ICCN News Briefs
February 2008
In this edition
Increased reliability through the ICCN helps VideoWorks@WILL-TV
Keeping rural schools connected: the ICN-Rantoul Regional Office of Education ICCN connection
I. About the ICCN news briefs
Welcome to the introductory edition of the ICCN news briefs!
In an effort to create effective communications and raise awareness of the Intercampus Communications Network (ICCN) within the University system, we will be releasing quarterly news briefs chronicling what’s new with the ICCN.
CITES welcomes your feedback regarding both the news briefs and the ICCN itself. Please send your comments to Tracy Smith (tracys@illinois.edu), Operations Manager for the ICCN.
II. What is the ICCN?
Implemented in mid-2007, the Intercampus Communications Network (ICCN) is a high-speed data network that:
Acts as the Internet service provider for the Urbana and Springfield campuses.
Connects all three University campuses – Urbana, Chicago, and Springfield – in a high-availability, redundant, and cost-efficient manner.
Offers the University system and select constituents access to bandwidth orders of magnitude greater than before and, for researchers at the three main University campuses, the best way to connect to Internet2 and the National LambdaRail.
On the Urbana campus, for example, both the ICCN and the Campus Network Upgrade Project (http://www.cites.uiuc.edu/projects/netupgrade) provide the framework for inventive and imaginative research possibilities on campus and for collaboration with institutions and researchers around the world.
By using this bandwidth in concert with the shared Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC) infrastructure called OmniPoP, the ICCN affords the University the necessary capacity to connect the three campuses to each other and to research networks and peer universities at much higher speeds than was possible before.
The ICCN fiber also connects to existing fiber rings in Chicago that are co-owned by the CIC, which includes all Big Ten universities and the University of Chicago. The CIC fiber rings connect with all the major telecommunications carriers and all the major research networks' Points of Presence (POPs).
III. Calling all Researchers!
Enough about us, what would you like to get out of the ICCN?
Are you a University researcher who feels you don't have enough bandwidth and/or speed to meet your needs? If so, the ICCN Vision Group wants to hear from you!
Specifically, we would like more input about:
How we can help you make the most out of the ICCN.
Questions you may have about the ICCN, and how it can help you in your research.
What networking problems you need solutions for.
Any blue sky ideas you have!
If you’d like to make your feelings known, please contact Tracy Smith (tracys [at uiuc [dot] edu), operations manager for the ICCN, to tell her about your high-speed networking wish list.
IV. ICCN Operations Manager appointed
CITES hired Tracy Smith in September 2007 to be the Operations Manager for the ICCN. Smith is responsible for facilitating researcher use of the network and managing the day-to-day operations of the ICCN, including communications between the three campuses and University Administration.
Prior to joining the University, Smith was a senior network engineer on the Network Architecture Design and Security team for the Illinois Century Network (ICN) in Springfield.
Tracy is eager to continue the dialog about the ICCN and advanced networking with researchers, campus departments and colleges, and invites you to contact her at tracys@illinois.edu to discuss how the ICCN can fulfill your high-bandwidth networking needs.
V. Increased reliability through the ICCN helps VideoWorks@WILL-TV
Even though it’s only been active since late 2007, the ICCN has already been helping VideoWorks@WILL-TV, the for-hire video production unit of the public broadcasting service of the University of Illinois, stay glitch-free with its live studio video and audio feeds.
According to Jeff Cunningham, videographer-editor for VideoWorks, anytime UIUCnet traffic spiked, the video and audio quality would degrade significantly.
“We would see glitches in the audio and video feed and we used to get complaints about the video or audio freezing or dropping out entirely from our broadcasting partners,” he said.
For example, before the ICCN activation, when UI men’s basketball coach Bruce Weber needed to be “uplinked” for live telecasts on ESPN or FoxSportsNet, the feed from Campbell Hall would periodically experience problems, especially during times when other units on campus were also sending large chunks of data (such as administrative data between the Urbana and Chicago campuses) over the network.
But not anymore. Thanks to the ICCN’s vastly-increased ability to transmit crystal-clear video and audio through its fiber-optic cable at speeds far faster than before, VideoWorks is now able to feed a sharp, reliable signal to its broadcasting partners, who in turn transmit the signal to the news media outlet requesting it.
Since the ICCN implementation, VideoWorks’s video feed has been virtually glitch-free.
“I don’t think we’ve had one actual problem,” Cunningham said. “It’s been much more reliable because we can have dedicated bandwidth on the ICCN -- it doesn’t go up and down according to traffic, and we don’t have to worry sharing it with other units. We have our bandwidth and nobody is interfering with it.”
VI. Keeping schools connected: the ICN-Rantoul Regional Office of Education-ICCN connection
Proving that advanced networking can have societal benefits, the ICCN is helping to bridge the digital divide by bringing more network speed and bandwidth to eight schools in Rantoul, Ill.
With the help of the Illinois Century Network (ICN), a faster connection is “backhauled” to Champaign through the ICCN and fed back to the school district at speeds of up to 11 Mbps per school. Before the cutover to the ICCN, the Rantoul Regional Office of Education had to share two T-1 connections (3 Mbps) spread over the eight schools.
In the coming months, the ICCN will also connect to the Advanced Transportation Research and Engineering Laboratory (ATREL), a U. of I. civil engineering department satellite office that’s also located on a section of the former Chanute Air Force Base site in Rantoul. (CITES is in the process of completing this connection.)
VII. Milestones and Accomplishments
A mini-timeline of ICCN milestones and accomplishments in:
January 2007 |
First optical network research wave online. |
May 2007 |
First ICCN Urbana-Chicago peer connection established. |
June 2007 |
ICCN ring completed and in production; the first application to go into production is the University Administrative Network (AN), which connects administrative computing resources on the Urbana and Chicago campuses. |
September 2007 |
UIUCnet begins using ICCN as primary Internet service provider. |
November 2007 |
ICCN receives Illinois Rural HealthNet grant from FCC. |
November 2007 |
ICCN support line (217-265-ICCN) is live. |
December 2007 |
Freestanding web domain (iccn.uillinois.net) approved for ICCN website. |
December 2007 |
The ICN-Rantoul Regional Office of Education connection established, the first non-campus connection to the ICCN. |
December 2007 |
The University of Illinois at Springfield begins using the ICCN as their primary Internet service provider. |