Edge Upgrades
The College of Medicine network “edge” upgrade continues. This is a major project, replacing cabling and network equipment which involves about 3,500 connections within eighteen buildings. We plan to finish the Medical Sciences Stacks “A” through”F” buildings and to make significant progress in Joan Irvine Smith Hall this fiscal year (i.e, FY 2002/03).

Edge upgrades — changes inside buildings replacing old cabling from Category 5E and from 10 million bits/sec (Mbps) shared Ethernet to 10 Mbps or 100 Mbps switched Ethernet — have been completed in about half of campus buildings to date. This includes many of the older, more challenging buildings in terms of staff effort.

We are also working to upgrade the existing network equipment in the Claire Trevor School of the Arts from 10 Mbps shared Ethernet to 10/100 Mbps switched Ethernet. This project should also be completed this fiscal year.

New Buildings 
Network cabling and equipment have been installed in Hewitt Hall in the College of Medicine in preparation for an early 2003 move in. Network planning continues for other buildings including: Croul Hall (Earth System Sciences), Natural Sciences 2 (Physical Sciences and Biological Sciences), and the Cal-(IT)2 building.

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.

The Information and Computer Science network infrastructure connects four buildings and two trailers with a complex arrangement of coaxial, twisted-pair, and fiber optic cable and aging electronic communication equipment. This complex network of 20+ subnets is well-managed, but is showing the strain of growth and use, and is not flexible enough to support newer technologies and emerging communication needs of the department.

The inability of the ICS network to support current and future needs of the faculty and students is the most striking example on campus of growing electronic communication use exceeding local network capacity. NACS, as a part of “UCInet 2001”, plans to update and improve the electronic communication infrastructure in a number of academic buildings. ICS is just the first.

NACS and ICS network staff worked over several months to analyze the situation and develop a solution. By mid-July 1997, several buildings will be re-cabled and new network equipment will be installed. This will provide ICS with a local, high-speed “switched” Ethernet backbone. “Switched” networks use newer technology that allow users access to the full speed of the network. Traditional Ethernets are “shared” networks that allow users access at only a fraction of maximum speed.

In the new design, no traffic flows through the campus backbone from ICS unless it is destined for other campus sites or the Internet. This is distinct from the previous situation where all inter-building traffic traversed the campus backbone.

For more information about this project, please contact Garrett Hildebrand, NACS’ Lead Network Planner. Garrett may be reached by electronic mail (GDH@UCI.EDU) or telephone (824-8913).