Managing the North Carolina Information Highway

BellSouth, GTE, and Carolina Telephone are jointly introducing the North Carolina Information Highway (NCIH) to meet the networking needs of the North Carolina state government. NCIH is a multi-vendor, multi-carrier network providing 155 Mbps SONET/ATM access to end-users. The initial applications for NCIH are distance learning and local area network (LAN) interconnection. All the above carriers are deploying Fujitsu FETEX-150 broadband switching systems (BSSs) and Northern Telecom Incorporated (NTI) multi-port control unit (MCU) switching equipment to support these applications. BellSouth staff have been working with Bellcore, Fujitsu, GTE, and Carolina Telephone to develop an operations plan for managing the NCIH. Developing a network management plan for the NCIH required intensive work in a new, undefined area. This paper provides an overview of the initial NCIH architecture and services and describes the NCIH network management approach currently being implemented by BellSouth.