[Chronicle]

April 14, 1994
Vol. 13, No. 16

current issue
archive / search
contact

    Project providing foundation for 'information superhighwa

    University Networking, Telecommunications & Computing Services (NTCS) has launched a comprehensive plan to rewire the communication networking infrastructure throughout the campus. The restructuring will improve existing communication services and provide the foundation for upcoming advances in information technologies.

    The project, which began last July, entails the installation of 6,000 new high-function connections throughout campus. The project is scheduled for completion by the end of 1996. "Our progress so far is very encouraging," said John Iannantuoni, Director of NCTS. "We may be as much as a year ahead of our target date."

    These new connections, along with the 2,000 to 3,000 high-function connections installed over the past two years by various departments, will provide advanced network access to more than 99 percent of campus offices and work areas.

    "This project will establish the wiring and communications infrastructure needed to bring the rapidly converging multimedia technologies of voice, data and video to virtually every desktop, classroom and laboratory on campus," Iannantuoni said.

    NTCS has established a Universal Wiring Plan that is being implemented by the technical and physical-planning staffs in both the University and the Hospitals to ensure that the networking infrastructure is developed uniformly in all areas. The project, which includes a simultaneous upgrade of the telephone wiring plant, will result in an infrastructure that can support advanced applications such as full-motion video and imaging, as well as transmissions of voice, to every desktop computer. The new infrastructure will support 100 megabits of data per second -- 10 times the maximum of the current communications protocol -- with the possibility of doubling or tripling that over the same cable as technologies advance.

    "This new infrastructure will prepare the campus for the information superhighway of the future," Iannantuoni said. "It will allow us to link to regional, national and international networks using state-of-the-art technologies."