprises should treat xDSL as a regional, specialized technology and use it only when clear cost/benefit propositions can be demonstrated in comparison to more highly available services like analog modems and ISDN.
In terms of capacity, engineering, and economics, cable has been identified as
the clear winner.
The logical (as opposed to physical) topology of cable is exactly that of traditional
computer networks, where everyone on the network shares the same physical signal-carrying
medium, and is always connected (dividing the available bandwidth among all of the
simultaneous users). This is in contrast to modems and ISDN, where the user has exclusive
access to a fixed-size data channel while connected to the network; however, if the ISDN
or modem service is not sized properly or managed effectively, there may not be a port
available on demand, and these users may experience delays in getting access. This isn't
the case with cable, where the major factor affecting the downstream speed of any connection
is the number of simultaneous users.
Of the connection technologies currently available, cable offers the highest speeds to
the individual user. Though there are relatively few products available for making an
Internet-style connection through a cable network, speed ranges from as much as 47Mbps
to 500Kbps in each direction, considerably outperforming the end-user products of other
technologies. While newer models have high maximum downstream speeds (reflecting the
dominant industry and user conception of cable as a one-way flow of information), they
may also require the use of telephone lines and a modem in the upstream direction. The
notation "direction" is important. While the conceptual framework of computer
networking assumes a symmetrical flow of information (an assumption carried out in modem,
wireless and ISDN connections), this may not be true of cable as a networking technology.
Cable companies have deployment barriers similar to those of phone companies:
- Need to upgrade infrastructure to support data networking services, and lack of market penetration to justify such an upgrade;
- Lack of corporate experience with data networking service issues (support, service and security);
- Evolving standards environment and embryonic market for end-user products (although MCNS DOCSIS has now been adopted as the industry standard, there is still a limited choice of available end-user products) ;
- High cost for end-user products ($500, but expecting under $200 by 2000);
- Relatively high monthly cost, although this does include ISP services ($50/month).
In order to support high-speed, two-way transmissions, the Davis cable infrastructure has
to be upgraded, requiring a substantial capital improvement. As in ISDN, the most important
player in service provisioning and deployment is the carrier, in this case the cable company.
Although UC Davis representatives have been negotiating for three years with TCI, the cable
company for Davis until the recent franchise change, the company has not been willing to upgrade
the cable plant to support two-way data transmission.
(Note: A separate team is working on wireless pilots and evaluation of potential services,
and will issue a separate report.)
Under the broadest definition of the term, existing wireless communication systems include
radio, infrared, and cellular technologies-that is, radio and TV broadcasting, cellular
telephony, specialized mobile radio, wireless data, microwave and satellite services. As
with other communication technologies, wireless systems are converting to digital signaling.
At this point in time, wireless technologies have not evolved sufficiently to serve as
replacements to traditional wire-based technologies, but do provide promising solutions in
certain niches or gaps not well-served by wired infrastructures. Wireless networking is a
collective term for solutions for two quite different problems:
- In cases where it is difficult or impossible to install a conventional wired network infrastructure, or where networking is needed only temporarily (portable networking);
- For the mobile user, who needs access to data communications while traveling or in the field.
While speeds have improved considerably in the past two years, wireless still represents
slower speeds than other networking technologies, accompanied by higher costs and lower
quality. For example, AT&T wireless packet data service is $50 per month (fixed rate),
with initial investment of $500 for the wireless card. Speed is currently limited to 19.2Kbps.
As is true for both xDSL, and cable, service availability for wireless is limited in
Davis (beyond cellular and PCS wireless services). For example, UC Davis met in June 1998
with representatives from Metricom (a wireless data service provider operating in the Bay
Area) who indicated that they intend to pull back on any service expansions of any kind
pending an upgrade in their network speed from 28.8Kbps to 128.8Kbps, which they forecast
in the September 1999 time frame. Even after the upgrade, Metricom will focus on the L. A.
and San Diego regions before considering any service rollout in the Sacramento region.
