© copyright 1997, the university of new mexico 9-1 case study - university of new mexico...

© Copyright 1997, The University of New Mexico 9-1

Case Study - University of New Mexico

• Demographics– Over 120 buildings on major campus.

– Spread over 600 acres.

– Includes hospital that is separately funded.

– Additional 20 houses and businesses in the neighborhood are UNM owned and occupied.

– Branch campuses in Gallup, Taos, Los Alamos, Santa Fe and Valencia.


Case Study - University of New Mexico (Cont.)

– Separately funded Athletics Complex and Research Park about 2 miles south of main campus.

– Buildings - everything from relatively modern to “historical buildings” with 2-3 foot solid concrete walls.

– Utility tunnels on main campus.

– 40,000 students, staff and faculty.

– Total of about 14,000 offices, classrooms and laboratories.

– All in an urban area.


Case Study - University of New Mexico

• Key requirements– Make data outlets as pervasive as voice outlets. Ultimately

14,000 - 15,000 devices.

– All devices to have access to all academic and administrative services, including Internet access.

– “Electronic management” mandates reliability for mission critical applications (hospital, registration, payroll etc).


Case Study - University of New Mexico (Cont.)

– Internet access for main campus and branches. LANs at branch campuses should be treated as a separate issue.

– Data, voice and video access to athletics complex and research.

– Scalable, flexible, expandable, manageable etc, etc.


Case Study - UNM - Constraints

• Original network - 1,500 connections using coaxial cable network and Ungerman_Bass of headends.

• Protocols supported - TCP/IP, SNA, BISYNCH, IPX, DECNET, LAT, APPLETALK.


Case Study - UNM - Constraints (Cont.)

• Funding - $1.5M first year, $0.5M/yr for 4 years thereafter for a total of $3.5M for infrastructure (inter and intrabuilding cabling, 14,000 wall plates, electronics for about 9,000 active devices).

• No increase in networking staff for implementation and management of a network that will grow from 1,500 to 14,000 connections.


Case Study - UNM - Transmission Media

• Intrabuilding cabling– Category 5 UTP.

– 2 cables of 4 pairs each (receive/transmit, 2 spares) from wiring center to wall plate.

– 1 wall plate in office < 100 sq ft, 2 or more wall plates in larger offices.


Case Study - UNM - Transmission Media (Cont.)

– Secured wiring center per floor

– Star wiring from wiring center to wall plates.

– Plenum UTP used over ceilings.

– Wiring center includes patching capability to change topology if needed.



• Scheduling of intrabuilding cabling– 3 “problem” buildings assigned high priority for rewiring

by the computing organization for “self protection”.

– Buldings with few or no connections were prioritized for recabling by the Provost based upon the perceived institutional need. This helps the “why not us ?” question.


Case Study - UNM - Transmission

Media (Cont.)– Buildings with reliable thinnet ethernet installations were

scheduled last.

– Rate at which buildings we recabled depended on $’s available, ability of contractor to recable and computer center staff to manage the process, install and activate the electronics.



• Small (less than a dozen or so people), hard to get to buildings– Not rewired.

– Cost of pulling fiber to such buildings usually exceeded $30,000, even if “right of ways” could be obtained.

– More cost effective to use modems (33.6 Kbps or even 56Kbps) in such cases.

– Too few users to have “economies of scale” even for some of the wireless technologies.


Case Study - UNM - transmission media (Cont.)

• Recabled by whom? cost?– Sub contractor selected by computer organization.

– Subcontractor does installs, computer organization manages the process.

– Cost about $200 / wall plate including all labor, all materials, testing, termination and patch panel. Some buildings cost less.



• Interbuilding cabling – Campus divided into 7 equal size zones.

– Each zone includes an important building called a zone hub.

– Zone hubs are connected to the campus backbone.

– Buildings within a zone are connected to the zone hub.

– All interbuilding cabling uses optical fiber.

– Cables between a building and its zone hub include 8 multimode and 4 single mode fibers.



