Implementation of a Voice, Video, and Data Backbone Network Copyright CAUSE 1994. This paper was presented at the 1993 CAUSE Annual Conference held in San Diego, California, December 7-10, and is part of the conference proceedings published by CAUSE. Permission to copy or disseminate all or part of this material is granted provided that the copies are not made or distributed for commercial advantage, that the CAUSE copyright notice and the title and authors of the publication and its date appear, and that notice is given that copying is by permission of CAUSE, the association for managing and using information technology in higher education. To copy or disseminate otherwise, or to republish in any form, requires written permission from CAUSE. For further information: CAUSE, 4840 Pearl East Circle, Suite 302E, Boulder, CO 80301; 303449-4430; e-mail info@cause.colorado.edu VOICE, VIDEO & DATA BACKBONE NETWORK PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION Written By: Dr. Bruce Longo Barbara Robinson MONROE COMMUNITY COLLEGE ROCHESTER, NEW YORK Abstract: Monroe Community College is committed to the strategic goal of the advancement of technology within the institution. To that end, the College has actively promoted the use of information technologies throughout the academic and administrative communities of the College. MCC is challenged with supporting an anticipated four-fold increase in demand for voice, data, and video services as a result of a steady and dramatic increase in the overall student population, additional campus locations, and an increased use of network services for instructional purposes. It is the College's desire to support this increase in demand, and the need to interact and share information between any device, anywhere, by enhancing the College's current network environment through the implementation of a new, high speed integrated college-wide voice, video and data communications backbone network capable of supporting a wide variety of communications technologies and protocols. MCC is underway with implementation of this project, and would like to share our experience with others who are interested in pursuing implementation of an integrated network environment. The presentation will highlight a historical summary of the network, including where the institution was when the project began, where it is now, and where it expects to be when the project is complete. INTRODUCTION: Monroe Community College was founded in 1961, and is one of 30 community colleges within the State University of New York (SUNY) system. It is the largest community college upstate, with 14,000 students enrolled in credit courses in a multi-campus environment. The College employs approximately 734 faculty, and 514 administrative personnel. The College is committed to it's strategic goal to support it's population in the use of information technologies, and to promote the advancement of technology within the institution. The College is challenged with supporting a four-fold increase in demand for voice, video, and data services as a result of a steady and dramatic increase in student population, additional campus locations, and an increased use of network services for instructional purposes. Space constraints mean that departmental networks will continue to spread out to various buildings on the main and downtown campuses presenting additional challenges. Trends confirm that there will continue to be a growing need to share information between a diverse set of computing platforms. This challenge is further complicated by the need to plan for the possibility of locating more college facilities throughout the county. It is the College's desire to support this increase in demand through the implementation of a high speed College-wide voice, video and data communications backbone network capable of supporting a wide variety of communications technologies and protocols. MCC is well underway with implementation of this project in a phased approach. It is the intent of this presentation to share our experiences in implementing the various phases of the project with others who are also interested in pursuing implementation of an integrated backbone network environment. This presentation will highlight a historical summary of the network and its design, including where the institution was when the project began, where it is now, and where it expects to be in a few years. HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE OF MCC NETWORK ENVIRONMENT Before implementation of the fiber network, voice and data communications connectivity utilized separate cabling systems. Voice communications in the late 1980's were completed through the utilization of a ROLM Computerized Branch Exchange (CBX) 8004 telephone switch which serviced approximately 830 stations and 100 trunks in an analog environment. Systems administration was very cumbersome, and most service on the infrastructure was outsourced to a vendor (very expensive). Due to capacity constraints of this analog switch, incoming calls were blocked (often busy) during peak times. This switch also maxed out growth potential for additional users. In its earliest configuration, data communications were carried out on a one-to-one basis utilizing "miles" of coax cable. 