Back to top   |   back to Table of Contents.
Remote Access Technologies-Comparison Table
Sources: Gartner Group Remote Access Conference 4/98; UC Davis Wireless Project Team
Comparison Parameter |
Analog Modems |
ISDN |
XDSL |
Cable Modems |
Wireless & Satellite |
Data rates |
28.8 Kbps - 56 Kbps |
128 Kbps (BRI); 2 B channels (64 Kbps plus D channel @ 16 Kbps |
Upstream: 64 Kbps - 1.5 Mbps
Downstream: 1 Mbps to 8 Mbps |
Upstream: 128 Kbps - 10 Mbps
Downstream: 10 - 27 Mbps |
Terrestrial: 19.2 Kbps - 10 Mbps
Satellite:
Downstrm:56 Kbps; 400Kbps today
Upstream: 2Mbps; 16Mbps in 2002
|
Standards |
V.32bis, V.34/v.fast, V.90 for 56K modems |
ITU-T ISDN 1.411, 1.412, 1.430, 1.431 |
ADSL, HDSL, RADSL, SDSL, VDSL |
MCNS DOCSIS |
Terrestrial: IMT-2000; CDPD, PCS:TDMA, CDMA, GSM; 802.11
Satellite: proprietary
|
Standards stability |
Recent standardization for 56K modems |
Very stable & well established |
In process with many forms of xDSL; standards convergence to simple ADSL in near-term; (G.Lite is promising) |
Standards-based equipment will be available later in 1998 |
Terrestrial: Intense standards competition;
Satellite: many proprietary standards |
Connection type |
Dial-up via the Public Switched Telephone Network |
Fast dial-up on demand (transparent connection) |
Primarily dedicated; some options switched. |
Shared Ethernet (actual throughput varies with number of subscribers using segment) |
Shared multiple access (CDMA, TDMA) |
Ease of configuration/set-up |
With installation script, relatively easy |
Moderately difficult |
Moderately difficult |
Moderately difficult |
Moderately difficult |
Ease of connection |
Can be scripted; easy |
Easier than modem |
Easier than modem |
Easier than modem |
Moderately difficult, depending on technology |
Modulation |
Analog |
Digital |
Digital |
Digital |
Analog/Digital |
Security/authentication |
Kerberos supported |
Occurs ISDN box to ISDN box; user authentication more difficult |
Occurs xDSL device to xDSL device; user authentication more difficult |
Likely to lack security support needed at enterprise level |
Depends on technology |
Transmission medium |
Normal telephone lines |
Copper lines |
Copper loops (residential supports digital data analog voice over same ) |
Hybrid fiber/coaxial cable (HFC) |
Terrestrial: .85-2.3 GHz
Satellite: Ku-Band today; Ka-Band in 2002 |
Back to top   |   back to Table of Contents.
