Center for Public Health Communication

RINET-Muni: Project Description
A private, integrated network linking municipalities, state agencies and others

A consortium of state agencies, including the Department of Health (HEALTH), Office of Library Information Services (OLIS), Secretary of State (SOS) and Emergency Management Agency (EMA) proposes to link all municipalities together into a high quality, private, integrated network with access to the Internet for computer-based emergency communication and electronic government services.

When an emergency occurs, access to information can make the critical difference in preventing injuries or deaths and controlling the crisis. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) bioterrorism program requires state public health agencies "to ensure effective communications connectivity among public health departments, public officials and others by continuous, high speed connectivity to the internet and routine use of email for notification of alerts and other critical (emergency) communication." HEALTH identified municipalities (mayor/administrator/manager, police, fire, rescue, schools etc.) and other organizations (hospitals, labs, etc.) as key partners for responding to public health emergencies.

This consortium established four principles for developing this system: (1) basing emergency communications on systems we use every day (2) combining computer-based communications with other technologies such as phone/fax, and radio (3) committing funds for a minimum of four years operating capacity (4) establishing a "private system" to ensure security and protect from failure, tampering or unauthorized use. In a "private" network, city-to-city and state-to-city communications will stay within the network, rather than passing through the global Internet.

The consortium asked the RI Network for Educational Technology (RINET) to implement this project. RINET is a not-for-profit collaborative that provides integrated, private network services to public and private schools. The state chose RINET because of more than 10 years experience with operating quality, high speed, dedicated and integrated school-based networks in every municipality.

Specifically the consortium and RINET propose to bring high quality, integrated network services, including a high-speed router "to the basement wall" of each city/town hall. This service can be connected with individual workstations or an internal network established by the municipality. This network (RINET-Muni) will provide direct email connectivity between municipalities, access to schools, state agencies and other organizations (e.g hospitals, universities) through state-level network links and access to the Internet.

In addition to using RINET-Muni for routine communications, public health alerts and other emergency communications, this private network will provide a foundation for routine applications such as electronic access to birth records. State agencies, such as the Department of Administration or Emergency Management Agency (EMA) can use this network for routine and emergency communication.

The Secretary of State plans to use RINET-Muni as the platform to link cities and towns with the Secretary of State's office in order to 1) create a single, centralized, computerized voter registration database as required by the Help America Vote Act and 2) allow for the electronic filing of public meeting notices and agendas.

Other applications will follow. That’s why it is so important to establish a single, integrated network now—to accommodate current and future uses.

The consortium is offering to fund the complete cost of network startup and four years of connectivity at the 384K level built on a fractional T-1 line that can be easily expanded. * Municipalities that require T-1 (or greater) service immediately will be subsidized for network startup and will be responsible for the difference in cost between 384K and T-1 level services. For emergencies that require T-1 or greater capacity (for example, the use of interactive video during a bioterrorist attack) we will request access to the RINET school network and order an emergency upgrade to the municipal connection.

Consortium agencies created a memorandum of agreement and committed enough up-front funds to establish the municipal network (approximately $120,000) and maintain it for at least four years (approximately $300,000 per year). The consortium will continue to explore approaches for funding maintenance costs beyond the four-year base period.

*For the RINET network, the 384K service level represents dedicated, secure, data transmission speeds of 384Kbps download and 384Kbps upload enabling functions such as full-motion video, FTP-ing large files, Web hosting, and remote server applications. The T-1 line processes data at 1,554K bytes per second or four times the speed of a 384K connection, enabling all of the above plus more advanced applications, such as interactive video conferencing and voice over IP.