Bell Atlantic Internet Services

Capstone Project

Interm Report

March 20, 1997

(DRAFT)

Table of Contents
1.0 Introduction


1.1 Background

Bell Atlantic Internet Solutions (BAIS), a subsidiary of Bell Atlantic Corporation, mission is to develop and deliver Internet solutions to the consumer and business markets. To fulfill the objectives of this mission statement, BAIS offers an array of products and services that include dial-up and dedicated line connections to the Internet.

BAIS is currently constrained from offering Internet services between Local Access Transport Areas (LATAs). Pending legislation and court actions provide an opportunity for BAIS to establish inter-LATA Internet services. BAIS would like to become the Internet service provider of choice for all their customers without concern for LATA boundaries.

In becoming the Internet service provider of choice, BAIS would like to:

- Become a full service Telecommunications provider;
- Offer value added Internet services; and
- Achieve a strong presence in the combined Nynex/Bell Atlantic market
area.

To assist BAIS in achieving these goals, they requested a Johns Hopkins University Capstone Project Team work with them to analyze their existing technical structure and make meaningful recommendations.

1.2 Project Scope

The objectives of this project are:

- Extend the existing "server farms"1 to support an extended regional
Internet presence;
- Recommend value-added services and metrics to support these value- added services; and
- Provide a migration strategy for achieving the project objectives.

1.3 Deliverables:

The project team will deliver to BAIS in early May 1997, a report that includes

- Discussion of future media demands, security requirements, and recommended value-added services;
- The architecture necessary to support a an extended regional BAIS
presence and project team recommendations; and
- A migration strategy for achieving the recommended architecture.

1.4 Constraints

Current existing constraints are:

- Satisfactory knowledge of current server farm architecture; and
- Satisfactory knowledge of the security mechanisms used by BAIS.


2.0 Industry Description


2.1 Global Service Provider Structure

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2.2 Telecommunications Act of 1996

The Telecommunications Act ("Act") of 1996 will have a momentously significant impact on the U.S. telecommunications industry. Along with the Communications Act of 1934 and the now defunct AT&T Consent Decree, it is one of the truly major legal developments affecting telecommunications in the 20th century. The Act address several key issues in Telecommunications. Among the issues addresses that are of major importance to BAIS are entry of Regional Bell Operating Companies (RBOCs) in the long distance industry (interLATA services), a RBOCs' legal permission to provide information services (including content-based services and electronic publishing).

A LATA is a geographic area within each RBOCs franchised area that has been established by a RBOC in accordance with the provisions of the 1984 Modification of Final Judgment which divided AT&T into the RBOCs. A LATA defines the territory within which a RBOC may offer its telecommunications services. Until the Telecommunications Act of 1996, ROBC have been prohibited from carrying traffic between LATAs.

The Act allows RBOCs to enter the interLATA business home operating regions. However, the RBOCs will have to satisfy a through a fairly stringent checklist. First, states and the RBOCs will have to comply with a number of criteria to open local service markets to competition. After complying with the criteria the RBOCs must provide unbundled access to their networks, (including relevant signaling systems and databases) and provide wholesale offerings of local services for resale by competitors.

Thirdly, an RBOC must complete an interconnection agreement with at least one unaffiliated carrier in each state that provides services to residential and business users using either its own facilities alone, or predominantly using its own facilities and resold facilities of the incumbent carrier. The petitioning RBOC then must file an application for removal of the long distance restrictions with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), with a finding by the relevant state regulatory body that the above conditions have been met. The FCC has ninety days to act on the petition, although there presumably will be some delay until FCC procedures for acting on such petitions are in place. During that time, the FCC is to seek the opinion of the Attorney General (presumably the Antitrust Division) regarding the petition. The Attorney General is to review the application using any standard he believes appropriate. The Attorney General's opinion is to be given substantial weight, but is not to be viewed by the FCC as conclusive.

Once approval is given, the RBOC may enter the long distance market but only through a separate affiliate. The separate affiliate must have officers, employees, and books separate from the regulated local telephone company. The affiliate may only receive those telecommunication services and facilities from the regulated phone company that are available to competitors on substantially identical terms. Importantly, however, the local telephone company and the separate long distance affiliate may engage in joint marketing, and joint marketing is not to be considered discrimination against other carriers (who would in any event be able to resell the BOCs wholesale offering). The affiliate must remain separate for at least three years, a period that may be extended at the option of the FCC.

A BOC must establish a separate affiliate to provide in-region interLATA service, manufacturing, or interLATA information services other than electronic publishing and alarm monitoring services.

Before the FCC authorizes a BOC to provide telephone service that crosses Local Access and Transport Area lines ("interLATA service") in an in-region state, a BOC must satisfy a "competitive checklist," verifying that it provides or generally offers other carriers the following:

- interconnection on a nondiscriminatory basis at just and reasonable rates;
- nondiscriminatory access to network elements;
- nondiscriminatory access to BOC-controlled poles, ducts, conduits, and rights-of-way at just and reasonable rates;
- unbundled local loop transmission, unbundled local transport from the trunk side of a - wireline LEC switch, and unbundled local switching;
- nondiscriminatory access to 911 and E911 service, directory assistance services, and operator call completion services;
- white pages directory listings for customers of other carriers;
- nondiscriminatory access to numbers, databases and associated signaling necessary for
call routing and completion;
- number portability;
- nondiscriminatory access to services necessary to allow local dialing parity;
- reciprocal compensation arrangements; and
- authorization to resell telecommunication services.