Remote Access Technologies-Comparison Table
Sources: Gartner Group Remote Access Conference 4/98; UC Davis Wireless Project Team
Comparison Parameter |
Analog Modems |
ISDN |
XDSL |
Cable Modems |
Wireless & Satellite |
Availability |
Ubiquitous
Deployment (and actual service penetration) at 97% |
Distance limitation of 18000 ft. from Central Office; some areas still not available. Nationwide deployment at 85% |
Not available in Davis; Pac Bell has no plans to include Yolo County in first distribution. Nationwide deployment at 10% |
Not available in Davis; cable industry has retrenched several times on implementation plans
Deployment at 75% |
Terrestrial: coverage increasing rapidly
Deployment at 80% |
Market size |
$1.6 Billion |
$500M (growing 15%/yr) |
Embryonic but poised for high growth |
Embryonic |
Embrynoic |
Top vendors |
3COM (US Robotics), Global Village, Hayes, Compaq |
3COM, XyXel, Motorola, Boca Research, Hayes, Arescom |
40 vying for position and standards. Early leaders include Alcatel, Nortel, Paradyne, Pairgain and Cisco |
20 vying for position; Bay Networks, Motorola, Toshiba, 3COM, Hayes, Com21 |
Terrestrial: Nokia, Ericson, NEC, Psion, Samsung, Motorola
Satellite: Hughes |
Equipment price |
Under $150 (note: devices include both data and fax modem in same device, and are available in all form factors (internal, external, PCMCIA) |
$200-$400 |
$500-$1000 |
$375 for non-MCNS unit in 1997 |
Terrestrial: Modem card and/or handset, $250-700
Satellite: Under $1,000 |
Network services price |
Avg. $20/mo/line; for business rate, .09/minute [**subject to tariff change] $0 - $50.00 |
$50/month plus .18/minute [**subject to tariff change] ($25-$100/month |
$150/month
$45-$200/month in 2003 |
$50/month
$35-$65/month in 2003 |
Terrestrial: $30-50/mo flat rate; $.20-60/Kbyte
Satellite: $100/month |
Appropriate applications |
E-Mail; some Web surfing; not appropriate for videoconferencing |
Usual apps, plus telecommuting, back-up, videoconferencing |
Full range of applications, including Internet2 |
Full range of applications, including Internet2 |
Best technology for geographically remote area where no access to wireline, and for completely mobile worker;
For tethered worker, one-way downstream via satellite (with upstream employing wireline) |
Back to top   |   back to Table of Contents.
Remote Access Technologies-Comparison Table
Sources: Gartner Group Remote Access Conference 4/98; UCD Wireless Project Team
Comparison Parameter |
Analog Modems |
ISDN |
XDSL |
Cable Modems |
Wireless & Satellite |
Key trends |
Commodity market with low vendor margins;
Dominant through 2003 |
Never really took off, and now not fast enough to really compete with analog modems, given price;
Equipment prices going down (commodifying) |
Because copper-based will be major contender for remote access dominance; expect modem-like prices by 2001 and per month costs of $50-$75 |
Cable industry poised for aggressive roll-out, but not clear if in this region; very b content and ISP focus; major battle between Telcos (xDSL) and cable companies.
Expect equipment costs of under $200 by 2000 |
For terrestrial:
Expect hardware and service costs to drop by 30% or more;
Expect coverage to increase and bandwidth to remain constrained;
For satellite: expect new generation (separate systems for tethered/untethered workers) to come on-line 2001-2003 |
Match to UC Davis remote access needs |
High match through 2002 |
Good for tethered telecommuter and off-campus office |
Not available in Davis |
Not available in Davis |
Cellular, PCS & packet data good niche solutions; Metricom not available in Davis |
Recommendations for monitoring this technology for future use |
|
Continue pilot testing with interim remote access service equipment |
CR should continue working to develop regional market aggregation, and negotiate with Pacific Bell |
CR should continue working to develop regional market aggregation, and negotiate with Media One (new cable provider) |
See separate report |
Back to top   |   back to Table of Contents.
In order to assess the potential cost of resolving the remote access issue and to
provide some short term relief to modem congestion, IT funded a pilot faculty modem
service in 1997. This 96-port pilot enabled the evaluation of:
- Segmenting the modem pools among user groups (faculty, staff and students)
- Newer software-controlled remote access technologies (56k, ISDN)
- Providing high speed access for faculty developing Web pages and other on-line
course materials.
As a consequence of preliminary findings, the Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor
approved an allocation of $563,000 to add an additional 384 ports to the modem pool and
maintain them for a two-year period. This allocation did not cover depreciation costs
or all support costs.
The cost projection figures in this section are based on experience with the original
pilot costs and implementation of the interim remote access service, and provide an
estimate of the cost if the campus were to provide remote access services to all
faculty, staff and students. This cost information is intended to provide a baseline
for other alternatives. For informational purposes, the cost to support the existing
14.4 modems is also included.
