Network Concepts

Information Technology
An overview of how the new Rice Network will integrate with local, state, national, and international networks. http://www.rice.edu/ricenet/

Network Glossary
Abilene Created by the Internet2 community, the Abilene Network connects regional network aggregation pointscalled GigaPOPsto provide advanced network services to over 220 Internet2 university, corporate, and afliate member institutions in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. access To connect to a network, the Internet, or other online service advanced networking Typically, advanced networking consists of dedicated network connections between institutions and organizations that need specialized, well controlled communications resources to conduct their experiments or to collaborate effectively with other similar institutions. bit Binary digit - The basic element of computer storage and processing. It is a single digit in the binary number system (0 or 1). broadband In common usage, any style of Internet access with a speed of greater than 56 kbps (kilobits per second) byte (Binary table) - the common unit of computer storage. It is typically made up of eight binary digits (bits). A byte holds the equivalent of a single Roman character, such as the letter A, a dollar sign, or a decimal point.

Building a Network that is Second to None for Rice University

ice has embarked upon a project that is a major priority for the university. The Rice Future ready Network Architecture and Design Initiative supports the goal of a Rice network that will be second to none in supporting teaching and research, while meeting the needs of our campus-wide community and beyond for years to come, states Kamran Khan, Vice Provost for Information Technology.

a Rice network that will be second to none in supporting teaching and research, while meeting the needs of our campus-wide community and beyond for years to come.

More and more Rice University faculty, staff, students, and applications rely on network performance and availability. Nearly every activity at Rice depends on a reliable, highperforming network. New networking initiatives are taking place both state-wide and nationwide and Rice is participating in the planning and utilization of these collaborations.

Traveling Network Super Highways around Houston, Texas, the U.S. and the World

lthough todays research and teaching are far from childs play, the concepts of shared resources, individual and group participation and cooperation, and integrated community projects are all key DOWNTOWN components to the advances sought by institutions of higher education (IHEs). Its time for a bigger sandbox, or better yet, RICE an information super highway.

leading to the establishment of consortiums to facilitate these efforts. And IHEs understand that nancing these efforts is a requirement for increasing WilTel POP each institutions ability to support future research initiatives.

Kamran Khan, Vice Provost for Information Technology, is optimistic UH BAYLOR Fortunately, several factors about the use of a global TMC have contributed to the network for researchers creation of a tool capable of and educators. If handling the exchange and you look at it from an sharing of massive quantities international level, of electronic information. The European and Asian physical existence of thousands of miles of alliances have already created multi-national dark (unused) ber is a result of the dot.com networks. Soon the London POP will extend downfall. Global awareness and the exchange to New York and then U.S. institutions of information through the Internet have made involved with national networks can tap into collaboration easier and almost expected, the international network.

cyberinfrastructure Cyberinfrastructure is the coordinated aggregate of software, hardware and other technologies, as well as human expertise, required to support current and future discoveries in science and engineering. The challenge of Cyberinfrastructure is to integrate relevant and often disparate resources to provide a useful, usable, and enabling framework for research and discovery characterized by broad access and end-to-end coordination. dark ber Fiber optic cable that is not in use. Since ber optic cable uses light pulses to transmit information, cable that is not transmitting data is referred to as dark.

GB Gigabyte - One billion bytes (actually 1,073,741,824 bytes, or 2 to the power of 30 bytes). GB refers to gigabytes, while Gb refers to gigabits (there are eight bits to a byte). Usually used as a measure of hard drive (or other media storage device) capacity. HiPCAT High Performance Computing across Texas (http://www.hipcat. net/) a university consortium for the development and deployment of the Texas Internet Grid for Research and Education (TIGRE). infrastructure For society, an infrastructure is the combination of basic necessities or services that allow a community to function (transportation, communication, education, water, electricity, and so forth). In networking, the infrastructure is the equipment and the connections that move data from one point in the network to another.

Nearly every activity at Rice depends on a reliable, high-performing network.

Locally, work on Rices campus network began as soon as funding for a new system was approved by the Board of Trustees (Spring 2005).

Another POP, Please

he most recently developed super highway for educational and research information trafc in the United States is the National LambdaRail (NLR). According to the NLR.net web site, the project is a major initiative of U.S. research universities and private sector technology companies to provide a national scale infrastructure for research and experimentation in networking technologies and applications. Rices participation in NLR means that Rice faculty and researchers can tap into a resource that transmits very large amounts of data very fast for a limited number of members and associates. Like a highway, entering the NLR is limited to on-ramps and exits. In networking terminology, this kind of facility is called a POP (point of presence); it is a physical location where members can connect in order to transmit or

receive trafc on the larger network. For the NLR, there are only 27 POPs in the entire U.S. and only three states can boast multiple POPs. There are two in New York, three in California and four in Texas. Rice will use the Houston POP to join the trafc on the advanced networks. Not surprisingly, POPs are strategically placed for their members and the 16 NLR members include few individual institutions and companies. Primarily, the membership consists of geographical consortiums. Rice is a member of NLR through a state-wide Texas effort, the Lonestar Education and Research Network (LEARN), which also provides additional state-wide high-speed data communications to its 33 institutional members.

