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CITES > project status > campus network upgrade > announcements and presentations > January 2006 news brief

News Briefs
Campus Network Upgrade Project
January 2006 (Issue No. 4)

 

Campus begins transition to new record-breaking core equipment

The network core is the high-performance routing and switching equipment responsible for directing traffic between buildings. The current network core is being replaced with new equipment that was approved in November by the University Board of Trustees and delivered in late December. It will be installed and tested during the spring 2006 semester, and CITES Network Engineering projects the cutover to begin during spring break of this year.

The new Foundry NetIron 40G core platform for the Urbana campus is the same that was recently used to set an Internet2 land-speed record of 167.4 petabit-meters per second, maintaining a 5.58 Gigabit per second (Gbps) transfer rate over 30,000 km of trans-oceanic fiber optic cable. Each of these NetIron 40Gs will support 1 Gbps connections to up to 200 buildings and 10 Gbps connections to six buildings, fulfilling the need for bandwidth-intensive research needs and other future technologies.

Kickoff meetings and construction starts in November and December 2005

Kickoff meetings were held for the following buildings: Foreign Language Building, English Building, Altgeld Hall, Illini Hall, Art & Design, Krannert Art Museum, Vet Met Small Animal Clinic, Illini Union, Technology Commercialization Lab, and the Armory.

During November, construction began on Altgeld Hall and the electronics-only upgrade to Campbell Hall was begun. During December, construction began on the Technology Commercialization building.

Construction completions in November 2005

During November 2005, the construction was completed on Turner Hall and the electronics-only upgrades of Burrill Hall, Campbell Hall, and Morrill Hall. Although no buildings were completed during December 2005, electricians and CIMS worked overtime during the holiday break to finish specific parts of buildings that needed to be done while students were gone.

Construction in progress as of December 31

As we entered the new year, F&S and CITES staff were actively working in the following buildings: Freer Hall, Speech and Hearing Clinic, Rehabilitation Clinic, David Kinley Hall, Children’s Research Lab, the Architecture Building, Davenport Hall, Atmospheric Sciences, Altgeld Hall, the Vet Med Small Animal Clinic, and the Chemical & Life Sciences Laboratory.