The UA main campus has a fiber backbone to all of the major buildings. The campus network, called UAnet, has more than 4,000 networked computers, approximately 1,000 of which are in student labs. Approximately two-thirds of the residence hall rooms have network connections. The network has an FDDI backbone and a switched Ethernet 100 Mbps backbone with endpoints being switched or shared Ethernet. The network is connected to OARnet, the regional Internet service provider, with four T1lines. There are 288 PPP dialin lines. The regional campus, Wayne College, is connected to the main branch's network with one T1 line for data and one T1 line for voice.
 

The UA was one of the first institutions to invest in fiber optic cable and has been systematically laying fiber throughout campus since 1984. The University has invested every year and built a robust cable plant such that 57 of the 62 buildings on main campus have fiber connections, including all of the academic buildings. The University subscribes to a continuous improvement philosophy for the cable plant and network in addition to onetime expenditures, demonstrating a commitment to information exchange and recognition that the information infrastructure is strategic. This cable plant allows UA to take advantage of network technology by simply adding or swapping network components. Thus, UA, installed an Ethernet backbone in 1988 and upgraded to an FDDI network in 1992, added Ethernet switching in 1996, and is now adding ATM to the existing cable plant.  This philosophy will continue into the future.
 

UA is now a member of UCAID and is involved in the Internet 2 project  A high performance campus computer network backbone for research and education is being installed during the summer of 1998. Cisco ATM switches and Cisco management software are being installed this summer to provide a separate OC12 (622 Mbps) backbone for those projects which need high bandwidth and/or quality of service (QoS). The network will provide an ATM connection to each of the six buildings involved in this proposal, and switched 100 Mbps Ethernet to each desktop.  UA is upgrading the equipment of these researchers to support this high bandwidth at the desktop.
 

UA is also spending $3.5 million to build a fiber based, OC12 & OC3 ATM network to connect high schools in neighboring Medina County. This segment of the network will provide higher education courses to qualified high school students, teachers, and adult learners, broadening the number of people who have easy access to higher education.  This project, which will be operational by the fall of '98, and was funded by the State of Ohio.
 

A high performance connection from the North Royalton, Ohio vBNS gigapop will be interconnected with our local network because of the following planned change in our local infrastructure. UA will connect to OARnet's Akron point of presence (POP) using an OC12, which in turn will be connected to the OARnet gigapop using an OC3. This will enable the UA to take full advantage of the existing vBNS connection proposed by OSU/OSC/OARnet  (already funded, NSF NCR 0613909), the KSU proposal (which was funded in Jan., 1998), and OARnet's backbone network from Akron to North Royalton. This cost sharing provides a sustainable model for high-speed research networking in Ohio and reduces the cost of this proposal for both NSF and UA. UA's OARnet Internet2 fees, which are based on cost recovery, will be substantially reduced because NSF has already funded the vBNS connection to the OARnet gigapop. We are requesting funding for hardware and service provider line charges for each year of the proposal.  In addition we are requesting funding for OARnet Internet 2 fees for each of the two years of the proposal.