When providing interconnections to competing local carriers, the incumbent Local Exchange Carrier (LEC) must be of the same quality as offered to an LEC subsidiary and must be made available at reasonable and nondiscriminatory rates, terms, and conditions.

Within the state for which authorization to provide interLATA service is sought, an RBOC must either:

- Provide access and interconnection to a competitor that offers service exclusively over
its own facilities or predominantly over its own facilities in combination with resale; or
- Obtain state approval of a statement of the terms and conditions pursuant to which the
BOC offers interconnection and access, if no competing provider has requested access
and interconnection ten months following enactment.

One of the major commerical activities addressed by the Act is Electronic Publishing. Electronic publishing is the provision or sale to an unaffiliated entity of any of the following: news; sports; entertainment; business, legal or credit material; advertising; photos; research material; public records; educational material; and other similar information.

An RBOC providing electronic publishing through a separated affiliate or joint venture must provide network access and interconnections for basic telephone service to electronic publishers at just and reasonable rates.

Ameritech filed a petition with the FCC on January 2 to allow it to provide interLATA services in Michigan. Ameritech is the first RBOC to file for interLATA relief. Among the RBOCs expected to file similar applications in the next few months is Atlantic Bell/Nynex.


Competition and Competitive Analysis

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Publishing Capabilities

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3.0 Current Bell Atlantic Internet Services Operations


3.1 Architecture

BAIS launched in August of 1996, encompasses nine LATAs, and serves both commercial and non-commercial customers. BAIS offers Internet service in seven of BA's nine LATAs. BAIS uses seven geographically distributed server farms to provide Internet access to its customer base. One server farm, located at BAIS headquarters in Reston, is the master site.

Customers may dial into BAIS via Bell Atlantic (BA) telephone services. Alternatively a customer have may have dedicated access to BA facilities. Whatever means the customer used to reach BA, BA routes the customer's call through one of nine SMDS clouds to BAIS. BAIS server farms connect to the BA SMDS cloud with both T1 and 34 Mbps lines.

Services available through BAIS server farms include Web Site hosting, News, E-Mail, Domain Naming Services (DNS), and Switched Access Offerings. BAIS cannot transport data or access information at different server farms without going through a Global Service Provider (GSP). To reach the GSPs, BAIS routes traffic through SMDS cloud service provided by BA.

When acquiring Internet services from BAIS, each customer must designated a GSP provider, just like each customer must select an long-distance carrier when acquiring telephone service. BAIS must keep track of which GSP a customer is using and properly route Internet traffic to the proper GSP.

BAIS maintains a T1 link between server farms. By law, BAIS can transport only administrative traffic over this link.

Figure 3-1 illustrated the Architecture currently used by BAIS.


3.2 Security

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3.3 SMDS

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3.4 Network Management

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4.0 Project Roles and Responsibilities


4.1 Project Team:

Participants in this project are:

For Bell Atlantic Internet Services:

- Vance Myers - Mr. Myers is the Director of Development and Architecture for BAIS.
Mr. Myers is the sponsor of this Capstone Project.

- Brian T. Coughlin - Mr. Coughlin is a Member of Technical Staff at BAIS and is
serving this project as the prime contact for JHU Representatives. Mr. Coughlin will provide information and insights about BAIS and its environment to the JHU Capstone Project Representatives.

For the Johns Hopkins Capstone Project:

- Jay Richmond - Mr. Richmond is the Faculty Advisor.

- Ernest Campbell - Mr. Campbell is the Student Team Leader. He also will function as an Architecture Analyst.

- Vera Chapman - Ms. Chapman is a Member of the Project Team. She will execute the duties of a Security Analyst, and Network Analyst.

- Matt Joyce - Mr. Joyce is a Member of the Project Team. He will fill the role of Security Expert, Methodologist, and Value-Added Services Analyst.

- John Morton - Mr. Morton is a Member of the Project Team. He will perform as a Network Analyst, Methodologist and Project Management Specialist.

- Ramesh Seshadri - Mr. Seshadri is a Member of the Project Team and Architecture Specialist. He will execute the duties of a Lead Network Analyst.

- Derek Walker - Mr. Walker is a Member of the Project Team. He is the Team's Web Site Administrator, and a Value-Added Services Analyst.


All Student Members of the Johns Hopkins Capstone Project will play many roles as the project progresses. Each student will be responsible for performing research, attending meetings, preparing and presenting material, collaborating with fellow project team members, and preparing material for inclusion in the reports due throughout this project.





5.0 Project Methodology

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6.0 Schedule and Status Report

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7.0 Problems and Issues

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Appendix A

Scope Statement




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Appendix B

Learning Contracts for Team Members

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1In this context the phrase "Server farms" is used to denote geographically distributed clusters of servers used to provide Internet services.