Network Technologies

IT plans, installs and maintains the campus-wide data communications and fiber optical infrastructure. This includes the academic, administrative and residence hall networks. Each school, and some departments, have accepted responsibility for networks within their area. We work closely with the technical specialist in each of these areas assuring efficiency and security.

The campus data communications network recently underwent a major upgrade. Previously the network comprised of Cisco core router and switches and firewalls. As we realized the increasing necessity on maintaining a secure network, we reevaluated our core network architecture. In January 2006 we implemented various technologies form Juniper Networks, Extreme Networks, Meru Networks, Bradford Networks, Packeteer and Bluesocket. The new architecture provides security enhancements to detect and prevent threats to the campus-wide network.

Every academic building and most administrative buildings are connected via optical fiber. We have installed wireless point-to-point 2.4 Ghz connections where we couldn’t tunnel fiber to administrative buildings. All intra-building cabling is level-5 (or better) UTP. The network supports an estimated 3,500 network devices (routers, switches, hubs, servers, PCs, printers, etc). In addition to inter-campus connectivity we have also upgraded out internet connections. We now have a 100Mbps Metro-Ethernet circuit from Keyspan Communications and Cogent Communications and failover circuits from AT&T.