Timeplex times out

Teresa Shibao, a network engineer in SCD's Network Engineering and Telecommunications Section (NETS), and NETS manager Marla Meehl power down the last Timeplex multiplexing system in the NCAR Computer Room on 21 September 2001.

A Timeplex multiplexing system takes different types of data feeds (e.g., voice, data, serial, T1s, and Ethernet) and merges them into a single data feed for wide or metropolitan transport. In the past, to save costs on metropolitan area links, NCAR multiplexed all its voice and data traffic, maintaining multiplexors at the Mesa and Foothills Labs, Unavco, Jeffco, and Marshall sites.

With the activation of the Boulder Research and Administrative Network (BRAN) in 2000, multiplexing was no longer necessary to save costs, and NCAR continued multiplexing only to the Marshall site. On 20 September, this last Timeplex system was replaced by a new form of multiplexing that converts voice traffic to IP data so it can share the metropolitan link.

The Timeplex in this photo was the first system Marla procured and installed at NCAR when she began work here in 1986. Over the years, Teresa and Marla worked closely on the system, which was reliable, useful, and successful.

After nearly fifteen years of service, Marla says, "It was sad to see it end."

Photo: Wes Wildcat/SCD