Multimedia Services Access Point

Virginia Tech and the Blacksburg Electronic Village have begun implementation for a Multimedia Services Access Point (MSAP) for the Blacksburg area. The long term goal is provide a state of the art, broadband switching and routing point to help facilitate the transport of local Blacksburg data and to promote the development of new information and data services in the area. A technical document is available that describes the MSAP/community backbone concept.

There are currently several T1, 10BaseT Ethernet, and Gigabit Ethernet circuits connected to the MSAP, providing service to a large portion of the Blacksburg community. Residents using an MSAP-connected ISP have reported dramatic improvements in performance, and in one case, router hops for across town traffic was reduced from 16 to 4, and packet latency dropped from 500 milliseconds to 50 milliseconds (on average).

As the first step, Virginia Tech began with peering services for local ISPs that want direct routes for data destined for the Virginia Tech domain. Tech and the BEV began offering ISP to ISP peering and broadband switched services in 2001. As part of the Blacksburg Electronic Village project, this effort is designed as a research experiment to learn what kinds of broadband services are commercially viable. The MSAP will be operated on a strict cost recovery basis, and the fees will remain in effect at least through December, 2002.

A complete Fees, Policies and Procedures text is available that describes port connections and fees; it is subject to change as the mission of the MSAP evolves. The MSAP has been in continuous operation since the spring of 1999.

For more information, contact BEV Info.