Campus Network Upgrade Project

What's New

The Campus Network Upgrade Progress Report has been published, detailing the progress CITES has made at the halfway point of the ambitious five-year, $20-million initiative to upgrade the network in more than 260 campus buildings with the latest state-of-art data networking technology.

Download the pdf here (576 KB).

1. What is the Campus Network Upgrade Project?

The Campus Network Upgrade Project is a major five-year initiative that will produce a campus network with improved reliability, faster data transfer speeds, increased security, and the ability to grow to meet the changing needs of the campus community.

The majority of the wiring for the campus network has not been upgraded since 1987, and computer usage and the demands on the campus network have increased exponentially in those twenty years.

The ideal campus network is:

• Always live: Immune from attack and abuse.
• Scalable: Capable of growing and reconfiguring to meet changing user needs.
• Efficient and Effective: Capable of delivering data in the needed time frame; fulfills the needs of the campus community to communicate and access university and global resources.
• Versatile: Equipped to deliver a variety of services, including data, video, and voice; network design is an ongoing process, and networks must continually evolve to stay at the forefront of technology.

The project is divided into five phases corresponding to the funding allocated for each of five fiscal years. The first phase of the upgrade began in the 2004-2005 fiscal year.

2. Goals

The project is comprised of upgrades in more than 250 buildings, including network equipment upgrades; installation of new data jacks, wiring, and other infrastructure; and construction or remodeling of Communications Equipment Rooms (CERs).

Specific goals for completion by the end of the project include:

• Campus backbone operating at 10 Gigabits per second (Gbps).
• 1 Gbps connections to each campus building from the campus backbone network.
• 1 Gbps connections between CERs in each building.
• 100 Megabits per second (Mbps) connections to the desktop.
• Adequate CERs for each building (minimum size of 8' x 10' x 10' for air circulation and future growth, an appropriate HVAC system, dedicated 120v, 20 amp electrical circuits, and secure, limited access for CITES and network administrators).
• Category 6 cabling to replace all Category 3 data cabling.
• New conduit, raceway, and cable tray to allow for easy installation of new and improved cabling in future decades.
• UIUCnet wireless in all "public space" in campus buildings.

For more information about the Campus Network Upgrade Project, please see the Project Management, Building Status, or FAQ links.

3. Project Status

There are several levels of detail to view the scope and status of the buildings involved in the Campus Network Upgrade Project, ranging from an individual building's upgrade metrics and milestones to the status of the project as a whole.

Please select your desired level of focus from the list below:

• Individual buildings
• Annual overview
• Completed and in-progress buildings
• Detailed building status table

4. News

Find out what's new with the Campus Network Upgrade Project in the News section:

• News Briefs: In the interest of keeping campus informed about the progress of the Campus Network Upgrade Project, quarterly news briefs regarding the status of the project are recorded and posted here.
• Success Stories: A collection of interesting stories about how the project has helped campus.
• Did You Know?: Some little-known facts about the Campus Network Upgrade Project are collected here.

5. Frequently Asked Questions

Frequently Asked Questions have been compiled and are sorted by areas of interest and level of technical expertise:

• Non-technical FAQ: For those who want the wide-angle view of the project.
• Project Status FAQ: For those who are curious about the project's deadlines and milestones.
• Project Management FAQ: For those who are curious about the direction of the project.
• Advanced Technical User FAQ: For those who want answers to nuts-and-bolts questions about the project.

6. Reference

Don't know a LAN from a VLAN? The Campus Network Upgrade Project Reference section will help make sense of common networking terms and other technical jargon.