internet Lowercase internet is short for internetwork (see the concept of internetworking) Internet (capitalized) Uppercase Internet is a proper noun used to describe the world-wide internetwork that connects innumerable local, regional, and national networks Internet2 Internet2 develops and deploys advanced network applications and technologies for research and higher education, accelerating the creation of tomorrows Internet. internetworking Combining a group of networks in such a way that they function as a single network, usually through interconnected routers and other devices

LEARN Lonestar Education and Research Network KB Kilobyte 1,024 bytes (2 to the power of 10) network An arrangement of interconnected elements, particularly one that transmits data, voice and/or video NLR National LambdaRail paradigm In networking, the set of assumptions, concepts, values and practices that create the way we view reality. For example, we now expect to be able to connect and interact via computer with colleagues across the hall and across the country much like we take for granted the use of tools like regular mail or cell phones.

No Trafc Jams for Houston Networks

lectronically zipping around the Harris county area is being simplied by Rices membership in both the Southeast Texas GigaPOP (SETG) and the Research and Education Network of Houston (RENoH) project. The network currently known as the SETG was established in 1998 by a very high Bandwidth Networking Service (vBNS) grant obtained by Rice, University of Houston, and Baylor College of Medicine faculty, and one of its original POPs remains on the Rice campus. The most recent addition to Rices partnerships in high performance computing networks is the RENoH project, which ensures high-speed connectivity between the Texas Medical Center, Rice, and the University of Houston, as well as locations in downtown Houston. Just like automobile trafc, interstate routes are created to manage high numbers of a

wide range of vehicles. Individual vehicles (or packets of data for information highways) can travel quickly across the country on these wide, direct thoroughfares. But a driver cant access a superhighway from their garage; their initial navigation consists of local streets and intersections. If these connections arent sufcient for their needs, a driver moves onto state highways, which are designed to convey larger numbers of vehicles at faster speeds. Finally, drivers may move onto interstate freeways for the most efcient route to distant destinations. Similarly, Rices participation in LEARN guarantees state-of-the art communications within the state and NLR membership through LEARN provides even greater opportunities for national data transmissions. Locally, Rices afliation with the SETG and RENoH provide

increased speed as well as the ability to move wide loads (large packets of information) across town. The new network project will provide improved information trafc conditions and transportation speeds for the Rice campus as well as easy access points to the information super highways.

With 30 Miles of Wires, is Construction in Your Future?

The existing network served the Rice community well in 1989. Over time, 30 miles of network cabling brought life to 21,000 active network ports, including one port per student in the colleges. These miles of wires and thousands of ports help connect students, staff, and faculty members with each other and with the world beyond the hedges. From connecting with the Net Generation to connecting with international research collaborators, it is clear that the environment for higher education is rapidly changing. admissions, recruitment, human resources, Fondren Library Digital Library, etc.), that demand far more than what the 1989 network is capable of. As network resources became an increasingly integral part of the Rice Universitys educational mission as well as its daily operation, it has become essential that the network remain highly available. The Rice community expects around-the-clock stability and reliability.

network at the end of the 2004-2005 school year. By July 2005, initial wiring had begun and construction for this major network project was underway when students arrived for their Fall 2005 classes. The new network project will take at least 18 months to implement. Construction for the new network project occurs primarily in the evening and early morning hours, Monday through Thursday, unless there are reasons to schedule the work during the day. For example, Hamman Hall was scheduled for network construction during a month with heavy production schedules in the evening hours and so the construction was completed during regular work hours when fewer people were in the building. Estimated construction dates for each building in the network project can be found in the project web site: http://www.rice.edu/ricenet/

However, the network system that used to enhance education, facilitate research, and support operations had become a signicant obstacle to Rices utilization of cyberinfrastructure. Why? The Rice community now has hundreds of applications, research projects and systems (e.g., email, Banner, student registration, nancial management,

it is essential that the network remain highly available. The Rice community expects around-theclock stability and reliability.

Recognizing the vital role of a robust computer infrastructure in Rices current and future endeavors, the Rice University Board of Trustees approved funding for a new campus

parse To separate data into pieces to aid in their processing POP Point of presence - For Internet service providers, the POP is the local exchange through which users connect to the Internet. POPs are also used in advanced networking projects in the same way that access ramps provide the entrance point for new vehicles to enter the stream of trafc on a highway. RENoH Research and Education Network of Houston a project involving members of the Southeast Texas GigaPOP and other TMC institutions to create a dark-ber network for supporting research and education needs in the Houston metropolitan area. SETG Southeast Texas GigaPOP. Formerly known as the Texas GigaPOP.

terabyte 1 trillion bytes. TIGRE Texas Internet Grid for Research and Education (http://www. hipcat.net/Projects/tigre)- a computational grid that integrates computing systems, storage systems and databases, visualization laboratories and displays, and even instruments and sensors across Texas. When complete, TIGRE will enhance the computational capabilities for Texas researchers in academia, government, and industry by integrating massive computing power. ubiquitous Describing the state of near-invisibility for a product or service that is so common it is taken for granted. With the exception of a few rural areas, mail service, electricity, indoor plumbing, and refrigerators are all ubiquitous in the United States. Wireless connectivity was not ubiquitous at the turn of this century (2000).

