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Mission
The mission of the Telecommunication and Network Services (TNS) Department is to effectively deliver quality communication services to our customers and fulfill our stewardship role for institutional communication resources.

Services Scope
TNS is one of five departments within Information Technology Services (ITS), and is responsible for providing a wide range of voice, video and network services and the communications infrastructure necessary to support these services. TNS' primary purpose is to provide these services in a reliable way with a level of quality that meets or exceeds our customer's expectations.

Organization
TNS is organized into 5 functional work groups providing the following services and functions:

Voice Services

• Local & long distance telephone service

• Voice applications – voice mail, calling trees

• Telephone switching equipment & technicians

• Voice services help desk

• Approximately 17,000 telephones

Network Services

• Data network
       –     Approximately 30,000 active data ports
       –     Approximately 500 network switches

• Internet1 (commodity Internet) and I2 research connections

• Wireless LAN services

• Network operation center (NOC)

• Remote access

• Network engineering

• Network addressing

Video Services

• UITV

• CATV

• Video conferencing

• Video streaming and WEB casting

• Video uplink / downlink
       –     Athletic events
       –     Academic coverage

Infrastructure Services

• Engineering & design services

• Copper, fiber & coax to buildings
       –      70 miles of fiber cable (3000 miles of strand fiber)
       –      17 miles of ductbank

• In-building communications wiring
       –      Category 5e wiring (supports Gigabit Ethernet service)
       –      1000 miles of cable
       –      73,000 faceplate jacks available
       –      47,000 active jacks

• Telecommunication closets
       –      300 communications closets among 130 buildings

Business Services

• Service adds, moves and changes

• Billing

• Materials warehouse operations

Staffing
TNS is staffed by approximately 40 full-time technical and administrative staff and 10 part-time students. TNS Organizational Chart
 

    Overall Financial Model and Principals

• TNS is a break even enterprise

• TNS price structure is based on cost recovery

• TNS attempts to eliminate cross-subsidy between services

Capital Funding
TNS is responsible for and maintains our capital funding.  These capital funds are used for capital-equipment refresh (i.e., funds for upgrading capital equipment after its useful depreciated life), to purchase new capital equipment for existing or new services, and to fund other capital projects requiring depreciable equipment.

     Revenue Sources
          TNS funding sources include:
               37% - from general education funds (GEF)
               60% - from usage based billing
                3%  - from other

     Expenses
          TNS expenses include:
               34% - Internet and trunking connections, miscellaneous equipment, and maintenance
               29% - Personnel/benefit expenses
               23% - Equipment depreciation
                9% -  Debt financing
                5% -  Other
 

The TNS Action Plan for 2005 identifies key projects, objectives and strategies. Following are key projects for 2005:

Voice Services key projects for FY05
Campus telephone switch replacement – TNS is engaged in the Telephone Switch Replacement Project (TSRP) to upgrade the telephone system campus wide.  The project is driven by the need to replace aging equipment that provides campus telephone services.  TSRP will replace the existing telephone switches with newer models to satisfy traditional services and also begin to build the foundation for deployment of enhanced telephony services using VoIP components. 

The implementation phase of the project has an 18-month duration which began in early 2004 and will continue through much of 2005 which includes the following major key activities:

• Switch replacement and cutover

• Rollout CallerID service campus wide – including deployment of analog callerID capable phones

• Rollout Music On-hold capability campus wide

• Build the VoIP core and begin investigating enhanced service delivery

• Tailor voice operations to support the new services

Mossman Services Building telephone switch upgrade – Unrelated to the TSRP project, the telephone switch serving Mossman Services Building will be upgraded to satisfy the manufacturer’s announced end-of-support issues.

Cellular service support – TNS continues to receive requests from cellular carriers for access to campus to place antennas and equipment to reduce density and increase coverage.  The carriers are interested in base station locations and in-building distribution systems.  TNS is engaged in a project to investigate a means of supporting cellular service on campus that provides equal access to University resources by interested carriers.

Network Services Key Projects
Regional optical network – The University of Iowa, Iowa State University, the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Minnesota are collaborating to develop a regional optical network that 1) provides each institution needed access to Tier-1 and national research network providers, and, 2) interconnects the institutions, providing significant advantages that cannot be achieved and are not affordable individually.  Some of the significant benefits are:

• Significantly reduced costs to each institution for high data rate network access.

