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Network

Backbone Upgrade

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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.

New UCInet Backbone

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The implementation of UCI’s new network backbone began in January and is proceeding on schedule. The Gigabit Ethernet, fault-tolerant, backbone “core” has been tested and placed into production. The implementation team is in the process of connecting buildings to the new core that had been on an interim Fast Ethernet backbone. The team is also configuring and testing the building switches that comprise the rest of the backbone.

The plan is to move the bulk of campus subnets to the new backbone over the summer. Moving departmental subnets will require a few hours of network downtime in each building. Each outage will be scheduled in advance and announced on the UCInet-OPS@UCI.EDU LISTSERV mailing list. In addition, the full schedule will be maintained on the Web:

http://www.nacs.uci.edu/communication/backbone-schedule.html

The new backbone will address rapidly growing communication needs, provide a foundation for ongoing departmental network improvement projects, and ensure continued, reliable operation of the critical campus data communication infrastructure. For more information, please see:

http://www.nacs.uci.edu/communication/plans/backbone-plan-1998.html

Questions about the project may be addressed to Garrett Hildebrand, whose e-mail address is GDH@UCI.EDU.

New UCI LifeLine Modem Service

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At the end of January 1999, NACS will be replacing the current 824-9000 and 824-8960 modem pools with a new, higher-quality, limited-access, modem service. The new service is the result of campus input and the recommendations of the Academic Senate Computer Policy Committee. It will utilize current-technology, V.90 56 Kbps equipment and support about 280 simultaneous connections.

The new “LifeLine Remote Access Service” has a goal of providing basic, limited, modem service to everyone at UCI who needs it. The new modem pool does not represent a complete Internet Service Provider (ISP) service; people with more than modest remote access needs should still use ISPs.

Each UCI faculty, staff and student will be limited to 7 hours of connect time during peak “Prime-time” usage periods each week. The 7 hour limit will be reduced as necessary to ensure equitable access with a minimum of busy signals. Each individual modem session will be limited to 1 hour in length during Prime-time, and 4 hours in length at other times.

For complete information on the new Lifeline modem service, please see:http://www.nacs.uci.edu/network/lifeline-modem-policy.html. NACS is also working with a local ISP who will be providing a service tailored to UCI’s needs; watch NACS-News for future announcements

Network Initiative Alphabet Soup

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There are several key regional and national network initiatives that are of concern and interest to UCI. The UC campuses are connected by UCnet, but are working with CENIC (the Corporation for Education Network Initiatives in California) to create CalREN-2, a new high speed California network.

vBNS (very high performance Backbone Network Service) is a backbone network already in production that connects research organizations awarded high-performance connections by the NSF. CalREN-2 is connected to vBNS.

UCAID (University Corporation for Advanced Internet Development) is a national collaboration of Universities and other institutions working to advance networking in higher Education via two projects, Internet2 and Abilene.

Internet2 focuses on developing a new family of advanced network applications to meet emerging academic needs. Abilene is a UCAID project to develop an advanced backbone network to connect regional networks.

Find it hard to keep all of these organizations, projects and networks straight? We have created a Web page that should help:

http://www.nacs.uci.edu/network/plans/network-initiatives.html

Physical Sciences Network Upgrade

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A major aspect of enhancing UCI’s network is upgrading the “edges” of the network — the network cabling and equipment inside buildings that connect computers to UCInet’s high-speed backbone. These upgrades represent significant renovations of existing network infrastructure, but are required to meet ever-increasing network demands.

This summer, as the second in a series of upgrades to the edges of UCInet, NACS started a project to upgrade the School of Physical Sciences network. The PS upgrade will provide higher reliability, higher performance and greater security. The first edge upgrade, in Information and Computer Science, was completed last school year.

The PS upgrade involves complete replacement of network cabling and equipment in Physical Sciences I, Frederick Reines Hall (PS II), and the PS Research Facility. A combination of Category 5 twisted pair copper and fiber optic cable will replace existing coax and telephone-grade cable. “Switched” 10 MegaBit Per Second (MBPS) and 100 MBPS Ethernet equipment will replace the existing “Shared” 10 MBPS network. The new infrastructure will support both current and future network requirements.

The PS Upgrade is scheduled for completion by the end of December 1998.