UCI now has a versatile border router providing a more configurable and secure connection to the Internet.
The border router is a Cisco Catalyst 6509 with a crossbar-fabric switch. The router currently features 32 ports, each running at one gigabit per second (1 Gbit/s) bidirectionally, and is expandable to 180 ports as campus needs grow. It replaces a router with a total bandwidth of 2.4 Gbit/s and represents a substantial upgrade in network capacity.
The border router now aggregates formerly separate circuits to CalREN, the Internet, and Internet2 (Abilene), allowing a single set of policies and security measures to protect the campus across all our links to the rest of the world.
The router is a sophisticated device that allows network administrators to build circuits into, out of, and even back into the router. This permits a virtual path from the Internet to the router, through the campus firewall, back through the router, and on to UCInet. The border router also will support an “intrusion detection system”, presently being designed and implemented, which will complement and enhance the campus firewall.
The intrusion detection system will be able to spot subtle patterns in campus network traffic which represent a network-based attack. It will alert campus network staff when an attack begins, and allow the creation of precise rule sets for network traffic, which will allow UCInet to remain open to legitimate network uses while filtering out many kinds of hostile traffic.