Campus Network Infrastructure Upgrade Project Status

Campus Network Upgrade Project
News Briefs No. 7 -- October 2006

I. Construction milestones and kick-off meetings

Construction starts:
Animal Sciences Lab – started August 21, 2006.
Foellinger Auditorium – started July 31, 2006.
Illini Hall – started August 21, 2006.

Construction on-going:
Foreign Language Building – started January 23, 2006.
Law Building – started February 3, 2006.
Main Library – started April 4, 2006.
Music Building – started March 8, 2006.
Surveying Building – started August 27, 2006.

Construction completed:
Altgeld Hall – started Jan. 1, 2006; completed August 11, 2006.
Gregory Hall – started May 1, 2006; expected to be completed in mid-October.
University High – started June 5, 2006; completed September 29, 2006.
Vet Med Teaching Hospital Large Animal Clinic (wireless) – started April 3, 2006; completed September 20, 2006.
Vet Med Teaching Hospital Small Animal Clinic – started December 12, 2005; completed September 20, 2006.

Kick-off meetings:
Lincoln Hall – kick-off meeting held on September 12, 2006.

For more scheduling information, please see the Campus Network Upgrade Project Status Table.

II. Meru wireless equipment update

Since July 2006, CITES has installed Meru wireless access points at:

The total number of active Meru access points on campus is now 339.

III. Campus Network Upgrade Project building database

A database of individual building metrics for buildings upgraded or in the process of being upgraded through the Campus Network Upgrade Project has been compiled and is now available online.

Metrics include: General Building Data; Design Milestones; Construction Milestones; Communication Equipment Room (CER) milestones; and general building statistics (e.g., number of new cabling drops, new Category 6 data jacks, UIUCnet Wireless access points, 100 Mbps Ethernet switch ports, 1 Gbps Ethernet switch ports). Individual notes are also included for some buildings.

IV. ACES and CITES team up to connect South Farms

In a joint IT collaboration between the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences (ACES) and CITES, a portable 30-foot Wi-Fi tower has been designed and built to connect agricultural researchers working in the field with their research databases.

Unofficially unveiled at last August’s Agronomy Day, the tower was created from surplus parts. Thanks to the increased connectivity, ACES researchers are now able to collect real-time data, and then transmit that data to a research database for analysis or share with colleagues. Researchers “in the fields” will also be able to stay in touch with their home offices through email, thanks to the tower’s robust signal.

“We now have the ability for connectivity down to the ear-of-corn level at the South Farms,” said Mike Smeltzer, director of network communications at CITES.

The tower, which currently has a half-mile range, has a neck that can telescope out to a maximum height of 30 feet. It can be set-up in less than 20 minutes and located virtually anywhere. It receives its signal from the main campus network, which is fed from a communications antenna on top of Oglesby Hall at the Florida Avenue Residence Hall complex.

V. Daily Illini and News-Gazette articles

The Campus Network Upgrade Project was featured in two local news stories:

1.) “Email upgrades finished: CITES increases storage capacity from 15 to 100 MB” from The Daily Illini, August 23, 2006.

2.) "Campus alive with wireless" from The News-Gazette, August 24, 2006.

Please see the Announcements and Presentations section of the Campus Network Upgrade Project website for the latest information about the project.

VI. ANAG welcomes Beth Sandore

Beth Sandore, Associate University Librarian, has joined the Academic Network Advisory Group (ANAG) in time for its Oct. 2 meeting.

"We thought that the Library needed representation on ANAG,” said Paula Kaufman, interim Chief Information Officer (CIO). “With her past experience integrating technology with librarianship, Beth was the ideal candidate to represent the Library's best interests in the network upgrade planning process."

News briefs

Campus Network Upgrade Project