(Revised September 2003)
Data networking activities at the University of Washington include support for the three UW campuses (UW-Seattle, UW-Bothell, UW-Tacoma), plus the two UW medical centers (Harborview and UWMC), and the UW physicians network of neighborhood clinics. In addition, UW networking staff designed and operate the state of Washington K-20 educational network, the Pacific-NorthWest GigaPOP regional aggregation point, and an ISP service for UW alums called "MyUW.net".
The University of Washington is well-connected to the global Internet via multiple Gigabit Ethernet links to our regional aggregation point, the Pacific-NorthWest GigaPOP (PNWGP). Our Gigapop, in turn, is connected to the Internet2 research backbone at 10 gigabits/sec (plus a 1Gbps backup link), and to three different commodity Internet Service Providers, each via 1Gbps links. In addition, the GigaPOP operates an international peering point that provides direct connectivity among cooperating partners, including research networks in Canada, Australia, Taiwan, Singapore, and Japan. Also, UW is a founding partner in the new "National Lambda Rail" research networking initiative.
The University of Washington campus network has been designed to provide pervasive, high-reliability network access to the entire campus community. At present, nearly 70,000 computers are attached to this IP-only campus backbone, which now carries nearly 10 Terabytes of traffic per day.
The network is comprised of multiple backbones using high-performance Ethernet switches and IP routers. Some of these backbones are dedicated to specific purposes, such as Voice-over-IP or high-bandwidth experimental applications. An example of the latter would be UW's pioneering work in transmitting studio-quality High-Definition television (HDTV) via IP networks. However, the bulk of UW traffic is carried by a production network backbone consisting of three geographically-diverse switches that provide load-sharing and redundancy. All of the backbone routers are connected to these switches via Gigabit Ethernet links.
While the goal is to provide at least 100Mbps Fast Ethernet (and in some cases Gigabit Ethernet) connections to Ethernet wall jacks, a number of buldings do not yet have wireplant that can support speeds above 10Mbps.
The topology of the network can be viewed as a five-level hierarchy:
There are several dozen backbone routers, situated in a handful of router centers across campus. Each router interface implements a campus "sub-net", of which there are almost one thousand --nearly half providing connectivity to UW departments, and the rest supporting central server facilities and the medical centers. Several thousand in-building switches provide the necessary fan-out from each router port to each Ethernet wall jack.
Routers in the router centers are linked to building aggregation switches primarily via Gigabit Ethernet over fiber. Upgraded or recently deployed building subnets use a fiber riser distribution system, and Gigabit Ethernet links between switches.
OSPF serves as the campus backbone routing protocol, and BGP-4 is used for external connectivity. Real-time 7x24 network monitoring and data archiving are provided by the University's Network Operations Center, which also has operational responsibility for UW's IP address and domain name registrations. Redundant DNS and DHCP servers are provided.
The UW network selectively supports native multicast routing in order to facilitate advanced collaboration and streaming applications.
Voice-over-IP (VOIP) is currently being deployed selectively for production telephone service, where there are compelling cost advantages for doing so. However, there are no plans for complete replacement of the existing (conventional) telephone infrastructure. The VOIP services are not fully converged with the production data network in order to maximize robustness, but common technology, management, and other network services such as DHCP and DNS provide significant economic leverage.
In order to contain costs associated with bandwidth used by peer-to-peer music-sharing services, bandwidth shaping has been implemented for the residence hall networks.
IPv6 and large-packet (jumbogram) support are not yet available on campus, but both can be used by UW partners through the Gigapop's exchange (peering) service. These services will also be available to Gigapop transit service customers in the near future.
WiFi access is available from a growing number of campus locations. For example, several libraries, the Information School, the Law School, the Computer Science & Engineering department and others all have extensive wireless coverage.
Approximately 75 UW remote sites are linked to the main campus network via leased lines and UW-owned metropolitan fiber. Connection speeds from these sites range from 1.5Mbps to 1Gbps (Gigabit Ethernet).
UW also operates a dialin service with more than 2,000 modems and lines. Some of these are accessible at low cost throughout the Puget Sound area via an extended regional calling service.
Several mechanisms are provided to assist departments in protecting their computers and information resources. For example, a range of "private" Internet addresses are configured to be routed within the UW campus network, but not externally, thus providing some degree of invisibility to outside attackers. "Logical Firewalls" are also available to units wishing to implement specific security policies without regard for natural subnet topologies. A limited amount of security policy enforcement is implemented in the campus network routers. For example, packets with forged source addresses are blocked at all subnet interfaces. During emergency situations, additional blocking rules have been deployed to cope with specific Internet attacks. Other security strategies are constantly under review.
