Current Internet Connectivity at the University of Houston
Note: This story may not be current. It is part of the IT News Archive, and exists as a historical document.
Because of the high reliability of the UH network, UH computer users may not be aware of the complexity of the networking environment and the amount of effort that it takes to keep it running.
Part of what keeps the network running smoothly is redundant, hi-speed, connections to the Internet. The University's primary link to the Internet is provided by Southwestern Bell between UH and Rice University where the Texas GigaPop connects UH to various networks supporting various user communities. Most UH Internet connections go from the Texas GigaPop to Verio at a speed of 7 megabits per second. Through the Texas GigaPop, UH also connects to very high speed research networks include the vBNS and the Internet2,/Albilene networks.
Another Internet service provider for UH is Capnet. CapNet provides a high speed interface with government offices. Having two connections serviced by two different providers ensures UH has the maximum availability for its Internet connection.
UHnet's network uses the ethernet protocol and wiring, to achieve speeds of 100 mbps on the network backbone and 10 mbps to the desktop. IT is in the process of migrating to an ATM backbone which will provided enhanced services both in terms of speed (ATM operates at speeds from T-1 or 1.544Mbps, though OC-48c, or 2.048Gbps) and in terms of enhanced security and reliability because the network will be more segmented through improved switching. UH typically runs at OC-3c speed which is 155Mbps (or about 4.5 times faster than the current desktops) . ATM is an industry acronym for Asyncronous Transfer Mode.
This chart delineates some of the differences between standard modem dialup speeds, a typical ethernet LAN, ATM and OC-12.