• Flexibility to meet increasing and varied network bandwidth needs on an ad hoc basis thus supporting multi-gigabit research bandwidth requirements and connecting to key research networks on an as-needed basis.
• Ability to provision network services not offered by commercial service providers but required for some research projects.
• Reliable affordable connectivity to commodity Internet, Internet2, and National Lambda Rail research networks.
• Ownership of the fiber removes complexity of contractual obligations imposed by service providers and allows us to decide which technology is most appropriate based on our needs and circumstances, not the service providers.
• Brings affordable high data rate access closer to non participating neighboring universities in the future and offers more choice of carriers.
• Better business continuity practices.  The regional optical network will position the universities to take advantage of real-time offsite data storage and recovery through peer institution facilities or off-campus commercial facilities over the network.

Each of the universities participating in the proposed regional optical network has responsibility for a segment of the ring.  The University of Iowa would be responsible for the segment between Des Moines and Chicago.  This segment of the ring will be the primary traffic route for commodity Internet and Internet2 traffic for the University of Iowa and Iowa State University.  The segment will carry backup traffic for all regional players.

A representative group of the regional institutions is currently working with potential carriers to determine cost and availability which will result in a request for proposal for a 20-year prepaid arrangement.  This initiative which began in late 2004, will progress well into 2005 with potential closure by end of calendar year 2005.

High-speed network services to the University Apartments – This project completes ResNet, a service provided by Residence Services in conjunction with Information Technology Services (ITS) that provides all students living in Residence Services’ facilities with high speed (broadband like) connection to the campus network and the Internet.

The necessity for students to connect to University and student administrative resources; to research and library resources; to other institutions and to the Internet in general are key drivers for this project.  The needed connectivity should be at reasonable speeds with benefit of security that is on par with the service offered to students who live in campus residence halls.  Dial-up modem is currently the only means of providing University Apartment tenants with network access. Admittedly this does not provide the needed connectivity but it’s the only option available given the current infrastructure on the Far West Campus.

High-speed network access is provided to all other students living in the residence halls through the ResNet network on campus.  This project would extend that capability to the University Apartments located on the Far West Campus.  The project will be complete near the beginning of the Fall (2005/2006) semester.

Campus Network Refresh Project – It is necessary that the campus data network be upgraded (i.e., refreshed) on a defined and regular cycle in order to keep the network relatively current.  On average TNS replaces 15-20% of the user data ports per year which results in a 5-6 year cycle.  There are some exceptions where equipment life cycles are longer.

As part of this years network refresh project, TNS will get all user-ports connected at 100Mbps minimum (the campus standard), provide Gigabit Ethernet service to the desktop for those who need it, upgrade the sub-gigabit network connections to building root switches to 1 gigabit, upgrade the border routers to accommodate the recently obtained gigabit Ethernet connections to Chicago and DesMoines (Internet1 and Internet2), and upgrade the network core from 1 gigabit to 10 Gigabit.

With the new equipment, the project will provide triple speed (10/100/1000 Mbps) to approximately 30% of all campus ports.  Gigabit service will become a supported desktop standard beginning in FY06.  The project also provides for power over Ethernet (POE) to approximately 13,200 ports to be used for powering wireless access points and other services.  Finally, the refresh project will help prepare for the campus network to support advanced service capabilities such as a campus-wide penalty box and perhaps VoIP which is dependant on having per-port switching and functional management for every user port.  The network refresh project gets us a long way toward meeting the prerequisites for such services.

Upgrade ResNet Services – TNS in conjunction with Residence Services will upgrade portions of the residence network (ResNet) which serves students in the residence halls and the University Apartments.  The general scope of these projects include:

• ResNet management network refresh to replace equipment with announced end-of-life

• ResNet statistics collections upgrade to include University Apartments and which is necessary to support the campus penalty box system

Investigating the next generation of a campus network intrusion detection – TNS in conjunction with the campus security office will investigate other approaches to providing network intrusion detection and prevention on campus as a next step in the evolution of the existing campus system.

Wireless Service Expansion – Wireless service is an enabling and facilitating technology providing convenient access to network resources beyond wired boundaries.  ITS has provided wireless network access on campus at some level for approximately four years under pilot initiatives and testing various technologies.

The use of wireless network technology to support a broader diversity of locale on the University of Iowa campus is steadily increasing.  Access to networked resources through a wireless connection is expected to become more strategic to teaching, learning, research, and the business of the University.