– Cables between zone hubs (the backbone) include 48 multimode and 12 single mode fibers.

– The extra fibers provide “scalability” for future needs.

– In general, fibers strung in existing tunnels and conduits. Conduits had to be installed to some buildings.

– Fiber patch panels exist in building wiring centers and zone hubs. This can support any topology and allows any building to be connected to any other building “directly” by appropriate patching.


Case Study - UNM - Logical diagram

Z6

Z1

Z3Z5

Z0Z4

Z2Z1

Z5

Z0Z4

Z2

Z3

Z6

Z1

Z3Z5

Z0Z4

Z2Z1

Z5

Z0Z4

Z2

Z3

Z6

Z1

Z3Z5

Z0Z4

Z2Z1

Z5

Z0Z4

Z2

Z3

Z6

Z1

Z3Z5

Z0Z4

Z2Z1

Z5

Z0Z4

Z2

Z3

Z6

Z1

Z3Z5

Z0Z4

Z2Z1

Z5

Z0Z4

Z2

Z3

Z6

Z1

Z3Z5

Z0Z4

Z2Z1

Z5

Z0Z4

Z2

Z3

Z6

Z1

Z3Z5

Z0Z4

Z2Z1

Z5

Z0Z4

Z2

Z3

Z6

Z1

Z3Z5

Z0Z4

Z2Z1

Z5

Z0Z4

Z2

Z3

Zone hubs

Backbone 48/12 cable

8/4 Cable

UTP pairs to devices Building wiring centers

Devices


Topology of UNM Network

• Topology is unconstrained– Star topology within buildings.

– Star topology of buildings to zone hub.

– Ring topology on main campus (zones 0,3,4,5,6) backbone.

– Star topology on north campus (zones 1,2 connected to zone 0).


Topology of UNM Network (Cont.)

• Ring topology on main campus enabled by existing tunnels. This is important since it provides redundant paths to zone 0 (the computer center) should the backbone fiber bundle be cut in one place.

• Some time in the future, zones 1 and 2 will be connected to also provide redundant paths on north campus.


Topology of UNM Network (Cont.)

• Total cost of all intrabuilding fiber was $850,000 (over 100 buildings), including :– The fiber.

– Conduits.

– Labor.

– Fiber termination and testing.

– Fiber patch panels of buildings and zone hubs.

• Done by a subcontractor based on a competitive procurement (RFP process).


Case Study - UNM - Electronics

• Figure


Case Study - UNM - Electronics (Cont.)

• The campus network consists of ethernets and an FDDI network.

• The FDDI ring is located at the computing center (zone 0) and is only a few feet long.

• Dual homing FDDI concentrators located at the computing center connect all the other zones to the FDDI ring. Each zone has 2 connections, one to each concentrator. If a connection or a concentrator fails, the other one takes automatically over.



• The electronics at each zone hub is shown below– One or more ethernet hubs

to concentrate devices in thebuilding located where the

zone hub is located.

– Several 15 port ethernet switchesto concentrate ethernets from

buildings within the zone.

– A router interconnecting the FDDI network and ethernet switches.

– The routers support all requied protocols in addition to TCP/IP.

100 MbpsFDDI

10 MbpsEnet

10 Mbps

Router

Ether switch

Ether switch

Ether hub

To Conc. 1 To Conc. 2

Enets from other buildings

Devices in zonehub building



• The electronics in each building consist of one or more ethernet hubs.

• Concentration factors are– No more than about 100 devices on an ethernet hub.

– Up to 15 hubs connected to an ethernet switch (15x100 max).

– No more than 4 ethernet switches per router (4x15x100 max).

– 7 zones total (7x4x15x100 or 42,000 max devices).



• At the computing center (zone 0), the FDDI network is connected to a variety of services including– Administrative computers.

– Academic computers.

– E-mail and web servers.

– WANs (branch campuses, Internet).

• Users can dial-in to access centralservices or any other systemthey are authorized to access.