The Gartner Group predicts that "through 2001, the annual IT costs (platform, data
network and voice network) for remote (users) will be 63% to 157% higher than for office-bound
workers." That is, providing a system to access the campus network remotely is far
more costly than providing fixed site resources.
As the number of remote access clients increase, all costs associated with providing quality
service increase when the system is "owned" in-house. The business decision for the
funding of a remote access solution requires breaking down an IT operating model into five
broad categories:
- One-time costs are the costs to acquire hardware and software needed for remote access connectivity and monitoring of the network, personnel costs to design and install the system, and the costs to install communication lines.
- On-going costs include charges for the communication lines and Internet access, depreciation/replacement costs, and equipment maintenance costs.
- Technical support, including support staff training, scheduled maintenance, problem resolution and repair.
- End-user operations including, end-user training and support.
- Remote user costs including remote office set-up and compliance with safety and OSHA regulations. These are usually associated with the office telecommuter and not all remote access users; but may be a legal issue that could surface if students/faculty/staff are required to access the network remotely. Other than potential recharge rates to fund remote access, these costs have not been estimated in this report.
- Administration includes asset management, policy and procedures, purchasing, installation, audit, change management, backup and other routine back-office functions. In the absence of policies with regard to remote access (although the development of such policies is recommended), these costs cannot be estimated for the purpose of this report.
The following table summarizes the costs of the existing 14.4 modem service. Costs
which are not included are equipment replacement costs or depreciation,
user support costs for support provided through IT Express, and the costs for remote
software licensing, development and maintenance associated with Bovine On-Line.
Existing 14.4 Modem Service Costs |
Cost |
Current estimated communication line costs |
$29,580 |
Percentage share of CR overhead based upon size of service and support staff |
41,604 |
Salaries and benefits for support |
57,757 |
Minimum repair costs |
5,300 |
|
TOTAL
$134,241 |
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The following two scenarios demonstrate cost sensitivity to quality of service
(contention ratio) and quantity of users. These scenarios were derived from a model
which assumes that certain costs, such as equipment costs, increase relative to the
number of ports or users, while other costs are relatively fixed (in that they are
not related to the number of users or number of ports).
For simplicity in calculating contention ratios, no stratification of service into
dedicated user group pools (for example, between faculty, students, staff) were
included in the scenarios. The installation costs represent the cost to install a
modem pool with the ports indicated. Development costs associated with the implementation
of new software managed modems have already been absorbed with the recent modem pool
expansion and therefore not included in these costs. Likewise, some infrastructure
costs to support the potential quantity of users have also been incurred, and therefore
only their replacement costs are factored into the model. Should a decision be rendered
to implement a modem pool of the sizes provided in these scenarios, the actual installation
cost would be discounted because of the recent acquisition of 480 modems. The savings
realized by this would be partially offset by the fact that these modems would be 2/3
of the way through their life cycle and would need to be replaced one year into the new
service program. (No depreciation reserves for these modems were included in the initial
funding allocations.) Full details on the calculation of the costs used in this model
are provided in Appendix B.
The first baseline user population is 18,910 as determined below and is used for Scenario A.
Faculty: 1,037
Estimated as follows:
Total Senate/SOE/Unit 18 1,383 Source: Planning and Budget estimate
Estimate 75% own computer with modem.
Staff (includes other academic personnel): 1,814
Total Staff: 9,454 Source:Personnel Statistics 6/97
Estimate 19% are telecommuters.
Students: 16,059
The student population was estimated as follows:
|
|
Students Totals |
Notes |
TOTAL, ALL STUDENTS |
|
24,299 |
Source: Fact card |
On-campus residence halls |
|
3,750 |
Source: Student Housing |
Solano/Orchard Park |
|
475 |
|
Domes/Cooperative Housing |
|
|
|
TOTAL ON-CAMPUS |
|
4,225 |
|
TOTAL OFF-CAMPUS |
|
20,074 |
|
COMPUTER OWNERSHIP |
|
|
|
Estimated Percentage of Students owning computers |
75% |
18,224 |
Source: ASUCD and IT surveys, Winter �97 |
Estimated Off-Campus Students owning computers |
75% |
15,056 |
|
Estimated Off-Campus students with access needs |
80% |
16,059 |
This figure assumes 5% of roommates share access |
The second user population baseline is 28,000, which is a gross potential user
population with 80% remote access adoption rate. This figure is used for cost model
Scenario B.
