SCD News: June 17, 2005
NETS network engineers and technicians install a new network infrastructure at CG1
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Mike Martinez of NETS organizes multiple strands of Cat6 copper cable into manageable bundles at Center Green 1. |
At Center Green 1, the largest office building in NCAR's Center Green campus, light fixtures dangle from ceilings. Buckets of spackle, piles of fiberglass insulation, and stacks of ceiling tiles crowd every available space. Electricians walk by carrying 10-foot lengths of metal pipe on their shoulders; carpenters stalk through the halls on metal stilts. The cacophony from electric drills, ballistic nail guns, and constant hammering makes it difficult to hear.
The construction is part of a wholesale renovation and expansion of CG1, which is being remodeled to house NCAR's High Altitude Observatory (HAO) and UCAR's primary conference center.
SCD's Network Engineering and Telecommunications Section (NETS) team is in the thick of the activity, preparing a network infrastructure that will provide state-of-the art service to the NCAR/UCAR research community.
The NETS CG1 project team consists of Jim Van Dyke, who manages the project; Ed Snyder and Del Harris, who interact with contractors on a day-to-day basis; and Bryan Anderson, Armando Cisneros, Fabian Guerrero, Jerome Martinez, Rick Mumford, and Wes Wildcat, who are installing the network infrastructure.
Inside CG1, the NETS team is activating 376 communication outlets for phones and computers. They are installing 357,000 feet of copper wiring and 95,000 feet of fiber-optic cable in the building itself, and running another 2,100 feet of fiber between CG1 and CG2, where the local area network (LAN) will connect to various wide area networks (WANs) and the Internet backbone.
“The old wiring wasn't up to code, it wasn't good enough for the network UCAR has come to expect,” says Ed Snyder. “We have certain standards.”
Those standards include a promise of high reliability and speed, clear signals, and “future-proofing” the network.
NETS has replaced the old Cat5 copper wiring with Cat6, the latest generation of high-speed Ethernet cabling. While copper is cheaper and less fragile than fiber, it is more susceptible to electromagnetic interference and radiation. One way to reduce interference and ensure clear signals is to run the wires through metal conduit.
Accordingly, NETS has designed an extensive network of conduit that weaves through floors and walls and ceilings like some vast circulatory system. The conduit also protects the cable from inadvertent damage that might occur during current and future remodeling, as well as increasing the longevity of the cable, which is expected to last 10 years.
There's yet another reason for conduit. "Conduit is future-proofing us," says Jim Van Dyke, project lead for the CG1 network upgrade. "Someday, we'll have to rewire again. It's easier to pull out and replace old cable if it's running through conduit.”
NETS spent about a year designing the communications infrastructure for CG1, making numerous modifications to the first architectural blueprints submitted by HAO. These modifications included adding three telecommunications closets, assigning the exact locations of all the communication outlets, and determining the complex conduit routes.
Since remodeling began in December 2004, NETS has been regularly monitoring construction in CG1 to ensure that network specifications are met. In February 2005, NETS began working on site. “We're saving UCAR money by having our own people install the cable,” Jim says. “It would cost more if outside contractors did the job.”
Cable
installation is a multifaceted process. First, NETS sets up the telecommunication
closets, installing racks and frames to hold and organize what will soon become
a complicated mass of cable. Then they bring in big spools of Cat5 and fiber-optic
cable, using thin plastic wire to pull the cable off the spools and through
the conduit to each office location. After pulling the cable, they ‘terminate'
it on both ends—a delicate technical process that involves scraping, cleaving,
capping, and wrapping the wires. They also connect cables to “patch panels” in
the telecommunications closet. The patch panels, in turn, connect to network
switches that feed network and phone traffic out to the Internet.
Once the cables are installed, NETS uses software to logically configure the multiple network paths that support data and voice. They also do inspections and run multiple tests on an ongoing basis to make sure that connections will function properly once the building is occupied.
Cable management is important. “We have huge lists we've developed so we can
locate where each and every cable goes within the building,” Jim says.
“Each communications outlet has four cables, and if they get mixed up, you'd never be able to know where anything is," Ed adds. "Cables are a lot easier to work with if they're neat and look nice. So we label each one.”
In addition to the base network infrastructure, NETS is also installing the wireless infrastructure.
“Networking is like any other service—lights, electricity,” Jim notes. “People plug in their light, turn it on, and they expect it to work. What NETS wants to do is make sure that everyone at NCAR/UCAR is happy with their network connection. We want them all to get the service they need to do their work; we want to make it as easy as we can for them.
“These days we don't realize how much everything depends on the network,” he says. “But without the network, scientists wouldn't be able to get their data or do their research as quickly. They'd have to go to the library for materials; they'd be walking around with printouts of their data, submitting their jobs with punch cards.”
Indeed, just as the network is essential to the effective use of NCAR/UCAR's scientific resources, the work NETS does to link researchers with supercomputing resources and with each other is an essential service provided by SCD to the community.
—Lynda Lester
Photos: Lynda Lester, NCAR/CISL
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NCAR is managed
by UCAR and sponsored by the National Science Foundation |
