AILG IT-Telecomm Committee Report 2015

AILG IT-Telecomm Committee Reports and Correspondence

AILG IT Report for Annual Meeting – June 10, 2015

2014-2015 Accomplishments:
Next Generation Wireless was the major project for this past year, in partnership with MIT’s IS&T department with major financing by the IRDF. All but three FSILGs, those without a direct fiber optic connection to MIT, are now part of the “campus” wireless network and are enjoying top performance on the new high bandwidth 802.11AC standard. The new IS&T support agreement, at $2K per house per year, includes all functions noted in the current BNS agreement, plus network monitoring, security, and replacement of failed units.
Completing Fiber Upgrades. In December, 2013 all Boston FSILGs were connected via a high-speed fiber optic network connection to campus, just as most of the Cambridge already were. At the time, there was not feasible, affordable path to the 2 Brookline houses and pika. However, thanks to some digging by IS&T, MIT has now let a contract to connect these three remaining FSILGs via 1Gb/sec fiber connection. Work is expected to be completed by late summer. Once the new fiber is operational, the three can also be converted to Next Generation Wireless. The charges will be the same as those for Boston FSILGs (i.e., $1,000/house/year deducted from the Educational Operating Grant for ten years).
Paid webmaster for the AILG website. The IT Committee worked with the AILG Secretary to draft a job description for a paid webmaster, which is now a reality.

Next year projects:
Central Telephone Numbers. In the coming year, the Committee will be working on a central, easily configurable MIT phone number assigned to the Community Relations  committee, as well as MIT numbers assignable to and configurable by each FSILG. These all can be readily forwarded as desired.
Alumni Net Contact. Besides an undergrad net contact, each FSILG is encouraged to have Alumni Net Contact, to understand the rudiments of the network. The default is the Alumni House Manager, and the Alumni President.  To identify your Net Contact, please use the please use the Alumni Contact Update Form at http://studentlife.mit.edu/fsilg/resources.

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AILG IT-Telecomm Committee Report for AILG Plenary – November 12, 2014

Next Generation Wireless. The Next Generation Wireless Project has gone very well and will be completed tomorrow (Thurs). Several configuration glitches have been encountered, but as these have been corrected and wireless performance on the new high bandwidth 802.11AC standard is exceptional. Below are additional highlights about the program:

  • IS&T will manage the FSILG next generation wireless networks just as they do on campus. WiFi in the FSILGs will look and function exactly like campus WiFi, providing single sign-on access for students.
  • The IS&T support will include all functions noted in the current BNS agreement, plus network monitoring, security, and replacement of failed units.
  • First year (FY2015 starting this past July 1) support cost is the same $1,000/house/yr as the current BNS program. In the second and subsequent year support cost will be $2,000/house/yr.
  • IS&T has procured all needed central office equipment and the Division of Student Life continues to underwrite all the annual vendor support costs for the fiber links.
  • The IRDF is financing the new FSILG wireless equipment consisting of about 400 access points and 38 new switches. Half of this cost will be billed back to each FSILG over a five year period, by deducting approximately $1,000/house/yr from the Educational Operating Grant.

Thanks to IS&T, and to Scott Klemm of the FCI for running this project and to the Division of Student Life and the Independent Residence Development Fund (IRDF) for financing the work.

Completing Fiber Upgrades. Last December all Boston FSILGs were connected via a high-speed fiber optic network connection to campus, just as most of the Cambridge already were. At the time, there was not feasible, affordable path to the 2 Brookline houses and pika. Thanks to some digging by IS&T, MIT has now let a contract to connect these three FSILGs via 1Gb/sec fiber connection. Work is expected to be completed in late spring, 2015. Once the new fiber is operational, the three can also be converted to Next Generation Wireless. The charges will be the same as those for Boston FSILGs (i.e., $1,000/house/year deducted from the Educational Operating Grant for ten years).

Paid webmaster for the AILG website. The IT Committee is working with the AILG Secretary to draft a job description for a paid webmaster, after years of unsuccessfully trying to recruit a volunteer.

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AILG IT-Telecomm Committee Report for AILG Plenary – February 13, 2014

The IT-Telecomm committee continues to meet regularly. The fiber upgrade to all the Boston FSILGs is working well; all but 3 FSILGs (except ET, ZBT, pika) are directly connected to MIT by high speed fiber. The two Brookline houses have been upgraded from 10 to 100MB service. And IS&T is working with Verizon to upgrade pika in Cambridge. The focus is now turning to the next generation of wireless equipment that IS&T will be intruding over the next few years. IS&T is working with us to provide options for FSILGs to take full advantage of this new wireless infrastructure. The hope is to have something to present at the April 9 Plenary.

