Engineering Commons^™

Big Broadband: One Component Of A Complex System, Gemma Scott

STEM Student Scholarship

Within the context of analyzing a trend in educational computer networking, this paper identifies the history of the Maine School and Library Network (MSLN) as well as the cause and funding for infrastructure upgrades that produced a state-wide dark fiber network. Whereas the physical media backbone is well designed and in place, and policy makers have been sold on the potential to harness the large amounts of bandwidth it is capable of carrying, the infrastructure to bring this bandwidth in and around many school Local Area Networks (LANs) is still lacking on multiple levels. This paper also discuses additional upgrades …