32 cables were run from each of the Computer Center's workstation control units to 32 user workstations. This configuration eventually evolved to a 1:8 ratio by running 4 cables from the control units to multiplexors located in user areas supporting 8 users per multiplexor. This cabling process was costly and inflexible, and sometimes required months to complete requests for adding new data users. In addition, a finite number of mainframe computer ports required prioritization of which users would be fully cabled and connected. A second connectivity method required purchase of a microcomputer, modem, communications software and a dedicated telephone line for dial-up capability to administrative or academic computing systems. Providing modems for each end user requiring connectivity became a costly operating budget expense. Response time using a modem was slower than direct cable connects, and resulted in loss of user productivity. Authorizing new user connections to MCC's computer networks was time-consuming, inflexible, costly and involved a myriad of college personnel (e.g. electricians, data technicians, systems administrators, etc.). All of the issues related to providing timely, cost-effective service to our voice and data customers were culminating in a poor image problem. Customer service had to be improved, and the philosophy of "Do More with Less" had taken hold across the College. This crossroad led us to develop and propose a long-term strategic plan for voice, video and data technologies. It is what we later referred to as MCC's Backbone Network Project, phased implementation plan: PHASE I DIGITAL SWITCH IMPLEMENTATION PHASE II DATAPHONE AND MODEM POOL IMPLEMENTATION PHASE III CONSULTING SERVICES PHASE IV CURRENT STATUS OF THE PROJECT PHASE V FULL IMPLEMENTATION OF THE PROJECT PHASE VI PROJECT EVALUATION AND RECOMMENDATIONS PHASE I -- DIGITAL SWITCH IMPLEMENTATION In 1990, the College began investigating a new telephone switching system to replace the aging analog telephone system in an effort to alleviate the problems noted above. The College was convinced that by replacing its analog telephone switching system, it would realize a substantial cost savings versus upgrading the old system. A new digital switch would provide the college with the ability to implement other beneficial, cost-saving technologies and strategic initiatives such as telephone registration and other voice applications. In line with the College's strategic goals for advancing technology and providing end users with state-of-the-art equipment and access, the Telecommunications and Information Services Departments installed a ROLM 9751 telephone switching system. This switch has full digital capability supporting synchronous and/or asynchronous data communications, centralized inbound/outbound modem pool access, a common dialing plan for off- campus sites, data group access and compression video support. Advantages of the ROLM 9751 CBX telephone switching system include: * Potential data communication through utilization of existing twisted pair cable located where ever telephone service was available. This was accomplished by connecting a PC with a RS-232 interface to a voice line plug for data communications; * Office moves could be accomplished with no additional cabling, though charges for software changes in the CBX were still incurred. As we trained in-house staff to perform this software change function, associated costs were minimized; * Ease of problem resolution through single vendor commitment to design, implement, train and support MCC staff for one year; * Through standardization on level 3 and level 5 UTP cable, redundancy is built in. If one line goes bad, additional lines can be used for other data applications (i.e. LAN, Video, Print Sharing); * Elimination of duplicate cabling for voice and data applications; * Ability to establish management controls for user functionality; * Voice mail capabilities. PHASE II -- DATAPHONE AND MODEM POOL IMPLEMENTATION Installation of the ROLM 9751 CBX digital telephone switching system paved the way for the College to implement a dataphone network which accommodated an escalating number of computer users, located on two separate campuses, requiring access to a myriad of on and off-campus hosts. It also allowed the College to incorporate an inbound and outbound modem pool. The inbound modem pool allows users off campus to connect to a variety of on-campus hosts and services. The outbound modem pool allows users on campus to gain access to computing resources located off-site. The modem pools utilize ROLM Data Communications Modules (DCMs) to establish connectivity to the ROLM 9751 CBX telephone switching system. Access to modem pools is accomplished through a user-friendly, ubiquitous menu system which requires minimal training of about one hour to become functional. Modem pooling has resulted in college-wide standardization of communications software, and a reduction in equipment expenses by eliminating the need for individual modems at each end user workstation. The dataphone network utilizes the digital ROLM 