Date: August 2008
1. What is networkMaryland™?
networkMaryland™ is the vision of a statewide high-speed network for public sector use. The network was created from an initiative to utilize resource shared fiber optic cable assets throughout the state to provide affordable, high-speed bandwidth to all areas of the State and to provide a cost savings to the citizens of the State of Maryland. Moving forward, networkMaryland™ will provide WAN connectivity for all public entities in the State to improve the economy of scale by coordinating joint network build-outs, consolidation of services and by providing the necessary information for proper network growth.
2. What services does networkMaryland™ offer?
networkMaryland™ currently offers the following three services:
Internet
networkMaryland™ provides communication between the Internet and its Internet Service customers. networkMaryland's Internet Service is analogous to the routed services provided by a traditional Internet Service Provider (ISP). networkMaryland™ will provide the routed infrastructure over which its Internet Service customers will communicate to the World Wide Web community.
Statewide Government Intranet (SwGI)
SwGI is a networkMaryland™ service that provides a centralized resource for State entities to communicate with other State governmental entities and data centers. SwGI allows State agencies to create and share resources like FMIS, WebFleet Master, DNS, MVA applications and email relay services.
InterLATA Transport Services
networkMaryland™ is located in all 4 Local Access Transport Areas (LATAs). A LATA is a continuous geographic calling area established by a Federal Court with the divestiture of AT&T. networkMaryland's InterLATA transport service is analogous to the services provided by a long distance phone carrier. The InterLATA transport service is designed to facilitate private WAN networks across a common infrastructure. networkMaryland™ serves to provide a transport (Layer 2 of the OSI Reference Model) medium over which its customers can engineer their required network services. Even though the networkMaryland™ CORE uses ATM technology, the network uses Ethernet, Frame-Relay and limited DS-1 based UNI services to interface with networkMaryland™ customers.
3. What are the costs for receiving networkMaryland™ services?
The networkMaryland™ objective is to provide network services at a reduced cost to that which an agency would experience if they had to obtain them independently. Our rate structure is based upon the volume purchase model allowing continuous savings to our users. The 
current rate structure for each of our services - Layer 2 (cross-LATA), ISP and SwGI - can be downloaded from this website.
Our operating cost includes internal technical staff, core network leased circuit costs, hardware maintenance/replacement and 24x7x365 managed services.
4. What is "Resource Share"?
There is an open RFP for the State to receive proposals which allows for private entities to offer telecommunication resources in exchange for state access, such as unused telecommunications resources, state's rights of way, state land, etc. DBM is to manage the resource share proposals. The State has access to 313.5 miles of dark fiber due to agreement in 1999 with Level 3. This provides 48 strands of dark fiber to the state, which includes 16 strands for MDOT, 20 strands for networkMaryland™, and 12 strands for negotiating for revenue with private industry. The group for private use is unused pending determinations from the PSC and/or FCC regarding its use. Additional fiber is available to the State from prior agreements with Williams Communications and AT&T Local Services. Dark fiber by itself provides no benefits and must be built out before it can be used. This includes being certified, connecting to terminating equipment and signal repeated where necessary.
5. What has been completed to date?
The current network includes the core PoPs in Baltimore, Easton, College Park and Hagerstown. The network comprises a core made up of both State fiber and leased circuits that can provide a tremendous amount of bandwidth between all four LATAs in Maryland. Each networkMaryland™ PoP has a high capacity ATM switch that can provide circuit switching to meet the needs of the state. The PoPs also provide High-speed Ethernet interconnections to diverse Internet Service Providers.
networkMaryland™ interconnects a Metropolitan Area Network (MAN) in Baltimore, known as BMAN and a MAN in Annapolis, known as AMAN. These MANs provide services to many of the State Agency offices located in these areas.
networkMaryland™ is fully monitored 24x7x365 allowing us to provide service levels comparable to the telecommunications service providers.
6. What is the current status of the project?
The networkMaryland™ team is continuing to build out the network. The installation of hardware and fiber resources has been completed for the Western MD segment and activated. The Southern Maryland backbone is also completed. The Eastern Shore utilizes high speed wireless microwave technology for connectivity to each county. The project team also completed the installation of an OC-48 SONET ring between the core PoPs of College Park and Baltimore and Annapolis. The fiber ring is designed with both hardware redundancy and fiber diversity to increase the overall reliability of the network.
7. What are some future possibilities for networkMaryland™?
The network will continue to expand in the future, as customers require. The future for fulfilling customer needs is positive with many ongoing discussions to connect the state data centers together for back up, the creation of an educational PoP in Baltimore and the carrying of other agency traffic. Each of these projects require high speed bandwidth and reliable connectivity that networkMaryland™ can deliver in the future. A DWDM ring has been created through a partnership with USM and MDOT. It provides an additional fiber route for diversity.
The consolidation of the statewide inventory of circuits and creation of PoPs within multi-service centers can save the state money while improving the services available. Plans are now underway to create POPs within many of the multi-service centers within the State.
For FY2009 and beyond, additional networkMaryland™ services may include email virus scanning and spam filtering via SMTP mail relay, DNS services via a partnership with Maryland State Archives and enhanced NOC and engineering services.
8. What funding will be required?
The networkMaryland™ buildout project is funded by State capital funds, of which there are sufficient amounts remaining to meet the current network build plan. To support the operations of the existing network and growing customer base, Reimbursable Funds are requested for each fiscal year. Through our work with the Department of Budget & Management Office of Budget Analysis, an estimated annual cost is determined based upon what services are projected for each user or agency. State agency users are then provided a budget amount within their Telecommunications Object 0305 to help meet the actual charges incurred for that fiscal year. Agencies do not submit a budget request for networkMaryland™ costs.
It is expected that the State will continue to provide Reimbursable Operating Funds and Capital Funds to meet the statewide infrastructure completion. The operating cost will include adequate internal technical staff, hardware maintenance and 24x7x365 managed services. Currently the State pays operating costs by way of leased circuits for State agencies. The cost for leased circuits will decrease as more state agencies ride the statewide infrastructure.
9. What are the real benefits to the State?
Three primary benefits to the State are: (1) A single managed communication infrastructure and services for all State agencies and public sector entities, (2) reduced cost to State agencies for Internet and cross LATA connectivity, and (3) make the State competitive with other states.
At one time, Maryland State agencies paid over $5.5M per year on leased circuits. The statewide infrastructure can reduce the amount that State agencies pay for leased circuits, as most agencies will not need cross LATA connectivity outside of networkMaryland™. The State also lacks a central authority to coordinate WAN connectivity other than networkMaryland™, leaving many non-standard projects like connectivity of data centers for disaster recovery in limbo. Many agencies do not know that other State agencies are looking for high-speed bandwidth in the same area. networkMaryland™ is the central point for these requests due to the WAN Request process.
10. Who is currently receiving networkMaryland™ services?
The network today serves customers in each of the four LATAs across the state. All Executive branch agencies are utilizing networkMaryland™ services to meet their need with equal or better service for a lower cost. Please download the networkMaryland™ Utilization Diagrams from this website for more detailed information.
11. Where can I learn more about networkMaryland™?
Download the
Customer Information Package and
Getting Connected Package from this website.