Ramez is willing to donate an ATM switch, to be installed in North 
Hall, which can be used by the campus for CalREN-2 and other 
projects.  In exchange for this donation, he's asking for a couple of 
quid pro quos:

1. The switch would have to be one that is available to Caltrans under
their existing acquisition agreements.  The switch, if it would meet 
the configuration needs of CalREN-2 and the TCFI, would probably be 
from Newbridge.  I believe there is only one other option, a switch 
from Cisco, but that switch may not meet the needs of the TCFI.  The 
donated switch may or may not be compatible with the equipment that 
you have been considering recommending for use at UCSB, which you 
will have to determine.

2. One OC-3 circuit from the switch would connect to the TCFI lab in 
North Hall.  Additional OC-3 circuits would connect to other 
locations selected by the campus.  By extending an OC-3 circuit to 
TCFI, they would have access to the other campus networks connected 
to the ATM switch and to the off-campus CalREN-2 network.

3. The switch and CalREN-2 network would provide a backup connection 
to the Internet for the state-wide Caltrans network, in the event 
that the primary ISP connection to the Caltrans network fails.  The 
connection from the Caltrans network to the campus CalREN-2 network 
would probably be a DS-3 (45 Mbps) circuit, of which peak traffic 
loads are currently around 16 Mbps.

While there are some issues regarding this proposal that I would have 
to work out with the CENIC Business Advisory Council and with 
Caltrans, I don't want to proceed with that task unless and until the 
campus CalREN-2 implementation group and the Campus Networking 
Committee agree to the proposal.  If this proposal is generally 
acceptable, please ask the CNC to review it and let me know if I 
should proceed.  Unfortunately, there may be a time deadline.  Ramez 
led me to believe that the switch might have to be here by December 
31 to meet some fund expenditure deadlines.