Whitaker Infrastructure Project Nears Completion
By mid-February the months long project to massively
upgrade both wired and wireless networking in Whitaker
Laboratory will be completed.
Data speeds to every desktop network jack in Whitaker will
be 1 gigabit supported by a 10 gigabit link to the campus
backbone. Most users previously had a 10 megabit connection
so they will enjoy an increase of throughput by a factor of
100.
 |
| Larry Farmer (left), Team
Leader for Network Infrastructure, and Bruce
Taggart (right), Vice Provost for Library and
Technology Services, inspect a Whitaker network
room |
Beginning in early October new cabling was snaked through
the building and new high speed switches were installed in
new network rooms. The new wireless access points will be
the first on campus to be compatible with the new faster
standard, 802.11n. The number of access points in Whitaker
rises from 3 to 28 so the building should be well saturated
with wireless capacity.
This project is the latest in a multi-year effort to upgrade
the whole campus with primary attention to (1) research
intensive buildings and (2) buildings that are already
undergoing renovation.
To date the following buildings have been upgraded to 1
gigabit to the desktop: Packard Lab, Sinclair Lab, Linderman
Library, Coxe Laboratory, and Coppee Hall. The Sherman
Fairchild Lab upgrade is in progress.
The new STEPS facility is being constructed with the higher
infrastructure capacities. Depending on the availability of
funding, buildings like Iacocca Hall, Seeley Mudd, Mohler
Lab, and Fritz Lab are high on the list for the continued
expansion of network infrastructure.
Internally the Whitaker project involved extensive efforts
by Facilities and the LTS Network Infrastructure Team, and
externally by Bala Consulting Engineers and the Tri-M Group,
specialists in structured cable installation.
For more information on the overall network upgrade, visit
http://www.lehigh.edu/computing/tims/network/network.html.
