In recent months, there has been a series of improvements to the campus network to keep up with the growing demand for connectivity at UNLV.
WiFi was expanded outdoors during the spring semester. Security upgrades for a more reliable network were completed before the new academic year. Now, internet speed is five times faster, thanks to a 100-gigabit upgrade.
Supporting More People, Devices Connected to Internet
Over the summer, the office of information technology (OIT) replaced outdated network equipment with a new router, improving the network from 20 to 100 gigabits. OIT funded the router as part of an equipment replacement plan, working with the Nevada System of Higher Education (NSHE) to ensure the equipment met standards.
“NSHE already had the infrastructure for the 100-gigabit network,” said Eric Kepschull, principal network engineer for NSHE, which is the educational internet service provider for the state, connecting state institutions to the statewide network at no cost. “UNLV needed to refresh their equipment that was connected to the network. It made sense to upgrade internet speed at the same time.”
The high-performance network allows people to connect to the internet quicker, and the increase in capacity supports more devices and internet activity for academia, research, and university operations.
As internet usage increases (Cisco reports there will be 5.9 billion internet users around the world by next year), UNLV is prepared to adjust to the growth.
“Here at UNLV, everyone consumes information online for various reasons, maybe for streaming videos or extensive research,” said Andrew Lilleg, senior network engineer for OIT. “Because broadband needs differ, network capabilities were expanded to meet campus demands.”
Expanding UNLV’s Extensive Research Efforts
The 100-gigabit network is catching the attention of the university’s research community. The upgrade is one of many projects that will help accelerate groundbreaking work at the R1 institution, the highest status for a research institution classified by Carnegie.
“Researchers gather massive amounts of data, which requires a lot of bandwidth,” said Lilleg. “With the improved network speed and capacity, they can quickly process and share large datasets with peers at other institutions for their research projects.”
Just this year, the university was awarded $11.3 million to advance neuroscience research, $1.3 million grant towards new materials discovery, and $437,000 grant to study traffic-related injuries and fatalities, and a student received a $20,000 scholarship to fund cancer research.
Scaling Connectivity Demands for Top Public Research University
Historically, traffic on the campus network peaked at seven gigabits during a single semester, according to Lilleg. Now that UNLV has a 100-gigabit network, there is more room to scale connectivity based on demand.
“As new bandwidth-intensive applications or research projects kick off, the network can accommodate that without significant infrastructure changes or investments,” said Lilleg.
The high-performance network is critical to UNLV, supporting the growing data and connectivity needs of a diverse campus population. With it, the institution can continue to be a top public research university that transforms the community.
