2008 Woodie Awards
Overall bandwidth doubles
Aaron Fetterman
Issue date: 11/5/07 Section: News
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Last Wednesday, The Office of Information Technology (OIT) began routing internet traffic through the new connection provided by Level3, nearly two and a half months after it was ordered and 17 days after it was scheduled to be installed.
Clarkson's network usage has been utilizing nearly 100% of the available bandwidth during regular hours as far back as the beginning of last year. The growing use, especially of flash video which has consumed 25-30% of the total residential bandwidth, has caused OIT to limit the bandwidth available per computer to 600 kbps. According to a report by the Communications Workers of America in May, the average broadband speed in America is 1.9 Mbps - more than three times faster.
OIT works with the New York State Educational Resource Network (NYSERNet) to provide the school with both regular internet access and access to Internet2, a high-speed educational network. NYSERNet provides regular internet access through Broadwing, which was acquired late last year by Level3. On August 27, OIT and Level3 signed the contract for a connection which would double the available bandwidth to 90Mbps for the campus.
When the contract was signed, Gard Meserve said that Clarkson was put in the queue for an upgrade by October 15. In an interview with WTSC at the end of September, President Collins stated that the upgrade would happen on October 14. Speaking to CUSA earlier that week, he apologized for the delayed response.
Meserve and Kevin Lynch, the Director of Network Services, told The Integrator that paperwork from Broadwing's acquisition by Level3 caused another delay. OIT had hoped that the delay would only be until mid-week, but the connection did not become active until Friday, October 19.
When OIT technicians began to test the connection, they found that it could not exceed 30Mbps - less than the previous connection could handle. The problem was with the configuration at NYSERNet and the Development Authority of New York (DANK). In order to fix the problem, DANK had to shut down their system briefly, and because they provide access to a large area of New York, they needed to warn their customers beforehand. The fix came online early in the morning on October 21.
Clarkson's network usage has been utilizing nearly 100% of the available bandwidth during regular hours as far back as the beginning of last year. The growing use, especially of flash video which has consumed 25-30% of the total residential bandwidth, has caused OIT to limit the bandwidth available per computer to 600 kbps. According to a report by the Communications Workers of America in May, the average broadband speed in America is 1.9 Mbps - more than three times faster.
OIT works with the New York State Educational Resource Network (NYSERNet) to provide the school with both regular internet access and access to Internet2, a high-speed educational network. NYSERNet provides regular internet access through Broadwing, which was acquired late last year by Level3. On August 27, OIT and Level3 signed the contract for a connection which would double the available bandwidth to 90Mbps for the campus.
When the contract was signed, Gard Meserve said that Clarkson was put in the queue for an upgrade by October 15. In an interview with WTSC at the end of September, President Collins stated that the upgrade would happen on October 14. Speaking to CUSA earlier that week, he apologized for the delayed response.
Meserve and Kevin Lynch, the Director of Network Services, told The Integrator that paperwork from Broadwing's acquisition by Level3 caused another delay. OIT had hoped that the delay would only be until mid-week, but the connection did not become active until Friday, October 19.
When OIT technicians began to test the connection, they found that it could not exceed 30Mbps - less than the previous connection could handle. The problem was with the configuration at NYSERNet and the Development Authority of New York (DANK). In order to fix the problem, DANK had to shut down their system briefly, and because they provide access to a large area of New York, they needed to warn their customers beforehand. The fix came online early in the morning on October 21.
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