EzraNet will bring better data, phone networks to 60 campus buildings

Flash back to technology at Cornell circa 1990. Desktop computers were mostly Macintosh SEs or II types, with some IBM PCs and PS/2s and NeXTs. Hard drives were measured in megabytes. Files traveled between computers on floppy disks. Fax machines and Audix were new. E-mail, if people were even using it, was accessed via the mainframe-based RiceMail; Unix-based Mush, Elm or MHX; or Macintosh-based QuickMail. The World Wide Web didn't exist.

Technology, and especially what people do with it, is vastly different today. But in most campus buildings, the data wiring is still the same. Like an old, reliable car, it chugs along nicely for e-mail, Web access and other simple tasks. Ask it for more -- videoconferencing, virtual reality or data modeling, for example -- and it tends to strain and sputter. And it can't begin to take advantage of Cornell's greatly improved campus backbone network.

That's why the university has embarked on a 14-year, $57 million program to upgrade data and phone wiring and the distribution infrastructure in about 60 buildings. Typically, that means replacing 19-year-old, category-3 wiring with category-6, twisted-pair copper wiring, and creating or renovating telecommunications rooms to provide adequate security and environmental controls.

The university's EzraNet initiative recently brought new data wiring and infrastructure to Upson and Grumman halls. The project was managed by Cornell Information Technologies' Network and Communication Services staff, from left: Shannon Osburn and Scott Burroughs, both project coordinators; Michelle Reynolds, project manager; Sasja Huijts, program director; Tom Theimer, project manager; and Joe Blasz, construction coordinator. Frank DiMeo/University Photography

The result? People throughout the campus will be able to harness the latest technologies to collaborate, communicate and crunch numbers on wiring that can support speeds up to 1,000 Mbps (megabits per second). (Today, 90 percent of connections cannot support even 100 Mbps.) People who take care of the networks will be able to do their jobs more effectively. And the new infrastructure will make it far easier to do the next major wiring upgrade.

The Office of the Provost determines which buildings are candidates for EzraNet and when. Among the factors considered are strategic importance, usage of the building network, density of network jacks per square foot and when other construction or renovation is planned for the building.

Once a building makes the list for a particular year, Cornell Information Technologies (CIT) takes the lead. Depending on the building's size and complexity, rewiring takes 12-18 months, from when the project team is named to when the last construction worker leaves. CIT's Network and Communication Services group oversees each project, working closely with the building stakeholders; with other Cornell groups such as Planning, Design and Construction; Environmental Health and Safety; and Maintenance Management; and with outside design firms and contractors.

Each building poses its own challenges, as CIT learned well in 2001-02 while carrying out the university's $6 million pilot rewiring of five buildings with different architectures and purposes. Preserving architectural details and feel is paramount in some. Finding space for telecommunications rooms and doing environmental abatement are concerns in most. Working around the schedules of students, faculty and staff has top billing in all. Typically, every room on every floor is touched.

"In Upson, getting totally involved in the EzraNet project, right from the start, was key to making sure we got what we needed," said John Finley, network operations manager for computer science in Upson Hall. "CIT helped us all the way. It was a long project, touching every space in the building, but in the end we got a great product."

Questions about EzraNet can be sent to ezranet@cornell.edu. A Web site is expected to debut later this spring, complete with monthly updates on buildings in progress, reports on completed buildings and a map of buildings identified as EzraNet candidates.

Current Status of EzraNet