Subject: [gaia] draft-irtf-gaia-alternative-network-deployments. Rural electric cooperatives

From: "Jose Saldana" <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 9 May 2016 16:51:04 +0200

Hi all,
 
With Henning’s help, I have re-written the subsection. It has a couple of additional references.
 
5.5.  Rural electric cooperatives
 
   +------------------+------------------------------------------------+
   | Commercial       | rural electric cooperative                     |
   | model/promoter   |                                                |
   +------------------+------------------------------------------------+
   | Goals and        | to serve underserved areas; to reduce capital  |
   | motivation       | expenditures in Internet access                |
   +------------------+------------------------------------------------+
   | Administration   | The cooperative may partner with a local ISP   |
   |                  | to operate the network                         |
   +------------------+------------------------------------------------+
   | Technologies     | wired (fiber) and wireless                     |
   +------------------+------------------------------------------------+
   | Typical          | rural                                          |
   | scenarios        |                                                |
   +------------------+------------------------------------------------+
 
       Table 5: Rural electric cooperatives' characteristics summary
 
   A utility cooperative is a type of cooperative that delivers a public
   utility to its members.  For example, in the United States, rural
   electric cooperatives have provided electric service starting in the
   1930s, especially in areas where investor-owned utility would not
   provide service, believing there would be insufficient revenue to
   justify the capital expenditures required.  Similarly, in many
   regions with low population density, traditional Internet services
   providers such as telephone companies or cable TV companies are
   either not providing service at all or only offer low-speed DSL
   service.  Some rural electric cooperatives started installing fiber
   optic lines to run their smart grid applications, but they found they
   could provide fiber-based broadband to their members at little
   additional cost [Cash].  In some of these cases, rural electric
   cooperatives have partnered with local ISPs to provide Internet
   connection to their members [Carlson].  More information about these
   utilities and their management can be found in [NewMexico] and
   [Mitchell].
 
   [Carlson]  Carlson, S. and C. Mitchell, "RS Fiber: Fertile Fields for
              New Rural Internet Cooperative", ILSR, Institute for Local
              Self-Reliance, Next Century Cities https://ilsr.org/wp-
              content/uploads/downloads/2016/04/rs-fiber-report-
              2016.pdf, 2016.
 
   [Cash]     Cash, C., "CO-MO'S D.I.Y. model for building broadband",
              RE Magazine and ECT.coop, National Rural Electric
              Cooperative Association
              (NRECA) http://remagazine.coop/co-mo-broadband/, 2015.
 
   [Mitchell]
              Mitchell, C., "Broadband at the Speed of Light: How Three
              Communities Built Next-Generation Networks", ILSR,
              Institute for Local Self-Reliance available at
              http://ilsr.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/
              muni-bb-speed-light.pdf, 2012.

   [NewMexico]
              The New Mexico Department of Information Technology, DoIT.
              and CTC. Technology and Energy, "Broadband Guide for
              Electric Utilities", Version 1, April 2015, available at
              http://www.doit.state.nm.us/broadband/reports/
              NMBBP_FiberGuide_ElectricUtilities.pdf , 2015.

Thanks,
 
Jose
 
De: gaia [mailto:[email-masked]] En nombre de Jose Saldana
Enviado el: viernes, 06 de mayo de 2016 11:45
Para: 'Henning Schulzrinne' <[email-masked]>; 'gaia' <[email-masked]>
Asunto: Re: [gaia] draft-irtf-gaia-alternative-network-deployments. Adding "ownership" as a new category?
 
Hi, Henning and all,
 
I have written this text trying to summarize Rural Electric Cooperatives. I have used your reference.
 
It would be a new category, as they do not seem to fit in any of the existing ones.
 
