Early April ‘98: Lab Testing to demonstrate router and 3Com switch design is scaleable and can work on the Network 21 backbone.
Late April ‘98: Confidence Testing to demonstrate router and 3Com switch design is scaleable and can work on the Net 21 backbone.
June ‘98: Installation of electronics in ADFs & BDFs
June - December ‘98: Installation of electronics in IDFs and departmental cutovers
The router vendor, and therefore, the final design of the Network 21 network will be determined by conducting pilot projects using 3Com ATM switches and up to two vendor routers. The Pilot will be completed by April 1998. Before committing resources to a final solution, the project will conduct a confidence test, involving expansion of the pilot project to include several buildings in order to demonstrate scaleability of the final router/switch combination. This test will be completed by April 1998. After successful completion of the confidence test, the project will begin installing the ATM design into the campus by June 1998 and will complete the installation by December 1998.
Applications
The Network must support Multi-media applications combining voice, data, imaging and video. This includes applications ranging from desktop video conferencing to transmission of video images for medical diagnosis. A conservative adoption rate of new technologies at UCD assumes that these applications will be deployed to an important degree in the 1999-2000 timeframe, which is within the 3-5 year planning horizon. Demand for accessing remote databases and large collections of on-line images, data, journals and other publications are currently driving the need for high speed network access to the desktop.
Internet 2
The campus is a charter member in Internet 2 and as such must have an infrastructure that meets the minimum requirements associated with being a member in terms of network bandwidth availability and Quality of Service (QoS). In connection with this membership, UCD will likely have obligations to support specific quality of service levels for an NSF Internet 2 research grant.
CalREN 2
UC Davis was recently awarded a grant from the National Science Foundation which funds wide area network connectivity for high bandwidth applications. Matching funds include a commitment to providing high bandwidth connectivity to the following applications:
CalREN 2 will utilize ATM as a backbone technology for between-campus connectivity; however the primary delivery protocol will be IP. The ability to test ATM between two campus ATM networks would be supported but is not required. Up to OC12 is expected to be supported. The plan is to use high-speed networking to establish 100 MB (100BASE-T) connectivity to selected desktop machines and simultaneously, to establish equivalent connectivity at Hertz Hall (Department of Applied Science Livermore) through the LLNL network.
Networking Research
Reliability
UCDnet must be available 24/365 (twenty-four hours per day, 365 days per year). UCDnet should be easily managed from a central Network Operations Center with a minimum of staff required to perform network functions such as adds, moves, and changes, DNS registration, VLAN assignments, and performance monitoring to the port level.
Major network components such as routers, switches and critical servers must be protected against power failures.
Accessibility
There will be 9,400 initial network connections in all offices, labs, and classrooms where a need was indicated. These connections will service an initial device population of approximately 16,000. It is anticipated that additional category 5 wiring will be installed over the next five year period which will enable a 1:1 ratio between connections and devices and to enable anticipated network growth. Viable network options should take into account this growth in terms of port density and available fiber within the limited space available to accommodate it.
Demand for connections for mobile faculty, staff, and students with laptops is increasing annually. It is anticipated that provisions for connecting laptops at each library carrel, classroom desktop, and in many lounge areas will be required within the next five years. Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) is therefore a requirement to support this activity as well as the dormitories that were cutover in 1997.
Because single departments are often located in several buildings and wish to have access to shared resources such as file servers and technical support personnel, it is a requirement that the selected technology enable the use of Virtual LANs. VLANs provide a mechanism to simplify the management of moves, additions and deletions of computers on the network and the ability to create the concept of a workgroup with computers and other resources at physically separate locations. VLANs are particularly attractive at UC Davis since on the average each department is housed in 2 - 3 different buildings and there are 2 - 3 departments in each building. A Network 21 planning survey shows that there is a campus demand for over 300 VLANs.
Performance
Increases in computer throughput and the development of Web services and other applications will drive the need for dedicated 100 Mbps service. Many departments are already requesting 100 Mbps services for their file servers or for high speed research applications. The network architecture must be capable of supporting such requests for service so as not to impede instruction or research activities. The infrastructure must be both flexible and scaleable.
Network Standards
TCP/IP is the network protocol for the campus backbone.
Security
It is desirable to have fully switched LAN's in order to minimize the risk of local security breaches. It is assumed that planned firewall developments between UCDnet and the Internet will be sufficient to protect the network against most intrusions in the near term.
Project Management
This task includes all ongoing work necessary to provide the coordination, scheduling and oversight functions throughout the project. Detail activities will include, but are not limited to the following:
The Project team evaluated the ATM switch requirements based on the NAM allocation report from 1996 and the DPT report in early 1997. The project team used this data to generate a preliminary physical design that estimated the number of ATM switches that needed to be procured for the remainder of the project. Note: The oversight committee selected 3Com switches for the ATM portion of the contract and the router vendor is responsible for providing interoperability with the 3Com switches.
A formal report documenting the results of all testing performed will be generated, as well as, the scores for each pilot router. The report shall discuss all Pilot Goals stated above, how they were met, and to what degree they were met, and shall be suitable for review by outside experts as well as the campus in general. After the scores are reviewed by outside experts and the technical review committee a finalist will be chosen to proceed to the confidence test where the router will be evaluated for scalability and use on the Network 21 backbone.