UC Irvine CPG Campus Report
Network and Academic Computing Services (NACS)
Summary: The Communications Planning Group (CPG) is a group of network and telecom managers from each of the UC campuses. We meet quarterly to discuss relevant issues and to share what we are doing in network and telecommunications at each campus.
March 21, 2006
Network/Telecommunications
VOIP Update
NACS was recently successful implementing a protocol called QSIG to address some of the feature interoperability issues between Cisco IP phones and Ericsson TDM phones. QSIG fixes the “call back” feature, “name display” feature, and the ability to reply to voicemail between the Cisco and Ericsson phone systems. It was implemented on a development system and NACS plans to put it into production soon.
NACS is developing rough cost estimates for a campus-wide IP phone deployment based on a variety of planning assumptions. Current estimates range from $8.4M to $34M. A significant portion of the costs relate to “hardening” the power to the network.
Wireless Networking
NACS continues to incrementally add wireless capacity this year using Cisco 802.11b/g APs. For more information, visit the wireless networking web page at: http://www.nacs.uci.edu/ucinet/mobile/.
NACS has partnered with an ICS research group to implement a wide-area coverage outdoor WiFi solution from 5G Wireless Solutions http://www.5gwirelesssolutions.com/
NACS is evaluating switched centrally managed wireless systems that use “thin” APs and centralized intelligence and control.
UCInet Backbone Upgrade
NACS continues to make progress on the backbone upgrade. The core has been upgraded to 10 gigabit Ethernet on Cisco 6500s. Most of the layer 2 building distribution switches are currently being upgraded to Cisco 3750 layer 3 switches.
Other Network Upgrade Projects
NACS replaced all of the remaining hubs (<70) with switches. NACS also plans to replace a subset of our aging layer 3 Cisco 5500 distribution switches, and to upgrade some 10MB switches in the School of Engineering to 100MB.
Voice Mail Replacement
NACS is evaluating alternatives for replacing our legacy Unisys/Pulse Point voice mail system with a UM capable system. We are monitoring developments at UCSD and UCB.
Cellular
Considering using NextG’s microcellular approach for cell site deployment on campus. http://www.nextgnetworks.net/
