The major upgrade to the Michigan Statewide Educational Network (MISEN) is set to be completed by the end of this month.
The project has been a top priority at Merit Network as we double down on our educational roots to support Michigan schools. Dozens of staff members have played a direct role, adding 40G metro Ethernet capacity over roughly 1,400 miles of fiber. The upgrade also added nine new 100G segments to MISEN’s existing 100G core.
MISEN Director Matt Stark received our 2022 Merit Award at the Merit Member Conference in recognition of his effort and vision on this project. “(K-12 education) has been one of the most impacted segments among our anchors throughout the pandemic,” Jameka Williams, Merit’s director of member engagement, said in presenting the award. “Educators became COVID monitors, principals became frontline triage, and administrators had the weight of it all put upon their shoulders. Children were in need, leadership was challenged, execution was paramount, and stress was high. It has been amazing to witness the resilience, tenacity and commitment to serving their learning community.”
The Statewide Education Network upgrade, dubbed SEN 2.0, improves resiliency and reliability to make a more robust network — a must in the pandemic era and beyond. The sudden switch to remote learning has shown that schools, like the rest of society, need quality broadband as much as they need heat and electricity.
The upgrade builds resiliency by adding 40-gigabit metro Ethernet connections to the SEN, adding service resiliency to school districts’ connections. This moved the network away from its original “hub and spoke” design by placing the 40-gig connections between districts, so districts aren’t connected to just one main feed but also to each other. If one connection goes down, other connections ensure schools remain served.
“Nobody has any tolerance for downtime now. They can’t even be down for five minutes,” said Michael Milliken, Merit’s vice president for network technology and innovation.
With the new SEN 2.0 architecture, MISEN will also now be able to easily add network support services to its offerings.
SEN, managed by Merit, delivers 10-gigabit service to nearly all of Michigan’s K-12 intermediate school districts, containing some 3,000 buildings.
Merit’s commitment to education and closing the homework gap will continue to be strong as we embark on more projects to improve broadband connectivity for everyone in Michigan in the years ahead.