For the first time in 12 years, Ohio University is initiating a campus-wide network upgrade.
Sean O'Malley, communications manager for the Office of Information Technology, said that the upgrade will result in a major increase in speed, especially in bandwidth-intensive activities. In addition, the upgrade will improve network reliability, which includes less need for scheduled down-time to replace or repair equipment.
Students will notice downloads happening way faster
O'Malley said. We'll have the kind of infrastructure you need to do IPTV and IP telephone service.
O'Malley likened that ability to services offered by big cable television companies that provide TV, phone service and Internet over a data network.
The network was reaching critical mass in terms of user demand versus available network capacity, O'Malley said. Most of the network is more than 12 years old and is at the end of its useful life he added.
The upgrade is being funded through part of a $40 million bond approved by the Board of Trustees at its January meeting. Of that, $17 million will go to the upgrade.
IT is waiting for funding to be released in May before starting the upgrades, O'Malley said.
OU plans to pay half of the bond debt through a mandatory $24 student fee beginning Fall Quarter 2009, but still needs authorization from the Ohio Board of Regents to get past a statewide tuition freeze.
The bond is also being used to pay for the new Student Information System.
The network upgrade will help manage the increased bandwidth demand from this new records management system, which will provide students with a customizable university Web page to perform transactions ranging from roommate selection to paying bills.
The plan to upgrade the university's data network has been in the works since April 2007 when Chief Information Officer Brice Bible arrived on campus, but has been put off twice because of budget constraints.
The first campuswide network project was initiated in 1996, and most of the current network infrastructure was built between 1996 and 2001. O'Malley said 127 buildings still use the original 1996 network design.
Data networks should be upgraded at least every six years, or the vendors may no longer support the equipment and it will become harder to replace, O'Malley added.
Schools that rely heavily on the data network, such as the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism, are most in need of this upgrade.
It's pretty frustrating to us said Bob Stewart, associate director of the Scripps school.
We're supposed to be a top journalism program
but we don't have the network to do new journalism. It's holding us back.
The Information Technology Advisory Council determines the order in which schools will receive the upgrade. O'Malley said the council analyzed the network capacity each building uses and those closest to capacity will be upgraded first.
Once upgraded, the network's core will process data at 10 gigabits per second, which is the fastest Ethernet standard available. The connection to the buildings will run at one gigabit per second, while the connection to individual desktops will run at 100 megabits per second - a tenfold increase over the current technology.
The timeline for upgrades depends on the schedule of funding over the next few years, O'Malley said, but the university expects to finish the project in six years.
... You can think of it in terms of a road
O'Malley said. Right now our pavement is getting really old and full of potholes and the bridges need fixing. Not only are we going to repave the road
but we're going to widen it
so your ride will be a lot smoother
and you'll be able to go faster.
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