RCAB presentation introduction

RCAB presentation introduction

The ongoing upgrades to the UIUCnet data network are creating new opportunities for UIUC researchers. In the next year the backbone connectivity between campus buildings will be increased by an order of magnitude; an additional order of magnitude increase will also be possible in the future. So you can look forward to a 10x performance improvement on the UIUCnet backbone soon, with 100x the current backbone speeds also possible.

At the same time, the campus is undertaking a project that will connect the Urbana-Champaign, Springfield, and Chicago campuses to each other at speeds comparable to the new UIUCnet campus backbone. The Intercampus Communications Network (ICCN) will connect the University's three campuses and will be constructed using University-owned and managed fiber optic cable. Scheduled to be tested in 2006, with production services in 2007, the network will afford the university access to 500 times as much bandwidth for just three to four times of the cost of what it is paying today for commercial communications circuits. Another added benefit is that it will give the university flexibility, scalability, and reliability in terms of planning and configuring for its telecommunications future, allowing it to make decisions based more on need rather than cost. So, whether you are collaborating with a colleague on the other side of the Urbana campus or with a colleague at one of the other campuses, you will be able to share data at the same speeds as if he or she was just down the hall.

The connection to UIC will also connect to a new fiber network in Chicago owned by the Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC), which is comprised of the Big Ten schools and the University of Chicago. That fiber network has connections to Starlight, where all of the major national research networks connect to each other. While UIUC currently has a connection to Starlight, the new connection will be more robust and can potentially be 10 times faster. This will allow you to collaborate with researchers across the country at data speeds that are equal to what you have within your building on campus.

If your research would benefit from high-speed or high-volume connectivity to campus or off-campus resources, CITES wants to talk to you. We can give you more information about existing and upcoming resources, as well as identify possible needs so we can plan for future enhancements. Please contact Mike Smeltzer, Director of Network Communications at 244-3835 or smeltzer@uiuc.edu.

The following presentation was made to the Research Computing Advisory Board on May 13, 2005 by Charley Kline, the UIUCnet architect. It contains a more detailed view of the coming changes to UIUCnet.

May 2005 RCAB Presentation