The thrust of the service to date has been to provide coverage in common areas (libraries, student gathering areas, conference spaces) and some classrooms and labs primarily to support faculty and students.  The goal is to offer a broad-based service that augments the wired network service with as short an installation period as possible.   Service delivery continues as the broader-based plan is established and put in place.  TNS’ goal is to have wireless service defined and network installed / upgraded by the Fall semester

TNS will apply a 4-step plan for getting from current service to a better defined and supported campus-wide service by:

• Establishing a wireless service advisory group representing faculty, students, staff and technologists

• Obtaining end-user input that can be translated into requirements for a wireless service and service description

• Obtaining executive sponsorship necessary for legitimacy and support of the service at upper levels of the University administration

• Developing the implementation and deployment strategy

Video Services key projects for FY05
Satellite uplink upgrade – TNS operates a satellite uplink service that allows live or pre-recorded video to be uplinked to satellites and made available to anyone that has authorization and access to a downlink facility.  The most common uses for this service are athletic events that are broadcast from campus, Athletic Department coaches’ shows, new conferences and promotions, and interviews with campus experts for major broadcast and cable TV feeds. There is also a small amount of use by the public at large.

Much of the current equipment and technology is about 20 years old and is no longer supported by the manufacturers. Another significant issue, which surfaced sooner than expected, is the requirement by the broadcasters for football and basketball games for Dual Thread High Definition (HD) video for many games next season. To support this, we require a full upgrade of the entire system.

Since our funding model relies on this “game revenue” to break even, this has forced a technology and spending decision upon us.  TNS is investigating alternatives for supporting this service.

Video conferencing and streaming service expansion – TNS is engaged in enhancing video conferencing and video streaming services to satisfy a broadening customer base.  These services have been supported for several years within TNS, under a lesser defined model.  Relatively recent changes in technology and increased demand for these services on campus is cause for TNS to review our technical, operations, and support capabilities.

Infrastructure Services key projects for FY05
Redundant fiber connection between Main Campus and Oakdale Campus – Recently TNS was presented the opportunity to purchase an underground communications utility conduit buried along the CRANDIC railroad between Main Campus and Oakdale Campus that provides an ideal route for reliable redundancy with capability to support immediate and long-term fiber capacity needs.  The opportunity is especially attractive because it allows segmenting the conduit making it possible to connect other University facilities along the route in lieu of current leased services and overall reduces operating costs.

One other attraction of the opportunity is the flexibility it offers to support the needs of other non-profit groups, in a particular case the Iowa City Community School District (ICCSD), by allowing the primary right holder (i.e., the University) to share fiber under separate agreements between the University and those groups.  In this case ICCSD has agreed to cost share the lease and fiber installation in order to use fiber strands to connect their central administration office with approximately eight schools along the route to provide high-bandwidth communications to those schools.  This cost sharing arrangement benefits the University and ICCSD by reducing capital and operating costs.

The fiber to be installed in the conduit as part of this project, will also be used to provide communications connectivity to the University’s Coral Center facility in Coralville allowing the elimination the reoccurring costs of leased circuits while increasing the bandwidth capability to the facility.

The solution best satisfies the requirements, offers the lowest capital and operational costs and provides the greatest flexibility for long-term communications service between Main Campus and Oakdale Campus.  The benefits are:

• Satisfies the primary objective by providing a reliable and redundant connection to Oakdale Campus

• Capital costs and operating costs are significantly reduced compared to alternative means and methods of connecting the campuses

• Reduces operational costs for leased communications services to Coral Center

• Supports Iowa City Community School District while reducing both University and ICCSD capital and operating costs

Engineering and review services for capital construction projects – TNS provides engineering and review services focused on the communications infrastructure for new campus buildings and major renovations.  The buildings that are under construction and require TNS services are:

• Pomerantz Career Center 

• Tennis center complex 

• New Art building 

• Carver Biological Research Building 

• Kinnick Stadium Renovation 

• Chemistry Building 

• Iowa Memorial Union building

Relocation of the TNS warehouse to new site – To accommodate construction of a new campus recreation center TNS warehouse operations will be required to move to an alternate site.  TNS will work with Facilities Planning to identify that site and relocate the operations.

Business Services key projects for FY05
Facilities management replacement - TNS is in the  request for proposal process to acquire a Facilities Management System to manage TNS services, infrastructure and billing.  The project team is currently reviewing vendor proposals and preparing for on-site demonstrations. Implementation is scheduled to begin summer 2005 with final production migration in the spring of 2006 .