Networking Update
Since the last networking update in the Spring 2008 edition
of the One On One, ITS has made several substantial improvements
to the campus network.
First, the campus backbone network was upgraded from redundant one Gigabit per second Ethernet (GigE) connections between the routers to redundant Ethernet connections that run at ten Gigabits per second. This was necessary partly because, as a follow-on to the campus rewire, we have been upgrading the standard service to our customers from 10 Megabits per second (Mbps) Ethernet to 100 Mbps. In addition, we are planning on offering GigE to our customers (for a monthly fee), and we decided that the backbone should be able to accommodate multiple GigE transfers at the same time.
Roll-out of the GigE service to our customers is awaiting a campus-wide network implementation of Quality of Service (QoS) which will insure that all of our current 10/100 Mbps Ethernet customers are not drowned out by the traffic for the GigE customers. The QoS project is in progress; we expect to have it completed later this spring. The subsequent project to roll-out GigE service is already receiving some attention. GigE service should be available even later this spring for patiently-waiting select customers who have already expressed their needs for this service.
As noted in the previous campus networking update, we had to upgrade various Uninterruptible Power Supplies (UPS) that support the backbone network equipment. All of that work has been completed, and additional UPS upgrades were accomplished in the Telecommunications Center in support of critical services located there.
Also in the last update, we noted that one of our connections to the commodity Internet was upgraded to 250 Mbps with plans to upgrade to GigE this summer when we expect to change providers. The upgrade to GigE happened in January, even though we have not changed providers.
In February we upgraded our connection to the Front Range GigaPOP (FRGP) in Denver from 600 Mbps to GigE. We were not pushing traffic across that link between Boulder and Denver anywhere close to the 600 Mbps limit, but the upgrade allows us to move to newer, more supportable technology and to make a more direct connection to the FRGP.
We have made several upgrades to the configuration and firmware on the campus border firewalls. We will continue to make changes as necessary to keep these firewalls performing at acceptable levels until we find a suitable and substantial hardware improvement with demonstrated capability to meet our needs for at least four years.
Lastly, in the fall 2008 oneonone, we announced the availability of Guest Wireless (UCB Guest). We are currently looking at a vendor-supplied upgrade that will address several critical issues with this service. | 