We always welcome new members, and especially are currently looking for a webmaster. If you are interested or have any questions, please send an e-mail to ailg-it@mit.edu. Finally, if you have not already done so, each FSILG is strongly encouraged to appoint an undergrad (who lives in the FSILG) as an FSILG Network Contact. For details, see the Network Contact web page.

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AILG IT-Telecomm Committee Update – December 1, 2013
All the Boston FSILGs are now on the new fiber infrastructure. Congratulations to IS&T, Scott, and all who made this possible. The installation team would also like to again thank everyone who has accommodated the project with sometimes short notice.

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AILG IT-Telecomm Committee Report for AILG Plenary – September 11, 2013
The physical installation of the MIT Net V3 – Fiber Upgrade in Boston is about 80% complete. To date about 18,000 feet of fiber and 2,000 feet of new conduit has been installed in the streets of Boston. 21 of the 24 buildings have fiber installed and terminated. All digging and fiber installation should be completed by Friday the 20th. Testing of the new fiber should be complete by the end of the month. The buildings will be turned on to the new fiber over the next few months in a IS & T predetermined sequence based on the network topology. Further information will be forthcoming from the FCI as the installation schedule is finalized.

The entire project team would like to thank all the houses and residents that have had to deal with unexpected and sudden access request. This has allowed the project to proceed at a very rapid pace.

The FCI reports that all FSILGs are enrolled in the AILG Network Management Program Agreement.

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AILG IT-Telecomm Committee Report for AILG Plenary – February 13, 2014
The IT-Telecomm committee continues to meet regularly. The fiber upgrade to all the Boston FSILGs is working well; all but 3 FSILGs (except ET, ZBT, pika) are directly connected to MIT by high speed fiber. The two Brookline houses have been upgraded from 10 to 100MB service. And IS&T is working with Verizon to upgrade pika in Cambridge. The focus is now turning to the next generation of wireless equipment that IS&T will be intruding over the next few years. IS&T is working with us to provide options for FSILGs to take full advantage of this new wireless infrastructure. The hope is to have something to present at the April 9 Plenary.

We always welcome new members, and especially are currently looking for a webmaster. If you are interested or have any questions, please send an e-mail to ailg-it@mit.edu. Finally, if you have not already done so, each FSILG is strongly encouraged to appoint an undergrad (who lives in the FSILG) as an FSILG Network Contact. For details, see the Network Contact web page.

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AILG IT-Telecomm Committee Update – December 1, 2013
All the Boston FSILGs are now on the new fiber infrastructure. Congratulations to IS&T, Scott, and all who made this possible. The installation team would also like to again thank everyone who has accommodated the project with sometimes short notice.

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AILG IT-Telecomm Committee Report for AILG Plenary – September 11, 2013
The physical installation of the MIT Net V3 – Fiber Upgrade in Boston is about 80% complete. To date about 18,000 feet of fiber and 2,000 feet of new conduit has been installed in the streets of Boston. 21 of the 24 buildings have fiber installed and terminated. All digging and fiber installation should be completed by Friday the 20th. Testing of the new fiber should be complete by the end of the month. The buildings will be turned on to the new fiber over the next few months in a IS & T predetermined sequence based on the network topology. Further information will be forthcoming from the FCI as the installation schedule is finalized.

The entire project team would like to thank all the houses and residents that have had to deal with unexpected and sudden access request. This has allowed the project to proceed at a very rapid pace.

The FCI reports that all FSILGs are enrolled in the AILG Network Management Program Agreement.

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AILG IT-Telecomm Committee Message to all AILG members – April 12, 2013

Dear Members of the AILG,

I’m writing to update you on our progress with deployment of a new, higher bandwidth network to the FSILGs.  MITnet v3 is proceeding rapidly, and much faster than originally planned.  We now expect to cut over to the new version of the network before the start of the 2013 fall semester, turning off MITnet v2 upon successful cutover.  This version of the network is direct dark fiber connections to each FSILG, so MIT will have control over future bandwidth upgrades without needing the involvement of an outside service provider.

MITnet v3 is a fantastic service for the FSILGs and will result in almost all buildings receiving 1Gbps WAN connectivity to the campus network and the Internet.  These services will place the FSILGs at or even ahead of the connectivity available in the dorms, and keep them in line with IS&T and DSL’s upgrade path for the campus.  The one-time cost of the network installation, over $1M, is being financed by the IRDF.

A handful of buildings are too far from dark fiber to connect with that service at the moment.  For these buildings, we are upgrading them to 100Mbps Verizon TLS circuits for no charge and will connect them to the dark fiber network as soon as economically feasible.

