AboutGlossary
Network equipment that directly serves a jack; also the piece of equipment between a network jack and a building collection switch.
Backbone architecture (or backbone)
A central network into which other networks feed. It must have the bandwidth to support the aggregate bandwidth of all the networks feeding into it. The backbone comprises various nodes located around campus. Also referred to as the Network core.
Building collection (or distribution) switch
The interconnection to a building's network facilities and the campus backbone.
A device that analyzes data and protects the campus network from receiving harmful content from the Internet; also protects the Internet from similar content coming from campus.
Copper cable that can support data speeds of up to 10 Mbps. State-of-the-art cabling in the mid-1980s, Cat3 cable is still used for phones. All Cat3 data cabling will be replaced as part of the Campus Network Upgrade Project.
Copper cable that can support data speeds of up to 100 Mbps. Some campus buildings built or rewired since the 1980s use Cat5 or 5e cable; these cables are not being replaced as a part of the Campus Network Upgrade Project because they support the 100-Mbps-to-the-desktop goal of the upgrade.
The latest standardized copper cable design. It is capable of supporting data speeds of up to 1 Gbps over distances of up to 100 meters. Cat6 cable is the cabling installed during the upgrade.
Communications Equipment Room (CER)
A centralized and dedicated area where the cabling for each of the Ethernet jacks and access points in a building is aggregated into Ethernet switches. The Ethernet switches in a CER typically connect to the building demarcation switch via Gigabit Ethernet. Some buildings require multiple CERs depending on the density and distance of the cable runs.
See Backbone architecture or Network core.
An eight-strand copper cable manufactured to Cat3, Cat5, or Cat6 standards.
A wall jack that a computer can connect to by an Ethernet patch cable. Behind the wall, this leads back to an aggregated wiring center, or CER, where switches are located.
See Campus firewall.
Another type of Ethernet that is capable of supporting data speeds of up to 1 Gbps over distances of up to 100 meters.
A unit of data transmission; one Gigabit per second equals 1 billion bits per second.
A shared networking system to which many computers are attached. There are limitations to the distance of a shared medium and the number of workstations that connect to it.
A unit of data transmission; one Megabit per second equals 1 million bits per second.
A central network into which other networks feed. It must have the bandwidth to support the aggregate bandwidth of all the networks feeding into it. The UIUCnet core comprises various nodes located around campus. Often referred to as the backbone.
A centralized and dedicated campus facility that provides the main cross-connect for the entire campus, where cabling, switches, and routers from campus are aggregated. A large version of a CER and part of the system that makes up the network core, or the central network for the campus.
A network device that connects various departmental networks to each other and to the Internet.
A network device that connects the computers in a departmental network or multiple buildings on the same virtual LAN to each other.
Virtual local area network (VLAN)
A mature network technology that allows local area networks (LANs) to overlap on a single backbone architecture. VLANs allow different departments in a building to "share" the same switch and not have special hardware dedicated to it.
Real-time multimedia transmission (voice and video) over the Internet. A change to VoIP from standard analog phone service is not included in the Campus Network Upgrade Project.
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Last modified September 14, 2006