In an effort to comply with the federal No Child Left Behind law, the New Orleans public school system is subscribing to a managed optical Ethernet service from Cox Communications.

The network is an example of the technology initiatives educational institutions have undertaken as they look to support an expanding number of computers in the classroom. It features a 40G bit/sec dual ring at its core with 1G bit/sec access rings, and Gigabit and Fast Ethernet access links from each school.

The network will connect 90,000 students in 140 schools and support converged Internet access, VoIP, IP/H.323 videoconferencing and distance learning. The optical Ethernet service replaces the school system's frame relay and voice overlay networks that supported limited videoconferencing, according to Cox vendor Fujitsu Network Communications.

Healthcare, education and government entities are the top three vertical industry segments for retail Ethernet services, according to Vertical Systems Group. Combined, these segments account for more than three-quarters of the total base of Ethernet customer ports installed in 2004, Vertical says.

Other analysts concur.

"When looking at K-12, they are definitely starting to expand, looking at broadband services, which includes optical Ethernet," says Stephanie Atkinson, a senior analyst at In-Stat/MDR. "The biggest thing is budgets: A lot of these investments can be refundable depending on what it is. In some cases, you've got up to 80% discounts on technology services through the E-Rate program at the federal level."

But the No Child Left Behind initiative has a lot to do with it, too, Atkinson adds. One provision of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 is more flexibility for states and school districts in how they spend federal education funds in exchange for strong accountability for results.

That increased flexibility includes authority for states to transfer up to 50% of the funding they receive under four major state grant programs - Teacher Quality State Grants, Educational Technology, Innovative Programs and Safe and Drug-Free Schools - to any one of the programs. Much of that shifting ends up in the educational technology bucket.

"A lot more applications from a K-12 perspective need or require a network like that," Atkinson says. "Now you've got six to 12 computers per classroom, and that's driven by No Child Left Behind."