OIT works to boost network speed

photo by Jenna Campbell

Mark Smith, the Unix, Linux and Windows systems manager, works with the University of La Verne’s IT infrastructure. The mass of copper wires and fiber optic cables act as a support line for the ULV servers. “If this goes, everything goes,” Smith said.

by Bailey Porter
LV Life Editor

With ever-growing demands such as the new online registration system being placed on the campus network, the Office of Information Technology is seeking solutions to the University’s inadequate Internet connection speed.

Currently the University connects to the Internet at 3 Mbps, or megabits per second, which is one of the lowest connection speeds for a University, said OIT Chief Information Officer Clive Houston-Brown.

At the same time, more and more pressure is being placed on staff, faculty and students to use the Web, slowing the already meager bandwidth considerably.

Houston-Brown said that six months ago, the University supported 1,000 e-mail accounts, but now 11,000 exist with most on the Webmail system.

The increase is partially due to a push to move official business communications online, Houston-Brown said.

For spring registration, the University pioneered its first Web based solution with MyULV. Adding to this load, future financial aid updates will be sent via e-mail.

Other stresses on the connection speed include the Blackboard system, online course evaluations, 24 hour audio streaming of KULV and inevitably video streaming and fully online or hybrid courses in the future, Houston-Brown said.

Also, the administration is increasingly performing administrative functions over the Web so the network needs to meet those demands, he said.

“We are actively analyzing where we need to be in three to five years,” Houston-Brown said.

OIT is working through known issues and anticipating other problems with the current connection speed so they can supply the University with sufficient bandwidth, he said. As part of the senior management team in OIT, he is looking for ways to fix short and long term problems.

“It’s not a matter of will fixes be made, but what improvements will be made first, and when,” he said.

In three to four months he hopes to see major improvements, he said, under a Tier 1 Internet provider like Verizon or Qwest and the installation of a partial DS3 line with a main connection speed three times as fast.

DS3 is a high-speed connection capable of delivering 44.7 Mbps.

“All fixes will involve costs; at the worst case it will be three times the cost of the current hardware,” he said.

The University immediately needs an appropriate connection speed robust enough to meet the growing need for students and faculty to conduct online research and communicate via the Internet, he said.