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7. Network reliability and speed (Spring 2010 Facult

Network reliability and speed (Spring 2010 Faculty & Staff Survey)

Several people identified the need for increased speed for both research and instructional purposes. Based on the comments, reliability seems to be more related to slowdowns in the network rather than outages in the network.

Actions

• Replace major network components to increase the overall capacity across the University’s primary network backbone.
  • Update October 2010:  
    • All major network components in the primary network backbone have now been upgraded to 10  Gb/second speed (with 1 Gb/second-speed fail-over links), increasing the overall capacity of the network backbone within VCU 10 times over the previous capacity.  This upgrade makes possible future improvements in capacity to and within individual buildings on campus.
    • Replaced, updated, and provided redundant packetshaper.  New devices also connect at 10 Gb/second speed.
  • Update February 2011:   A network project is underway to move all Internet traffic onto its own router. This will improve throughput to the Internet.
• Plan and begin implementing improvements to network devices to increase the network capacity from the backbone to and within individual buildings on campus.
  • Update October 2010:  Plan developed to start connecting buildings to the VCU backbone at least 1 Gb/second speed, which will be a significant improvement for these buildings -- up to a ten-fold increase for some buildings.  Funding for this year was approved  (from HEETF (Higher Education Equipment Trust Fund) or VCU funds if HEETF is not funded by the state) to begin these upgrades.
  • Update February 2011:  The first round of network electronics, which will allow connectivity of 1 Gb to a number of University buildings, have been ordered. Installation expected to start in late Spring 2011.
• Develop a plan to support the networking needs of the research community.
  • Update October 2010:  Development of a plan is in progress. 
  • Update February 2011:   The first step in this effort is to upgrade the connections to buildings where researchers reside to 1 Gb/second speed, which is now underway as described above.

This article was updated: 04/20/2020