Network Connectivity for Research Grants

Document last updated in Aug 2006 by OIT

UTK Internal Network Connectivity

The UTK campus backbone is switched 10 Gigabit Ethernet. Each building is connected to the backbone at a minimum of 1 Gigabit per second. There are over 22,000 network-attached devices in 116 connected buildings. These devices generally connect at 10/100 Megabits per second (Mbps), but Gigabit Ethernet (GE/Gbps) connections are widely available upon request. Switched network connectivity and Internet access are available in all campus residence halls.  The campus core network is served by a suite of fully redundant network services including full DDNS/DHCP, directory service (LDAP and Active Directory), Usenet, e-mail, and virtual file, print, and web services.

Approximately 100 academic and administrative buildings and 13 residence halls representing over 15 million square feet of space are fully covered with 802.11g/n wireless networking, providing encrypted and non-encrypted connectivity for UTK students, faculty and staff, and non-encrypted services for guests and visitors.

UTK External Network Connectivity

The Knoxville Campus has fully redundant commodity Internet connections. These include a 400 Mbps commodity link provided by Cogent Communications and a 750 Mbps link provided by NetTN (Tennessee's broadband network initiative, managed by AT&T). The campus also has a 3 Gbps connection to Southern Crossroads (SoX), operated by Georgia Tech, providing access to the high-speed Internet2® backbone (at 1 Gbps), National Lambda Rail Packetnet (at 10 Gbps). SoX also peers with a number of national and international networks such as ESNET (at 10 Gbps), NASA (at 10 Gbps), etc.

UTK participates in several national and international networking initiatives such as GLORIAD, Internet2®, the federal Next Generation Internet (NGI) initiative, Southern Universities Research Association (SURA) Regional Information Infrastructure (RII), Southern Crossroads (SoX) and Cheetah.

UTK Next Generation Network Connectivity

The University of Tennessee, Knoxville has participated in the building of the ORNL/UT-Battelle next-generation optical infrastructure called FutureNet. This project is in part funded by NSF and in part by DOE. It is based on Qwest and TVA dark fiber and Ciena optical equipment with capacity of 192 x 10G lambdas. The current footprint connects Knoxville to ORNL, Nashville, Chicago and Atlanta. In April 2004, the Chancellor of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville entered into an agreement to lease 3 lambdas for the time period of 5 years for sole use by the University of Tennessee. These 10G lambdas will connect the UTK campus with ORNL, 56 Marietta St. (a Carrier Neutral Collocation Facility in Atlanta) and the Starlight Facility in Chicago. These dedicated lambdas allow researchers to connect to a large number of R&E networks (e.g. regional optical networks), national infrastructures and international high-speed connections, including GLORIAD, Fermi Lab, CERN, GLIF, National Lambda Rail, Internet2®, Geant and others.

In addition to these external connections, the Office of Information Technology (OIT) of the University of Tennessee operates a research network (ResearchNet) on campus. When needed, a single mode fiber connection can be brought directly to a research facility or lab and be connected to a high-capacity, high-performance, E-300 Force10 switch that is a gateway for external research connections. This can ensure dedicated resources that researchers can use to facilitate connectivity to other research labs, universities, or other facilities of interest. A researcher can obtain a dedicated 1 GE or 10 GE connection to any destination mentioned above. In support of the research project OIT offers engineering and installation services, as well as coordination with remote sites to establish needed connectivity.

How do I connect to the ResearchNet?

Each of the 3 lambdas is subdivided into 8 x 1 Gigabit Ethernet (GE) channels. OIT reserved the use of 2 x 1 GE to each of the locations ensuring general connectivity to other networks such as ORNL network and Internet2®. The remaining 6 x 1 GE links are available to researchers on the first-come first-served basis. Researchers can reserve one or more 1 GE links for their use. In the case of multiple GE needs, schedulable GE links will be available and shared amongst projects.

• Internal Building Fiber: OIT will bring a single mode fiber from the main network equipment room in the building to where the researcher's equipment (such as a cluster) is located at NO COST.
• External Fiber: This fiber will be connected to already available single mode fiber from each building to the network core location in the Humanities building, where the Force10 switch will be located and where 3 high-speed external connections terminate. This will also be provided at NO COST.
• Single GE interface on the switch and the optical gear: OIT will provide a single GE interface on the Force 10 switch facing the researcher and also to the optical equipment where the lambdas terminate as well as the GE interface on the external location side (ORNL, Atlanta and Chicago) at NO COST.
• Cross-connects in Chicago, Atlanta and ORNL: The researcher is responsible for paying any cross-connect fee(s) in Atlanta and Chicago (approx. 250 per month) as well as matching interfaces on the other side (non-UTK) of the connection (approx. 1,000, one time cost). Connectivity on the ORNL campus is determined on a case-by-case basic. OIT will facilitate all of this for the researcher.
• Network Switch at researcher's end: The researcher is responsible for the switch that connects his equipment to the research network. OIT will advise researchers on the choice of equipment. A 48-port GE switch is available at approximately 6,000 non-recurring cost and 800 annual recurring cost. This switch will be co-managed by the researcher/research group and OIT to insure connection quality.
• For a little more than 1 GE connection: If a researcher needs more than 1 GE connection (but much less than 10 GE) there are two options: dedicated multiple GE or shared multiple GE. In both cases a 10 GE connection between the researcher's switch and the Force10 switch will be needed. A charge of 15,000 will be incurred for a 10 GE port on the Force10 switch (for use up to 5 years) and a needed uplink port on researcher's switch. Dedicated multiple GE connections may incur additional fees (TBD on a case-by-case basis) for using extra capacity on existing lambdas or to provision additional lambdas.
• Dedicated 10-GE connection: Researchers needing dedicated 10 GE connection may expect to pay 200,000 over 5 years per lambda to any of the 3 locations. OIT will need to purchase additional hardware in excess of 60,000 to connect the additional lambda. OIT will address these needs on a case-by-case basis.
• Going beyond ORNL, Chicago or Atlanta: Any connectivity beyond these three facilities is the researcher's responsibility, but OIT will facilitate engineering. (e.g. connecting end-to-end to another university, or internationally).
• For less than 1-GE connection: Researchers needing less than 1 GE connection can use existing UTK Volnet2 network (campus network) and Internet2® access to connect to other locations. Such researchers should contact OIT to determine capacity available at their location and the remote site.

NOTE: Prices provided here are approximate. Please contact the OIT Help Desk at 865-974-9900 for more information.