II. Access to Network Resources

Recommendation 2: The University should provide students, faculty and staff with reliable access to computing and network services, on the campuses and off. (In the language of today's technology, "No busy signals!")

Action 5. The University should provide students, faculty and staff with reliable access to computing, data storage, information and network services, on the campuses and off.

Off-Campus Access

The long-standing problem of inadequate modem capacity on the two core campuses was effectively solved in 1999. During 2000, service was constantly monitored for quality and maintained so that busy signals were encountered rarely and modem access is, as a normal operating condition, rapid and straightforward.

In Bloomington, 184 new lines were added to the two-hour (856-5200) modem pool in time for the Fall 2000 semester, bringing the overall total to 1,541 lines. Adding the 92 lines in the eight-hour (856-5202) modem pool and the 23 lines in the legacy asynchronous modem pool (856-5212), IUB remote access service totaled 1,656 lines. An additional 115 lines were added to the two-hour (856-5200) modem pool before the end of the year, bringing the grand total in Bloomington to 1,771 lines – a 20% increase in capacity in 2000.

In Indianapolis, 184 new lines were added to the four-hour Internet (278-5620) modem pool in time for the Fall 2000 semester, bringing the overall total to 782 lines. Adding the 207 lines in the one-hour Internet (278-5621) modem pool and the 46 lines in the IU-Network Restricted (278-5619) modem pool, IUPUI remote access service totaled 1,035 lines. This represents an 18% increase in the capacity available at IUPUI in 2000.

However, basic modem access will not serve the needs of IU faculty, staff, and students much longer – as their need for off-campus, broadband access grows. As technology advances from today's connections of thousands of bits-per-second to speeds in the hundreds-of-thousands to millions of bits-per-second, IU will increasingly rely more and more on the developing commercial infrastructure that has blossomed as the Internet has become a household commodity. As commercial offerings become broader, and with the advent of new communication technologies, such as digital subscriber line (DSL) service and cable modems, UITS will continue to seek to leverage the power of IU's 100,000-member community to secure the market's best rates and services.

Already, Internet service providers (ISP) in the metropolitan areas surrounding IU campuses are offering a variety of high-speed options, including DSL service and cable modems. In Bloomington during the latter half of 2000, the local cable company began offering cable modem service and several local ISPs and regional telephone companies launched DSL services. By the close of 2000, the Telecommunications leadership had made significant progress in developing local peering agreements and connections with these vendors. A pilot DSL service with Smithville Telephone Company was announced, offering IU students, faculty, and staff in Smithville's service area the opportunity to receive significant discounts on installation and equipment. Trials with other service providers will follow in the months ahead.

Key to the success of broader deployments in Indianapolis and the regional campus communities, are efforts currently underway in Bloomington. For cable modem service, all cable companies rely upon a national network hosted by a single company. Similarly, DSL service providers exist that span all IU campus locations. By leveraging the University community as the largest group of potential users in Bloomington, UITS can establish arrangements with national and statewide companies and secure the network infrastructure needed to ensure the best possible service to all IU affiliates, regardless of their location throughout the state.

On-Campus Access

At IUB, some 13,986 data jacks were installed or upgraded in locations across campus, bringing the total number of active Ethernet jacks to 29,301. Of these, 3,690 are capable of supporting up to 100Mbps. The migration of 112 additional buildings to the redundant 100Mbps Ethernet backbone was accomplished, along with the provision of a publicly accessible Web site for current and historical display of traffic statistics (hydra.uits.iu.edu/vlan). Through a gigabit distribution pilot project, the Chemistry building and the Music Library are now connected to the backbone at 1Gbps, with capacity available and plans prepared to add more buildings next year.

Another major effort in 2000 was the replacement of aging Ethernet equipment with 10/100Mbps-capable switches in 10 Residential Programs and Services (RPS) complexes (a total of 23 buildings). The risers in these buildings' infrastructures were upgraded to 100Mbps (using a combination of fiber and twisted pair copper risers), bringing those buildings up to the latest campus standards. By the end of 2000, the RPS project was nearly four months ahead of schedule and should be completed before the end of the Spring 2001 semester.

At IUPUI, 2,780 new connections were activated in 2000, bringing the total to 15,900. Of these, 8,300 are capable of supporting 100Mbps. To date, 42 on-campus buildings have been upgraded to 100Mbps. In addition, 460 student walk-up (laptop) stations are now located on campus, including locations in the University Library, the Law School, the Medical School Library, and the University College. The campus network backbone was redesigned from an ATM-based environment to a topology featuring the now system-wide standard Gigabit Ethernet technology. As of the end of 2000, over one-third of the IUPUI campus had been converted to Gigabit Ethernet, with the project scheduled to be completed by late Spring 2001.