The University of New Mexico (UNM) in Albuquerque, NM, New Mexico State University (NMSU) in Las Cruces, NM, and New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology (NMT) in Socorro, NM, supported the state's regional comprehensive 4-year institutions with statewide research network planning from the periphery into the core. The goal of this collaborative effort by New Mexico's three research universities was to educate, encourage adoption, and provide on-site technical expertise to implement advanced networking and cyberinfrastructure for enhancing and supporting science, technology, engineering, and mathematics research and education at these small, and often remote, institutions in New Mexico and bordering regions in Texas and Arizona.

Collaborative planning for cyberinfrastructure is essential in New Mexico for several important reasons:  New Mexico is a large, rural state (212,298 square miles - twice the area of Pennsylvania). The terrain is mountainous desert, checker-boarded with isolated, tiny communities and sovereign tribal lands. The population density averages 17 people per square mile versus the national average of 87.  The last-mile build out of high-speed networks in desert or mountainous terrain has been prohibitively expensive.  Due to scarce, contested and often unavailable resources (e.g. existing but inaccessible dark fiber) and to local and state politics, much of the remaining required broadband build out in New Mexico is stalled or gridlocked.  Collaborative planning and resource allocation leads to more sustainable and affordable long-term solutions.

During the duration of this award, six regional workshops were held at the following locations: Northern New Mexico College in Espanola, NM; Eastern New Mexico University in Portales, NM; Western New Mexico University in Silver City, NM; New Mexico Highlands University in Las Vegas, NM; Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, AZ, focused on the Navajo Nation (Arizona portion); and at UNM in Albuquerque, NM, focused on the Navajo Nation (New Mexico portion) and the Central New Mexico Tribes and Pueblos.  Two capstone sessions were held at the 2016 and 2017 occurrences of the annual New Mexico Technology in Education (NMTiE) conference in Albuquerque, NM.

Invitations to attend the workshops were extended to community colleges, K-12 districts in New Mexico, and institutions of higher education in adjacent regions of Arizona and Texas serving minority and Native American constituencies.  In addition, invitations were extended to the State of New Mexico Economic Development Department, the New Mexico regional Councils of Governments, the New Mexico Department of Information Technology (DoIT), and other members of city, country, tribal and state government in order to build enduring bridges between all stakeholders and to promote broadband-related economic development.  In New Mexico's rural areas, municipal governments and tribal entities are instrumental in bringing broadband into underserved areas.

Each regional workshop included three components: 

• The scientific research component addressed using the network as an instrument of science, with faculty presentations on how the network has impacted their research.
• The networking and technical component encompassed information on Science DMZ design and implementation, IPv6, network interactions with high-performance computing data transfer nodes, and end-to-end performance measurement and enhancement based on the PerfSONAR framework.
• The implications of enhanced connectivity for city, county, tribal and state government, and the local university with the goal of establishing regional planning 'teams' at these workshops to advocate for coordinated and shared local connectivity and to help promote economic development, is the third component.

The panelists and attendees for each workshop included faculty, staff and students from higher education; economic development and planning staff from local, regional, tribal, and national government including K-12; and interested representatives from private industry and healthcare.  These workshops fostered unprecedented engagement of researchers, educators, and community stakeholders in the broadband discussion.  As a direct result of the groundwork laid by this planning grant in year one, a Navajo Nation Cyberinfrastructure Team was formed on the Nation, and is led by several panelists from the NAU workshop. This team reviews and approves compute or telecommunications projects on the Nation, and brings technical expertise into the decision-making process, while expediting these critical projects. The workshops also set the stage for awareness of the Albuquerque GigaPoP (ABQG), the New Mexico Council on Higher Education Computing/Communications Services (CHECS), the New Mexico Research Partners (UNM, NMSU, NMT), and other entities that could collaborate more closely with state and local leaders.  The teams met via teleconference weekly to discuss technical and other challenges, and collaborate with regards to statewide connectivity.  Additionally, this effort brought an awareness to the tribal community for E-Rate possibilities. The ABQG is currently in the process of assisting a four-tribe consortium in lighting a large E-Rate funded fiber build to provide commodity Internet services to their schools and libraries.  The tribal members who were awarded the funding were very active participants in the workshops.  An additional 5-tribe consortium has been funded, and will proceed towards construction in 2018.  These new projects are successes from this grant.

Last Modified: 02/28/2018
Modified by: Steven M Perry