5.5.  Rural electric cooperatives
 
   +------------------+------------------------------------------------+
   | Commercial       | rural electric cooperative                     |
   | model/promoter   |                                                |
   +------------------+------------------------------------------------+
   | Goals and        | to serve underserved areas; to reduce capital  |
   | motivation       | expenditures in Internet access                |
   +------------------+------------------------------------------------+
  | Administration   | The cooperative may partner with a local ISP   |
   |                  | to operate the network                         |
   +------------------+------------------------------------------------+
   | Technologies     | wired (fiber) and wireless                     |
   +------------------+------------------------------------------------+
   | Typical          | rural                                          |
   | scenarios        |                                                |
   +------------------+------------------------------------------------+
 
       Table 5: Rural electric cooperatives' characteristics summary
 
   A utility cooperative is a type of cooperative that delivers a public
   utility to its members.  In some zones (e.g. rural and low populated
   areas in U.S.), the so-called "rural electric cooperatives" are
   becoming popular, especially in zones where the nearest investor-
   owned utility would not provide service, believing there would be
   insufficient revenue to justify the capital expenditures required.
 
   In many zones, this problem is not limited to electricity, but also
   to telecommunications infrastructure, as mainframe Internet providers
   have decided not to improve Internet access.  Some rural electric
   cooperatives started installing fiber optics to run their smart grid
   applications, but they found they could provide fiber-based broadband
   to members at little additional cost [Cash].  In some of these cases,
   rural electric cooperatives have partnered with local ISPs to provide
   Internet connection to their members [Carlson].
 
   [Carlson]  Carlson, S. and C. Mitchell, "RS Fiber: Fertile Fields for
              New Rural Internet Cooperative", ILSR, Institute for Local
              Self-Reliance, Next Century Cities https://ilsr.org/wp-
              content/uploads/downloads/2016/04/rs-fiber-report-
              2016.pdf, 2016.
 
   [Cash]     Cash, C., "CO-MO'S D.I.Y. model for building broadband",
              RE Magazine and ECT.coop, National Rural Electric
              Cooperative Association
              (NRECA) http://remagazine.coop/co-mo-broadband/, 2015.

Any comments or improvements will be welcome.
 
Jose 
 
De: Henning Schulzrinne [mailto:[email-masked]] 
Enviado el: martes, 26 de abril de 2016 3:08
Para: Jose Saldana <[email-masked] <mailto:[email-masked]> >
CC: Mitar <[email-masked] <mailto:[email-masked]> >; gaia <[email-masked] <mailto:[email-masked]> >
Asunto: Re: [gaia] draft-irtf-gaia-alternative-network-deployments. Adding "ownership" as a new category?
 
This is a relatively new effort (a few years old), and I'm not aware of any publications, as they seem more interested in cherry pickers than conference publications. I will try to ask the person who was at the FCC working on that topic.
 
A non-peer-reviewed report is at
 
https://ilsr.org/report-mn-rural-fiber/
 
(In general, that organization has a lot of material on "alternative" networks, albeit with a positive bias rather than a neutral stance or unbiased evaluation.)
 
Also, your definition talks about users participating in design, deployment, operation and maintenance, but this is not how RECs work. They pay professionals to climb poles and string cable; the coop members are owners, but do not operate the network, just as they are not all volunteer electricians and linemen.
 
On Mon, Apr 25, 2016 at 10:51 AM, Jose Saldana <[email-masked] <mailto:[email-masked]> > wrote:
Hi, Henning,
 
Rural electric cooperatives seem an interesting case, which could also be included in the classification.
 
I have found some other information:
http://remagazine.coop/broadband-the-new-greatest-thing/
http://remagazine.coop/co-mo-broadband/
 
They say that “While installing fiber optics to run its smart grid applications, the co-op found it could provide fiber-based broadband to members at very little additional cost.”
 
As you say, this model does not fit with any other in our classification. But I think it does fit with our current definition, as we are talking about small-scale networks, in rural zones, owned by the users (they are cooperatives).
 
1.2.  Alternative Networks
 
   The term "Alternative Network" proposed in this document refers to
   the networks that do not share the characteristics of "mainstream
   network deployments".  Therefore, they may share some of the next
   characteristics:
 
   o  Relatively small scale (i.e. not spanning entire regions).
 
   o  Administration may not follow a centralized approach.
 
   o  They may require a reduced investment in infrastructure, which may
      be shared by the users, commercial and non-commercial entities.
 
   o  Users in alternative networks may participate in the network
      design, deployment, operation and maintenance.
 
Do we have more information about them? Any research paper about this? I have found the National Rural Telecommunications Cooperative (http://www.nrtc.coop/pub/us/about/).
 
Thanks a lot!
 
Jose