9751 CBX switch as the hub, together with data phones at end user microcomputer workstations, providing asynchronous connectivity to various host computer systems on and off campus. With this application, the College utilizes existing unshielded twisted pair (UTP) cable to provide simultaneous voice and data transmission capability from the end user's data phone and workstation. To place a call through the dataphone network, an end user first activates communications software on their microcomputer workstation. The switch displays a Call, Display, Modify prompt at which time the user types a call command and group name. The call proceeds through the telephone switch to the data group, and the DCM connects the call to a port on the remote system. The College has realized several benefits as a result of this phase of network implementation, primarily in the area of end user productivity: * Increased accessibility for end users, while at the same time drastically reducing hardware expenditures and implementation time; * Users call host computing systems at a speed of 19,200 baud, faster than any modem currently available at the College; * Improved College-wide communications by establishing connectivity to electronic mail systems and wide area networks; * Increased portability by allowing users to relocate between various college campuses and offices, and resume access to the network in a timely manner. The end user simply takes their dataphone and workstation with them, reconnects the hardware, and requests minor software changes from the Telecommunications Department to complete the access path; * Reduced turnaround time for such moves to less than 24 hours; * Eliminated need for dual workstations (i.e. PC and non- intelligent terminal). PCs are becoming the standard workstation, providing access to more productivity tools. The technology continues to be utilized as new users are added to the communications network system. The dataphone network effectively provides connectivity to occasional users of the computer systems in a user-friendly, cost effective manner. These users are satisfied with connectivity, and ease-of use of the dataphone network. Heavy users of the computing systems achieving connectivity through the dataphone network, have experienced degradation -- slower response times. In these instances, non- intelligent terminals or 3270 emulation connections for microcomputers are recommended, though it is a more costly connectivity method. FINANCIALS ASSOCIATED WITH PHASE II I. PRE-DATAPHONE NETWORK MAINFRAME CONNECTION METHOD COSTS DIRECT-CONNECT VIA NON-INTELLIGENT TERMINAL ------------------------------------------------------------ LABOR COST PER CONNECTION Electricians, Systems Analyst, Facilities Management, Technical Support and Information Services Management $155 EQUIPMENT Multiplexor, Cable, Cable Ends, Control Unit (leased), Control Unit Maintenance (leased), Terminal (leased), Terminal Maintenance (leased) $722 TOTAL $877 ------------------------------------------------------------ MAINFRAME CONNECTION METHOD COSTS INDIVIDUAL MODEM AND PHONE LINES ------------------------------------------------------------ EQUIPMENT COST PER CONNECTION Modem, Telephone Line Installation, Labor, RS-232 Cable TOTAL $835 ------------------------------------------------------------ II. DATAPHONE NETWORK ------------------------------------------------------------ LABOR COST PER CONNECTION Systems Analyst, Telecommunications $66 EQUIPMENT Data Phone/Power Pak, RS-232 Cable, Modem Pool Costs, Surge Protector $391 TOTAL $457 ------------------------------------------------------------ III. COST COMPARISON ------------------------------------------------------------ METHOD PRE-DATAPHONE DATAPHONE SAVINGS COST COST PER CONNECTION DIRECT CONNECT $877 $457 $420 DIAL UP $835 $378 ------------------------------------------------------------ The initial direction of the dataphone network was to supply connectivity to the "casual user". Expectations have been surpassed. MCC's technology goal is to forge ahead with emerging technologies, therefore we have determined the criteria for a dataphone connection to be a casual user versus heavier users of various systems. The modem pools have also exceeded our initial expectations. The trend for end users to access remote hosts has become an emerging arena. Due to this growth in off-campus network access, we are utilizing the technology of modem pools, and promoting a cost reduction in modem purchases for each user. The dataphone network served as a fundamental stepping stone on the road to a complete voice, video and data backbone network, and went a long way in providing end user connectivity to various hosts. However, the problem of anywhere-to-anywhere connectivity for hosts and workstations still needed to be addressed. PHASE III -- CONSULTING SERVICES In 1992, Monroe Community College released a detailed bid request for consulting services regarding the design of a voice, data, and video cabling (Backbone) system to provide these services. The Consultant, Rotelcom, located in Rochester, NY, completed an extensive review of all college facilities, existing cabling systems, existing