See also IST's TIS Network Services resource : “Assigned Internet names and numbers”
When working with IST on DRCSCS networking (OSPF Area 4) enhancments (many of which are funded via SCS research grants), the following principles (in order of priority) are followed:
- Very high availability.
CSCF continues to expand the use of redundancy which also includes redundant edge device connections for our essential servers. Having a switch failure (or reboot for firmware upgrade) should not affect anything except the edge devices that only use a single switch network connectivity setup. We had extensive network equipment problems from 2000-2005 that makes this a very sensitive area.
- Equipment Spares
IST maintains a set of spares (of their recommended switch models) for all single point of failure networking devices it deploys.
- Electrical Power
CSCF capacity-planning does not cover networking equipment (which is managed by IST). [an error occurred while processing this directive]
- Security (
Needs to be reviewed with decommissioning of School based firewalls. )
- Zoned Security Setup.
- We use Subnet boundaries to protect groupings of equipment from each other, the rest of campus and the world. The Zones also protect the world, rest of campus and other equipment groupings from a specific zone.
- Remote Management.
Our remote access to the switches is via ISTs Open Network Administrator: ona.
- Bandwidth.
We use LACP to provide aggregated bandwidth (which has the side benefit of limiting the maximum bandwidth of a single source/destination pair from saturating our network).
- Performance.
Design to be able to support the maximum IEEE 802.3 standardized connection speeds between server-room to server-room edge ports independent of campus location. Keep in mind the CSCF Infrastructures Principle Guideline:
Proactively providing flexible technical services to meet specialized demands mandated by the School of Computer Science
- All fibre runs (internal and external) are to "star" or "home-run" from a single point within the building. This may be a telecommunication room, or a server room, or any restricted-to-IT-staff area of the building.
- Each Building is to have high performance redundant hardware aggregation switch(es) at the hub of the fibre "star".
- Preferably access to this area is controlled via electronic fob.
- It should have at least a pair of 208 volt, 30 amp electrical circuits for redundant heavy duty Uninterruptible Power Supplies (UPS) so a minimum power outage runtime of 30 minutes will be supplied to all equipment used to provide, manage and monitor the network.
- Server room networking is setup with high capacity networking devices (like what's used for Building Aggregation) in a similar configuration as Telecommunication Rooms.
- They are to always have at least 6 strands (3 pairs) of single-mode fibre back to the BAR; one pair to each "side" of the redundant building aggregation switch setup and one extra pair for emergency use. Preferably these strands would not all be in the same jacket, however that's not the current practice.
- A least three copper serial lines are run back to the BAR for switch console connections.
- Patch panel cabling between Communications Rack and each Server Racks facilitate the easy racking of new devices.
- Appropriate networking bandwidth allocation for devices is listed below.
- It should have the same UPS power setup as BARs.
- They are to always have at least 6 strands (3 pairs) of single-mode fibre back to the BAR; one pair to each "side" of the redundant building aggregation switch setup and one extra pair for emergency use. Preferably these strands would not all be in the same jacket, however that's not the current practice.
- A least three copper serial lines are run back to the BAR for switch console connections.
- The first two switches deployed into a TR are to be high performance aggregation switches.
- Preferably access to this area is controlled via electronic fob.
- It should have at least a pair of 120 volt, 20 amp electrical circuits for redundant medium duty Uninterruptible Power Supplies (UPS) that can supply 30 minutes of runtime during a power failure.
- TCs are used in teaching labs where the copper cables are run from each work area back to wall mount cabinets inside the room.
- TCs are to always have at least 6 strands (3 pairs) of single-mode fibre connecting the TC with the server room hosting the computing services for that teaching lab. Preferably these strands would not all be in the same jacket, however that's not the current practice.
- A least a pair of copper serial lines are run to the nearest TR for switch console connections.
- Cabinets are to be locked with a common keyed padlock.
- Each cabinet should have its own 120 volt, 15 amp electrical circuit.
- Network Wall Boxes:
During renovation or new construction, install wall network boxes beside each electrical outlet. Wall network ports should be the same level of commodity item as wall electrical ports. The major expense is the installation of wall outlet box and conduit that connects it to the hallway network cable run. Delaying the installation of these boxes and conduit severely affect esthetics and increases cost when they are needed.- Network Wall Jacks (installed in above boxes):
Two network outlets per work-site (Workstation and Laptop support) plus one network outlet per room for a phone line.- Network Connection Types (effective for new connections as of July 2010):
- 10/100 Mb ports are provided for printers, remote management devices, and older equipment that doesn't support 1 Gb connections.
- 1 Gb Power-Over-Ethernet is provided for specialty devices (like VOIP phones). These connections are provided by the TR aggregation devices.
- 10 Gb ports are provided for server hardware where there is an expectation of running more that 5 virtual machines on it or high volumes of NAS traffic is expected. This includes blade chassis.
- 1 Gb is provided to all other network ports.
- IST removed School of Computer Science zone based firewall devices in favour of router based ACL's during the Summer of 2013.
Any new construction that has any networking less than minimum standards gets all it's networking upgraded to current standard.
- Cat 6a, FT4, Copper
- Used from TCs and TRs to the wall jack.
- Multi-mode Fibre
- Historically used to provide 1 Gb connections between BARs, SRs, TRs and TCs within a building. No longer used for new deployments as it doesn't readily support the higher speeds over the standard distances.
- Single-mode Fibre
- As of spring 2020, 100 Gb network deployment is our standard interconnection medium for connections between BARs, SRs, TRs, TCs and some researcher offices. Always deploy at least one extra pair when pulling new cable.
Information on how CS networking ended up in under IST management.