Central services

Campus Network

WANsInternet

Dial-in

Concentrators



• Dial-in access is via a 272 modem pool attached to an ethernet via terminal servers.

• Modem group has 2 hunting groups.– A 15 minute quick-in-quick-out hunting

group (32 lines).

– A hunting group of 240 lines.

– If you dial z and get in, you can stay connected 4 hours max modem pool.

– If you dial y and get in, you can stay connected 2 - 4 hours.

CentralServices

x

y

z

Enet

TerminalServers

Modem Pool

CentralServices



• A special router in the computer center is dedicated to serving the remote campuses and other off campus buildings (WANs).

• The router is connected to local ethernet.

• A different router provides 10Mbps Internet connectivity plus T1(1.5Mbps) backup connectivity provided by a different vendor. If one goes down other takes over.

Computer services

Router Router

CLI1.5Mbps

ANS10Mbps

In State WANs

Enets



• All electronics are SNMP manageable.• Al routers support all mandatory protocols.• Cabling is highly scalable in terms of bandwidth.• Patching at all wiring centers allows special

connections, changes in topology and special wiring center to wiring center connections.

(eg. The media services building uses the campus fiber network to connect to other buildings for beaming video.)



• All electronics were bid competitively.– Hubs are from Synoptics (now Bay networks).

– Routers are from Wellfleet (now Bay networks).

– Ethernet switches are from Kalpana (now CISCO).

– PC Enet cards are from 3Com.

• Substantial multiyear discounts were obtained as a result of the RFP process, saving UNM hundreds of thousands of dollars.


Case Study - UNM - Extensions

• Recently the research park and athletics complex were connected to the campus network to provide voice, video and data connectivity.

• ATM multiplexer located at nearest zone hub– Data patched to zone ethernet switch.

– Voice patched to telecommunications building.

– Video patched to media services building.

South Campus network

VideoVoiceData

VideoTelecomto nearestzone hub

Campus Network

ATM

MUX

ATM

MUXSingle Mode Fiber


Case Study - UNM - Extensions (Cont.)

• South campus is located about 2 miles from main campus in a metropolitan area.

• The local electric utility allowed UNM to use electric poles to string the fiber between the main and south campuses at a cost of a few dollars per pole per month (precedent setting for the utility).

• This greatly reduced the total costs and securing the right of ways.


Case Study - UNM - Extensions (Cont.)

• A subcontractor strung the fibers.• Total cost of project, including all electronics was

$250K in one time costs, plus several hundred dollars per month for pole rental.


Case Study - UNM - UNM MAN and WAN

• UNM includes a number of :– Remote branch campuses.

– Research centers in rented buildings within 1 - 2 miles of campus.

– Research centers remote to the campus.

• These are connected to the campus LAN and its services via a router and leased 56Kbps lines, T1 lines and T1 frame relay services.

Leased Lines 56Kbps, T1, T1 frame relay

Router

CampusLAN and services


UNM MAN, WAN

• figures


Case Study - UNM - CHECSNet

• The Council of Higher Education Computing Services (CHECS) is a non-profit corporation formed by computer center directors of universities and community colleges in New Mexico.

• The objective of CHECS is to exchange information on common needs and solutions, and to negotiate hardware, software and service discount agreements that benefit all institutions.


Case Study - UNM - CHECSNet (Cont.)

• A subsidiary, CHECSNet, was formed to facilitate implementation of statewide Internet connectivity.

• An innovative aspect of CHECSNet is that the costs are based on bandwidth only and are independent of the location of the schools. This provides all schools with an equal opportunity to connect by not penalizing schools that are away from the network hubs.



• The cost of lines, equipment and operation are pooled and divided equally among all institutions according to the bandwidth they wish to have ( cost of T1 line is 3 times the cost of a 56kbps line).

• All schools are connected either to UNM (northern gateway) or New Mexico State University (southern gateway) with a line between the two for redundancy and backup.