computing, telephony and video support services, and the (then known) needs/wants/desires of staff, faculty, administrators. Using the collected information, a final report recommendation for a college wide backbone system was released, including: 1. Recommendations for each building's cabling design and cost estimates to install the system; 2. Route drawings for installation of the backbone; 3. Material and installation specifications; 4. A phased implementation recommendation; 5. Finally, the ideal voice, data, video infrastructure recommendations for MCC. The Recommendations: VOICE Much of the voice (telephone) network at MCC was relatively new, and had been designed to complement an integrated backbone implementation. Briefly the recommendation outlined: 1. Standardization of telephone switches at non-compliant sites; 2. Standardization of phone mail; 3. Implementation of Automatic Call Distribution (ACD) for high- traffic areas; 4. Standardization of cable types between buildings and to the desktop. DATA: Topology: Physical Star/Logical Bus (10BaseT Ethernet). This physical design dramatically improves network management capabilities, and reduces failure points. The vast majority of backbone designs utilize this topology. Media: The above design is essentially a point-to-point design, allowing inexpensive level 3 and level 5 twisted-pair wiring to be run from the hubs to the workstations. Fiber optic cable will be run between hubs and to high-bandwidth areas (conference rooms, classrooms, etc.), which also provides redundancy and eventual implementation of FDDI or ATM. Access Method: In order to provide the most standard connectivity both internally and externally, both the MCC Committee overseeing the project, and the Project Team recognized TCP/IP as the predominant choice of access methods. VIDEO While there is much activity in the video products marketplace in 1993, this area is in its infancy with respect to backbone designs. Compressed video and digital transmission are several years away from economical maturity. With that in mind, the team had presented both short-term and long-term recommendations: Short Term (1-2 years) distribution to classrooms will continue to utilize much of the existing CATV cable that is in place. Short Term distribution to offices will be accomplished via compressed video over unshielded twisted pair wiring (UTP) utilizing the ROLM switches. Long-Term (3+ years) distribution to strategic areas will utilize the fiber optic cable being run to those areas. Long-Term distribution to offices will be accomplished via an ethernet network, using PCs as the vehicle. PHASE IV -- CURRENT STATUS OF THE PROJECT Computing is a fundamental problem-solving tool at the College. The College community uses computing for word processing, computation, modeling, simulation, computer-based instruction, and problem solving. Today, the College community routinely uses information systems, external data bases, electronic mail and office systems for instruction, research, student services and administrative services. In 1992 and 1993, the College experienced a dramatic increase in the number of facilities it had to support. The additions included a downtown city campus, two new main campus buildings totaling 120,000 square feet, and extensive renovations of existing space. This paved the way for the College to implement a portion of the recommendation of the consultant's backbone study. Administrative computing functions of the College are currently supported with an IBM ES/9000 Model 210, two VAX 3100 minicomputers, three RS/6000 computers and a 9751 Model 50 ROLM CBX switch in support of voice/data networking. Instructional and Academic Computing support has migrated from an IBM mainframe computing environment to distributed workstations, microcomputers and DEC VAX mini computers. Enhanced academic management support capabilities are also provided through an IBM RS/6000 platform. The College is part of a beta group of four SUNY colleges to participate in a SUNY-initiative to implement a state-wide, automated library system on a VAX mini computer platform. College-wide access to the diverse computing platforms noted above is accomplished through an infrastructure consisting of a dataphone network, a SNA network, and an administrative ethernet network. The key objective of these networks is to bring computer accessibility to the desk tops of faculty, staff and administrators in a user-friendly environment. The flexibility, efficiency and cost-effectiveness of this network has contributed to the successful implementation of a number of strategic applications for the College. The SNA Network consists of the IBM ES/9000 with ten 3174 locally attached workstation controllers, each with 32 ports and a 3720 front end processor for remote site access. A variety of terminals and microcomputers with 3270 emulation cards connect to the terminal controllers through RJ62 coaxial cable and UTP. The Ethernet Network consists of fiber optic cable and thick wire coaxial cable which allows access to all computing platforms. As recommended by the consultant, the network is designed as a physical star/logical bus topology. Primary points