NetComms: An invisible revolution

The past year has seen some major changes taking place across the University campus. As well as the very noticeable building projects, a less obvious but hugely important project has also been going on behind the scenes, the only visible evidence being a nice new telephone on your desk.

Director of Information Services, David George, explains the massive re-engineering exercise that will deliver a modern, world-class communication network for the University of Dundee.

For most people, the only evidence that something significant has happened to the University's communications network, is the presence of a new telephone on their desk. Behind the scenes however, there has been a huge change, which means that Dundee now has the best academic network in the country.

Over the past few months, we have replaced the University network on the city centre campus and will have completed all campuses, including Ninewells, by the end of summer.

Last year we were given almost £4.5 million to replace the network and telephone system. The motivation came from a 2002 report on the state of our IT facilities by a working group convened by Professor Mike Coughtrie.

The report called for a series of improvements which we have been steadily implementing ever since. These have included replacement of servers, improved data storage, the development of a standard operating environment and the introduction of a corporate email system. The biggest job has been this linked group of network projects known as Netcomms.

There have been three main workstreams: cabling, the data network and telephony. Each on its own would have been daunting. Together they represent the most ambitious IT project the University has ever undertaken. On top of all this, Estates and Buildings have been steering a parallel project to provide upgrades to network equipment rooms around the campus and have also commissioned a second central equipment room.

The result of all this is that we now have a fully resilient network. A year ago if there had been a failure in one of the main components all 7,000 users would have lost their network connection. Today, because all the key equipment is duplicated and the network has been totally redesigned, the maximum number of PCs affected by a single equipment failure cannot be more than 24 (the number attached to one network switch).

The old city campus telephone service was based on a PABX system which was installed in 1984. We have replaced this with a modern system, running on the network, which offers services such as voicemail and accessible directory information. It will also support and integrate with new communication technologies as they develop over coming years.

By the time the work is completed we will have connected more than 7,500 network points and more than 3,000 of the new network phones. Many kilometres of new copper and optical fibre cable has been laid across the campus. There will also be more than 300 wireless access points in the public areas, giving us wide coverage for portable devices.

None of this includes the networking of the new buildings currently being constructed. The residences, teaching block and library extension will increase the network by more than a further 2,000 points.

Another benefit, which will arrive in July, is the next generation of the national academic network: SuperJANET5. We will have two separate connections, so even if our primary circuit fails, either here or somewhere down the line, we will have a backup that will ensure continuous internet access at a much higher speed (2.5 gigabytes per second).

We will be more rigorous in the way we manage the new network and it will be necessary to get explicit permission to connect anything to it, especially wireless access points. Everyone is so reliant on the network these days that we can't take any chances with its integrity.

Many people have been involved in this project but huge credit goes in particular to the following: Mike Whitehead, head of the ICS network infrastructure unit (project director); Chris Reid, head of the ICS business improvement unit (project manager); workstream leaders Bob McGregor (cabling), Alastair Macpherson (data network), Delia Gallagher (telephony) and Hazel Martinson (migration planning). We would also like to thank Colin McNally, Mike Sinclair and Ged Keane for managing the building works.