NACS completed the implementation of a new campus network backbone in September when the last UCI buildings were switched to it from the old backbone. The new, Gigabit, fault-tolerant backbone core connects UCI’s approximately 350 Local Area Networks (LANs), and provides the underpinnings required for further improvement of performance on these LANs. The most immediate effect of the backbone upgrade is an improvement in building-to-building communication and centralized server performance. Campus services such as DCSlib, EEE, E4E and the campus Web server are now on “fat pipes” to the new backbone.
At a cost of slightly under $1.5 million, the project — completed within budget and on time — brings the campus network:
- at least a ten-fold improvement in backbone bandwidth with the capacity to support growing campus network demands;
- a more robust and maintainable backbone;
- the flexibility to upgrade building-to-building communications to gigabit speeds;
- additional fiber around the campus to support new growth;
- the ability to run newer versions of network software;
- Y2K compliance.
NACS continues to make progress on “network edge upgrades” for departmental networks, which are facilitated by the new backbone. The design and planning stage of the School of Engineering network upgrade is now complete, and we will soon be starting to plan the upgrade in the school of Biological Sciences.