of connectivity include the hub at the Main Distribution Frame (MDF); the Computer Room; and the campus Library. The Damon City Center campus is linked to the main campus networking environment via a Bridge and public T1 leased lines. Currently the network uses a variety of Synoptics hubs and high speed megabyte networking functionality to provide connectivity to multiple computer platforms and host systems. Today, by strategically placing the fiber optic cabling, we have effectively linked users on MCC's main campus and the Damon City Center campus to the networked environment. With the addition of Synoptics network equipment, we have implemented network management in a way to set the platform for future growth and migration from the existing network to a comprehensive voice, video and data backbone network. The final backbone network will be capable of supporting all existing computing systems, and provide for an orderly conversion to future computing systems. The installation investment would allow support of multi-vendor solutions, inter-operability among diverse computers and networks, and provide solutions that could deliver savings, as well as productivity enhancements. STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES OF CURRENT NETWORK Strengths * Increased accessibility for end users in a user-friendly environment; * Reduction of hardware expenditures and time to install new users; * Decentralization of data processing applications for a wider spectrum of users (promotes rightsizing); * Improved College-wide communications by establishing connectivity to electronic ail systems, and wide area networks (BITNET, INTERNET, SUNYNET); * Ability to allow users to physically relocate between various college buildings easily and resume access to the networks within hours; * New users require minimal training (1 to 2 hours) to become functional; * College-wide standardization of communications software, with fewer steps required to access wide area networks; * The network provides for sharing resources and faster communications for intra- and interdepartmental data sharing; * Improved data accuracy by elimination of redundant entry of data; * Reduced obsolescence through the ability to tie older and new equipment together via the network; * Improved network management of information systems. Weaknesses * Due to a lack of standardization of computing platforms, the proliferation of networks, equipment and software from a wide variety of vendors has led to incompatibility/ interconnectivity problems; * End users not geographically located near an active Synoptics hub in an Intermediate Distribution Frame (IDF) could not easily gain access to the Ethernet Network; * High startup costs associated with Ethernet implementation. PHASE V-- FULL IMPLEMENTATION OF THE PROJECT Even as MCC plans to implement the final phase of the College-wide backbone network, most of the original design and installation of the network is still working satisfactorily. This phase of implementing the entire backbone infrastructure will have to meet the bandwidth demands of the growing numbers of users, and the requirements created by more sophisticated network applications. Utilizing the consultants study and report recommendations, the College has begun to fully implement a backbone network with a physical star/logical bus 10 BaseT ethernet topology using DECNET, Appletalk, and TCP/IP. We have migrated from expensive workstation coax cable custom links to host resources, to a less expensive level 3 and level 5 twisted pair wiring run from the hub IDF/TER to the workstation. Fiber optic 12 and 24 strand multimode cable inter-connects college buildings and floors. This illustration depicts the standard quad plug located on each wall for voice, video and data communications connectivity, and the wiring scheme followed to connect to the backbone. (Figure not available in text-only version.) This slide indicates the extent to which we have already implemented fiber cable between and within college buildings. The completion date for full backbone access in all areas of the College is August, 1994. (Figure not available in text-only version.) PHASE VI -- PROJECT EVALUATION AND RECOMMENDATIONS We believe the benefits of implementing a backbone network infrastructure outweigh the disadvantages. A carefully planned, phasing-in of connectivity techniques, such as we have reviewed in this presentation allow as-needed growth in a cost-effective manner. A needs analysis is absolutely necessary and will identify the need for resource sharing, access to remote hosts for research, e-mail, file sharing, etc. The tools are placed on the desks of the staff who will benefit the most from them. The benefits lead to improved customer service. Recommendations we leave with you are: 1. Carefully benchmark and plan your backbone network implementation. Use the findings of a needs analysis to provide direction; and 2. Do not reinvent the wheel. Yes, your environment is different from ours, however, the method or process used to sell the concept of a backbone network, to implement it in a phased approach, and to evaluate results are generic and could be adopted to your needs.