The New Network and You

Rices network implementation process
Implementing a new network at Rice University begins with the installation of 30 miles of blue wires across the campus. emerging from your wall before the new faceplate is installed for your new network ports. Your rooms blue wires are also connected to the new network through a wiring closet during this phase.
faceplate After the port faceplates are installed, the next phase for each building is to test the new network to ensure that all ports will be able to access the network. This testing can actually be performed remotely; no one will come to your building or ofce for this test.

to the new network. This phase includes converting computers, printers, servers, etc. For this step, your departmental administrator will work with an IT representative to arrange an appointment to convert your equipment at a time when you or your designee can test the equipment upon completion of the conversion. Frequently asked questions regarding the new network project are answered on the reverse side of this yer. Additional information as well as the status of each building can be found online: http://www.rice.edu/ricenet/

Installation is occurring building by building using a schedule posted on the website. Work usually occurs between 6:00 p.m. and 4:00 a.m., when most of the building occupants are away from their ofces, classrooms, or labs. The next phase for each building is the creation of new network connectivity points in each ofce, classroom, and lab. During this phase, you might see blue wires

Once the new network is enabled in your building and accessible through all switches to your local port, it is time to change your equipment connections from the old network

Wiring Closets

Remodeled wiring closet in Cohen House

Open a wiring closet and youll see what looks like the back of the ultimate home entertainment system. A wiring closet is where the wires from individual rooms converge through hubs, routers, and switches to join the Rice network. In some buildings, new wiring closets are being created, but most buildings with New wiring existing wiring closets are just getting a closet in Mudd closet remodel.

The New Network and You: FAQs

How long will my building be under construction? Building re-wiring will vary according to the size of the building as well as the complexity of the cable paths. It will be difcult to determine exactly the time frame to when a particular building will be completely rewired. We have made an estimate of the duration based on best practices; any adjustments will be reected on the building schedule which is posted on the web site: http:// www.rice.edu/ricenet/schedule/. How will I nd out if the project is going to take longer than expected? We will update the web site for schedule changes. What is the noise level for this type of construction? The work will be done at night when fewer people are in the building. The work will consist of removing ceiling panels and running the cables down the hallways and to each room. Will I be able to work in my ofce during the construction? The cable rewiring will only affect people who work between the hours of 6:00 p.m. and 4:00 a.m., Monday through Thursday. The cabling crew will try to minimize the noise near people who are working. What disruptions should faculty and staff anticipate during their daily routines? None. However, during the installation, the current network connectivity may be accidentally disconnected. Please notify us by phoning the Help Desk (x4357) if this happens. Will I be able to access the Internet and email during construction? Normal network connectivity will be available. How will I know that my buildings construction has started? We will update the progress of each building regularly on the project web site. In addition, we will be contacting your department coordinator at least one week before construction begins in your building. When are the workers actually in my building (what time of day and what day of the week)? The cabling crews will be working nights: Monday through Thursday from 6:00 p.m. - 4:00 a.m. There should not be any disruption to the day-to-day activities at all. Are all the workers Rice people? If not, are they wearing IDs? There will be a Rice representative at each work site. ElectraLink will be providing the cabling crews. All contractors will be wearing Rice IT Contractor badges with their pictures and names. What security precautions do I need to take when construction workers are scheduled to be in my ofce? We recommend that you lock away all valuables and breakables. While the cabling contractor will take extreme care, there is the possibility of a mishap. Will dust and debris get all over my desk area and shelves? Dust and debris will be minimal. The cabling crews will clean up before leaving each morning. If you nd debris in your ofce, please let us know and we will address the issue with the cable contractor. We recommend that you lock away all valuables and

Answers to frequently asked questions regarding the new network

breakables during the installation time frame. During construction, will I walk into my ofce every day and nd things in different places than where I left them? The cabling crews will minimize the amount of furniture movement. At times, they may need to move items to get to the location of a cable. The crew will do their best to put things back the way that they found them. How long will it take to congure my computer system to utilize the new network? We estimate that it may take between 1 and 5 hours but will have a better idea once we begin migrating computers to the new network. IT will work with your department coordinator to schedule enough time to recongure your equipment. For additional information, see the white paper on the project web site: http://www.rice.edu/ricenet/benets/ WhitePaper.pdf

For additional copies of this yer, phone Carlyn Chateld at 713-3484819 or email carlyn@rice.edu.