ESTIMATED BUDGET TO UPGRADE MODEM POOL |
SCENARIO A: Current estimated user population 18,910 |
Contention Ratio |
20 |
15 |
10 |
Number of Ports (Based on 24 port increments) |
960 |
1344 |
1920 |
One-Time Implementation Costs (Variable) |
$462,211 |
$656,993 |
$935,748 |
Fixed Billing Costs (If Recharge Model is Adopted) |
$22,976 |
$22,976 |
$22,976 |
Total One-Time Costs with Billing |
$485,187 |
$679,969 |
$958,724 |
|
|
|
|
Annual Costs |
|
|
|
Variable O&M Costs |
$416,712 |
$563,145 |
$779,225 |
Variable Support Costs |
$210,000 |
$210,000 |
$210,000 |
Fixed Costs |
$104,853 |
$104,853 |
$104,853 |
Total Annual Costs |
$731,565 |
$877,998 |
$1,094,078 |
Variable Billing Costs (If Recharge Model is Adopted) |
$37,820 |
$37,820 |
$37,820 |
Total Annual Costs with Billing |
$769,385 |
$915,818 |
$1,131,898 |
|
|
|
|
Total Costs (Without Billing) |
$1,193,776 |
$1,534,990 |
$2,029,826 |
Total Costs (With Billing) |
$1,254,572 |
$1,595,786 |
$2,090,622 |
|
|
|
|
Annual Cost/User (Without Billing) |
$ 38.69 |
$ 46.43 |
$ 57.86 |
Annual Cost/User (With Billing) |
$ 40.69 |
$ 48.43 |
$ 59.86 |
ESTIMATED BUDGET TO UPGRADE MODEM POOL |
SCENARIO B: Current estimated user population 28,000 |
Contention Ratio |
20 |
15 |
10 |
Number of Ports (Based on 24 port increments) |
1440 |
1920 |
2880 |
One-Time Implementation Costs (Variable) |
$693,317 |
$935,748 |
$1,400,340 |
Fixed Billing Costs (If Recharge Model is Adopted) |
$22,976 |
$22,976 |
$22,976 |
Total One-Time Costs with Billing |
$716,293 |
$958,724 |
$1,423,316 |
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Annual Costs |
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|
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Variable O&M Costs |
$621,777 |
$804,223 |
$1,164,357 |
Variable Support Costs |
$270,000 |
$270,000 |
$270,000 |
Fixed Costs |
$104,853 |
$104,853 |
$104,853 |
Total Annual Costs |
$996,630 |
$1,179,076 |
$1,539,210 |
Variable Billing Costs (If Recharge Model is Adopted) |
$56,000 |
$56,000 |
$56,000 |
Total Annual Costs with Billing |
$1,052,630 |
$1,235,076 |
$1,595,210 |
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Total Costs (Without Billing) |
$1,689,946 |
$2,114,824 |
$2,939,550 |
Total costs (With Billing) |
$1,768,922 |
$2,193,800 |
$3,018,526 |
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Annual Cost/User (Without Billing) |
$ 52.70 |
$ 62.35 |
$ 81.40 |
Annual Cost/User (With Billing) |
$ 55.67 |
$ 65.31 |
$ 84.36 |
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Notes: |
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- Variable costs consist of those costs which are sensitive to the quantity of ports or quantity of users. These costs may scale linearly or as a step function.
- Fixed costs consist of those costs which are not sensitive to quantity of ports or users.
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