• Figure - state network


Case Study - UNM - Network Management

• The network is monitored on a 24x7 basis since it is critical to the mission of the university. All UNM business processes depend on a reliable network.

• All equipment is SNMP or RMON complient to facilitate statistics gathering and diagnosis.



• A combination of NETVIEW, OPTIVITY and SITEMANAGER are used for configuration management. They provide number of network nodes, mac or IP address mapping, hub, switch and router configurations.

• OPTIVITY and TRANSCEND, running under NETVIEW are used to monitor Bay Networks and 3Com equipment and provide network performance statistics.



• Sniffers were used to identify certain hard to diagnose problems. Currently moving to RMON2 probes for remote statistics gathering and diagnosis.

• When NETVIEW detects or a user reports a problem, an alpha - numeric page is sent describing the problem to the on-call network professional who takes action to fix the problems with minimum downtime. CA-UNICENTER is currently used for problem tracking.



• A Network Operations Center (NOC) at the computing center continuously monitors the network, handles users calls and pages the on-call professional when needed.

• Change management for documenting network changes, installs, deletions etc is done manually while an RFP for an integrated package for change management of all central services is being developed.



• Lots of different packages used (NETVIEW, OPTIVITY, TRANSCEND etc) because no single package is adequate as yet . Other tools are therefore continuously evaluated (eg. CONCORD, a web based usage statistics system).


Case Study - UNM - ATM Network

• UNM has experimented with ATM networks to evaluate their functionality to provide a higher bandwidth backbone with Quality of Service (QoS) capabilities.

• An experimental ATM switch connects 4 nodes of a small supercomputer and departments with high bandwidth needs will soon be connected to this switch.


Case Study - UNM - ATM Network (Cont.)

• They include the departments of Computer Science, Electrical and Computer Engineering and the High Performance Computing Education and Research Center.

ATM Switch

Campus LANand Services

Computer Science EECE HPCERC


Case Study - UNM - vBNS & Internet2

• Current Internet is too congested for many advanced applications (eg. teleimmersion, telemedicine, audio and video conferencing etc).

• Leading US research universities formed a consortium to implement Internet2 that will be confined to educational institutions. UNM is a charter member of the Internet2 consortium.


Case Study - UNM - vBNS & Internet2 (Cont.)

• The National science Foundation (NSF) initiated in 1996 a High Performance Connectivity Program to fund connectivity to the Very High Bandwidth Network Service (vBNS).

• UNM has been funded for vBNS connectivity and will be connected via a DS3 line to nearest vBNS connection point at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR).

• In the future, New Mexico State University will also have vBNS connectivityvia UNM.


Case Study - UNM - vBNS & Internet2 (Cont.)

• UNM will try to leverage this by implementing a local Gigapop that will be a major exchange point between :– The vBNS and Internet2.

– The commodity Internet.

– The Energy Science Network (ESNet)– The Defence Research and

engineering Network (DREN).

since Albuquerque is a place where all these networks meet or will meet.

vBNS, I2

ESNet

DREN

Internet

NMSU

UNM


Case Study - UNM - Upgrade Plans

• To provide bandwidth scalability to both the dektop and the backbone, UNM is planning to upgrade the electronics, given that the existing infrastructure (fiber and cat - 5 wiring) can easily support that.

• The long term upgrade plan is to :– Replace shared Enet hub electronics with 10/100Mbps

Enet switches, providing switched 10/100Mbps to desktops.


Case Study - UNM - Upgrade Plans (Cont.)

– Upgrade the FDDI backbone to a fully redundant, multiconnected OC-3 (then OC-12 and OC-48) ATM backbone with tail-end backbone routers.

– Provide ATM to the desktop in cases where this is needed.



• Phasing. When additional plates need to be activated, only 10/100Mbps Enet switches will be acquired. They will be installed in locations where bandwidth is needed the most.

• Shared hubs will stay where bandwidth is needed the least untill all shared hubs are replaced within 3-4 years.



• Figure - new network

© copyright 1997, the university of new mexico 9-1 case study - university of new mexico...

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