RIT Campus Data Network

General Network Statistics

• Over 23,000 wired outlets

• Over 14,500 active switched ethernet ports

• > 250 network closets

• > 1,000 switches

• > 100 Wireless access points

• 13 backbone routers

Prior Network Architecture

• 100 Megabits/sec not fast enough• All network traffic was on FDDI ring• Shared Ethernet too slow• Security issues with shared Ethernet• Old technology – lack of vendor support

Current Architecture

• Distributed modular design– No single point for all traffic flow– Much higher bandwidth– Scalable– Hardware with known upgrade path to better

functionality and bandwidth (Cisco 6509)

Fault Tolerance

• Dual core routers in separate locations for campus backbone redundancy

• Dual connections to commodity internet

• Server room environment– Dual 6509’s in hot-standby configuration– Redundant routers using HSRP– Spanning tree to recover from link failures– Dual UPS with generator backup

Current Backbone Architecture

Current End-user ArchitectureDistribution Router

Cascaded Cisco 3550's(48 port 10/100 switches)

"You are here"

100 Mbps Ethernet

Gigabit Ethernet 1000 Mpbs

RIT’s Current Border Architecture

• History of RIT’s bandwidth:– Prior to 1995, 56K connection to PSINet– Spring 1995, T1 connection– June 1995, Dual T1 connections– Dec 1996, T3 connection

• Current bandwidth (implemented in 2000-2001)– Two OC-3’s (155 Mbit/sec) provided over the following:

• OC-12 (622 Mbit/sec) SONET service provided by Time Warner– Physically diverse paths– One SONET mux on campus

– One T3 (45 Mbit/sec) for backup service

Current Border Architecture

RIT’s Current Border Architecture

• Limited speed• Limited flexibility• Incremental cost for adding capacity is high and dictated

primarily by legacy telecom carriers (e.g. upgrading from OC3 to OC12.)

• Connection options generally limited to ATM and POS.• Increasingly a bottleneck between campus networks and

national networks.• Unable to support access to optical networks – IP level

transport, only.

NYSERNet’s new network

RITs new border architecture

• Gigabit ethernet for physical transport on day 1• Replaces existing OC-3 circuits• We are not purchasing full bandwidth over the GigE pipes on day 1.

– Commodity internet bandwidth increases from 155 Mbit/sec to 300Mbit/sec– Internet2 bandwidth increases from 155 Mbit/sec to 200Mbit/sec

• Speed not limited – scales to 32 10 Gigabit ethernet links today.• Cisco DWDM platform w/ ROADM design allows for great flexibility• 10 Year lease on Fibertech Dark Fiber to 1 Exchange St.

– Fibertech is a forward-looking telecommunications company• Colocating at new Fibertech co-location facility.• Equipment and Dark Fiber allow for new possibilities in the future.• In combination with NYSERNet’s new network, allows for the possibilities of

dedicated, fast, DWDM connections anywhere within the state• In combination with National Lambda Rail, allows for dedicated, fast, DWDM

connections anywhere within the national NLR footprint.• RIT now able to track future NYSERNet features and functionality.

Future Network Directions

• Router to router connections grow to 10 Gigabits per second.

• 10 Gbps router drops to building networks

• 1 Gbps to the desktop becomes common

• 1 Gbps connections to the Internet– Whoops, that already happened!

Research opportunities

• HOPI (Hybrid Optical and Packet Infrastructure)– How to provision a DWDM wavelength dynamically?

• National Lambda Rail– Get a DWDM wavelength across the nation

• Quantum Encryption– Optically based, works over DWDM

• Optical Computing– Computers that work with light

• Grid Computing– Computing with large data sets

• NSF – future possibilities for research

Supporting a Campus Network

• Determining a failure has occurred– HP Openview for active monitoring– Passive monitoring of SNMP traps and syslog

• 24x7 Notification of problems• Aligning technical solutions to business

requirements• Funding for sustaining a high-speed

campus network; “Evergreen” strategy

Wireless at RIT

• Anytime, anywhere – devices are shipping with wireless on board

• Point to point link for Racquet Club apartments • Competitive advantage in attracting students• “Cool factor”• Current wireless locations

– https://www.rit.edu/network/wireless/wireless.html

Wireless Vendor Selection

• Currently using CISCO equipment

• 350 Series Access Points for initial deployment (802.11b only)

• 1200 Series Access Points being deployed now (802.11b with a or g support in the same unit)

Wireless Challenges

• Develop customer understanding– Wireless does not replace wired locations– Mobility drove a single Layer-2 network

design that will have scalability issues– Conflicts with customer installed devices– Security?

Security

• Authentication/Authorization (802.1x)

• Encryption– WEP– VPN

• Physical location?

• Blocking by Mac address?

• 802.1q to access points

Wireless Challenges

• Radio Frequency issues– Power of transmitters– Frequency range– Obstacles

• Troubleshooting– Unintentional bridging (or intentional)– Interference

Wireless Network Core Design

Q & A