On April 18, Scott Klemm, with representatives from IS&T and our dark fiber provider, Lightower, will be doing walkthroughs of all of the offcampus FSILGs receiving dark fiber connections.

In order to make sure that the IRDF’s investment is well used, the AILG IT Committee has developed a new FSILG Network Maintenance Program (NMP).  The NMP costs $1,000 per year and consists of semi-annual inspections from an AILG Building Network Support contractor (BNS).  This program is similar to the SLI program already in place, and will ensure that all FSILG networks remain fully function.  This program is required for participation in MITnet v3 by the IRDF and IS&T.  The DRAFT Terms of Service Agreement to the Network Maintenance Program are attached.

I will discuss the program more thoroughly at the April 17th AILG Plenary, and will remain afterward  to field individual questions.  After that, please feel free to ping me or Bob Ferrara with any additional questions you have.       Ash Dyer ’06 AILG IT Committee Chair

Note: Ash and the IT Committee will continue to evolve the DRAFT agreement in response to member input.

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AILG IT-Telecomm Committee Report – February, 2013
Much of this is repeated from the November report, with one important exception– MIT’s IS&T (Information Services and Technology) group is making faster than anticipated progress on the planned fiber optic extensions to Boston. This committee has had only two focus areas of late. The first, creation of a new AILG web site, is now basically complete, though some minor cleanup and routine updating is still ongoing. The AILG site is a WordPress-based site located at http://ailg.mit.edu/. We would be happy if someone wanted to take over as webmaster.

The second and more important focus area has been to upgrade network connectivity to all FSILGs. From 2009 through 2011, the committee focused on the rewiring and installation of new wired and wireless infrastructure in all 40 FSILG buildings. Once the internal wiring project was complete, attention turned to upgrading the network connections for all the FSILGSs to the MIT Network. The FSILGs on or near the MIT campus in Cambridge have good access to MIT-owned fiber, so this is not an issue for them. However, for all the FSILGs in Boston, Brookline, and pika in Cambridge the connection speed to MIT is an issue. All these are currently connected to MIT via Verizon’s Transparent LAN service.

To address network connectivity, MIT’s Division of Student Life and IS&T department, along with the AILG’s IT-Telecom Committee worked out a two part strategy, as follows:

SHORT TERM BANDWIDTH UPGRADES
For the short term, an arrangement was worked out with Verizon where FSILGs can optionally upgrade the external connection bandwidth from 10Mb to 100Mb. In October, 2011 the first opportunity to increase bandwidth was first presented to the FSILGs (Boston, Brookline and pika) and four FSILGs accepted the offer. In May, 2012 a second opportunity to opt in was presented and eight more FSILGs opted in. Now all 12 Boston FSILGs are connected at the higher speed.

This upgrade to an FSILG’s Verizon Transparent LAN service is expensive ($779 per house per month) but it does qualify for 75% reimbursement on the annual IRDF Educational Operating Grant. As always the FSILG Cooperative in W20-020 is available to explain how to apply for an Educational Operating Grant. Please note that this offer does not apply to the FSILGs located on or near the MIT campus, as they are already directly connected to the MIT fiber ring.

Some chapters have expressed interest in third-party solutions to increase bandwidth. There are consequences for introducing other network vendors that are not immediately apparent. IS&T has recently issued a policy strongly discouraging network connection replacement and augmentation for MIT FSILGs. It is appended at the end of this report.

LONG TERM FIBER CONNECTION
The goal is to connect as many Boston FSILGs directly to the MIT fiber ring. Because of the lack of fiber conduit proximity, it is not financially feasible to connect the two Brookline houses, pika, and possibly the two Fenway locations; however, other options are being investigated for them.

The IRDF Board of Allocation and the IRDF Grant Advisory Board voted to provide full funding of the first phase of this two phase of the project. The first phase – “conduit record search, manhole survey, and prove path exercises” – is essentially complete. The IRDF Boards have also indicated support for the much costlier second phase – “construction and fiber pulling” – enabling IS&T contractors to begin work this coming spring. In fact, it is possible that many Back Bay FSILGs could be hooked up to the fiber as early as this fall. This is a major improvement over initial projections, but also requires that funding be in place much sooner than anticipated.

The IRDF boards have it clear that the IRDF cannot bear all the costs. The FSILGs participating in the fiber upgrade and bandwidth increases will need to share in some of the costs, such as the higher speed equipment needed at the FSILG end. The expectation is to have a detailed cost sharing proposal by the April plenary, after more detailed fiber constructions and equipment cost estimates are available.