Education Access Gateway Learning Environment Network

Award Action Request

The American Registry for Internet Numbering provides services related to the technical coordination and management of Internet number resources in Canada, many Caribbean and North Atlantic islands, and the United States.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. This federal legislation included the authorizing of funds for broadband, which is the source of EAGLE-Net's broadband grant.

Automated Standard Application for Payment

Backhaul is transporting traffic between distributed sites (typically access points) and more centralized points of presence.

The gap between the highest and lowest frequencies employed by network signals expressed in bit/s or multiples of it (kbit/s, Mbit/s).

Broadband Initiatives Program – From Broadband Stimulus Funding: RUS calls their program the Broadband Initiatives Program (BIP) – the NTIA calls their program the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP).

Board of Cooperative Educational Services

The Federal Communications Commission describes broadband or high-speed Internet access as allowing users to access the Internet and Internet-related services at significantly higher speeds than those available through “dial-up” Internet access services. Broadband speeds vary significantly depending on the particular type and level of service ordered. Broadband services for residential consumers typically provide faster downstream speeds (from the Internet to your computer) than upstream speeds (from your computer to the Internet). One of the goals of the Federal Communications Commission’s National Broadband Plan is to provide 1 Gbps (Gigabit per second) of broadband access to community anchor institutions.

The (Colorado) Governor’s Broadband Council consists of individuals who understand the importance of broadband in today’s social, governmental, personal, and business worlds.

In February 2009, President Barack Obama signed a $787 billion bill allocating more than $7 billion to be focused on expanding the reach of broadband networks to under-served and underdeveloped areas that many service providers have yet to reach. (See ARRA, BTOP, BIP)

The Broadband Technology Opportunities Program, which is authorized by ARRA, and administered by the NTIA.

community anchor institution – The NTIA describes “community anchor institutions” as schools, libraries, healthcare providers, public safety entities, community colleges and other institutions of higher education, and other community support organizations and entities. This includes municipal and county government offices.

Colorado Association of Leaders in Educational Technology

Colorado Association of School Boards

Colorado Association of School Business Officials

Colorado Association of School Executives

Comprehensive Community Infrastructure – EAGLE-Net applied for this category in the BTOP Grant

Colorado Department of Education

competitive local exchange carrier – Competitive Local Exchange Carrier. Local exchange carriers (LECs) are divided into incumbent (ILECs) and competitive (CLECs). A Competitive Local Exchange Carrier (CLEC) is a telecommunications provider company that competes with other, already established carriers (generally the incumbent local exchange carrier (ILEC).

Cloud computing is computing in which dynamically scalable and often virtualized resources are provided as a service over the Internet. Users need not have knowledge of, expertise in, or control over the technology infrastructure in the “cloud” that supports them. The concept generally incorporates combinations of the following:

• Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
• Platform as a Service (PaaS)
• Software as a service (SaaS)

Cloud computing services often provide common business applications online that are accessed from a web browser, while the software and data are stored on the servers.

The commercial Internet we are familiar with in our homes and workplace.

Consortium for School Networking

See USDOC

Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing

Environmental Assessment

Federal Communications Commission

Federal Financial Report

Fiber-optic communication is a method of transmitting information from one place to another by sending pulses of light through an optical fiber. Because of its advantages over electrical transmission, optical fibers are replacing copper wire in core networks.

Finding of No Significant Impact – issued when environmental analysis and interagency review during the Environmental Assessment (EA) process find a project to have no significant impacts on the quality of the environment. The FONSI document is the EA modified to reflect all applicable comments and responses. If it was not done in the EA, the FONSI must include the project sponsor’s recommendation or selected alternative. No formal public circulation of the FONSI is required, but the state clearinghouse must be notified of the availability of the FONSI.

Federal Program Officer

Front Range GigaPoP – This is where EAGLE-Net gets its Commodity Internet and Internet2 service

Grants Officer

Grants Online System

intergovernmental agreement – The membership agreement that creates EAGLE-Net as a cost-sharing consurtium

independent or incumbent local exchange carrier (see CLEC)

Internet2 is an advanced networking consortium led by the research and education community that provides the ability for members to collaborate and develop interactive programs and content for distribution over the network.

indefeasible rights of use

An Internet service provider is a company that offers its customers access to the Internet.

The “last mile” is the final leg of the network infrastructure that carries signals from the broad telecommunication backbone along the relatively short distance (hence, the “last mile”) to and from the home or business. Or to put it another way: the infrastructure at the neighborhood level. The actual distance of this leg may be considerably more than a mile, especially in rural areas.

When referring to broadband networks, the “middle mile” is the segment of a telecommunications network which connects a network operator’s core network to the local network plant. Middle mile facilities provide relatively fast, large-capacity connections between the network backbone (or backhaul) and last mile connection to a home, business or other individual end user. Middle mile facilities can range from a few miles to a few hundred miles. They are often constructed of fiber optic lines, but microwave and satellite links can be used as well.

Middle Mile Projects are broadband infrastructure projects that do not predominantly provide broadband service to end users or to end-user devices, and may include interoffice transport, backhaul, Internet connectivity, or special access.

Connecting America: The National Broadband Plan, unveiled March 16, 2010, is a FCC plan required by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 for improving broadband Internet access throughout the United States. Its goal is providing 100 million American households with access to 100 Mbit/s (megabits per second) connections—as much as 20 times faster than what is generally available in 2010—by 2020. The ARRA required that the FCC draft the National Broadband Plan.

National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors

Notice of Funds Availability – Terms and conditions, and award criteria related to the EAGLE-Net grant application

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration, which is a division of the United States Department of Commerce

Office of Inspector General

Office of Management and Budget

A voluntary interconnection of administratively separate data networks for the purpose of exchanging traffic between the users of each network.

Post-Award Monitoring system

Proposed Funded Service Area – In the EAGLE-Net BTOP Grant application, this included the entire State

point of interconnect

Project Performance Report

Regional Bell Operating Companies

A router is a device that forwards data packets across computer networks.

Rural Utilities Service – a division of the USDA

Statewide Internet Portal Authority

Supplemental Information Request

A network switch or switching hub is a computer networking device that connects network segments.

Telepresence refers to a set of technologies which allow a person to feel as if they were present, to give the appearance that they were present, or to have an effect, via telerobotics, at a place other than their true location. A popular application is found in telepresence videoconferencing, a higher level of videotelephony which deploys greater technical sophistication and improved fidelity of both video and audio than in traditional videoconferencing.

Supports access to the entire Internet routing table through their domestic and global peering relationships. The most common definition of a tier 1 network is one that can reach every other network on the Internet without purchasing IP transit or paying settlements.

The load on a communication device or system.

The NTIA defines underserved areas as service areas (consisting of one or more contiguous census blocks) where:

• no more than 50% of the households in the proposed funded service area have access to facilities-based, terrestrial broadband service; or
• no fixed or mobile broadband service providers advertises broadband transmission speeds of at least 3 Mbps downstream in the area; or
• the rate of broadband subscribership for the funded service area is 40% of households or less.

The NTIA defines unserved areas as service areas (consisting of one or more contiguous census blocks) where at least 90% of households lack access to facilities-based, terrestrial broadband service.

United States Department of Agriculture

United States Department of Commerce

See Virtual Hosting

Virtual hosting is a method that servers such as Web servers use to host more than one domain name on the same computer, sometimes on the same IP address. Also known as shared web hosting, virtual hosting allows a website owner to have a site hosted on a web server that is shared with other websites. In simple terms, the virtual hosting company’s server will allocate hosting services and bandwidth to more than one website.