2008 Woodie Awards
More bandwidth acquired by the Stevens IT department
David Pfeffer
Issue date: 9/28/07 Section: Campus News
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This summer, the Information Technology department at Stevens Institute of Technology successfully negotiated an additional bandwidth purchase for the Internet connection. Chris Hose, Director of Network, Telecommunications & Video, wrote about the new connection in a Stevens accreditation document, "The campus network [will] connect to the outside world through two circuits that provide four virtual links, 5Mb to a consortium of other academic institutions in New Jersey called the NJEdge.Net (www.njedge.net), 150Mb to the Internet via two providers (Verizon's Alternet and Level3), and 55Mb to Internet2." This will increase our outgoing bandwidth from 50Mb to? and adds a second Tier-1 connection to the Internet.
The new bandwidth purchase has still not come online. Eric Rosenberg, Associate Vice President for Information Technology noted, "Level3 has not delivered the service yet. There has been an issue between them and Verizon in provisioning the circuit. I still like the Level3 option and even though I might be able to cancel my agreement with them at this point, I would still like to proceed. I like them because it's another Tier-1 provider."
Stevens purchased the additional bandwidth for several reasons; Rosenberg mentioned that our current bandwidth was too little to support our campus's size when additional loads such as videoconferences were placed on it. Rosenberg said that the addition of the Level3 circuit was welcome because it provides additional redundancy to the Stevens network. He added that now that we have access to multiple Tier-1 Internet connections, it gives us a better position in price negotiations for bandwidth.
With more bandwidth comes more responsibility, Rosenberg noted during the summer interview. Rosenberg said that Stevens is considering restricting certain Internet services that currently are open. These services include Skype, an Internet telephone service by the creators of Kazaa, and BitTorrent, a popular peer-to-peer file distribution protocol. Jonathan Matos '08, current Student Government Association Vice President, noted "I think blocking Skype is unnecessary, considering it's primarily used for talking, but I can see where blocking BitTorrent might be smart considering piracy and everything that goes along with it." In a follow-up interview with Rosenberg, however, he noted that the new packet shaper that Stevens has installed to handle the increased bandwidth is smart enough "to contain Skype and BitTorrent." He added, "We now have no plans to shut it down."
The new bandwidth purchase has still not come online. Eric Rosenberg, Associate Vice President for Information Technology noted, "Level3 has not delivered the service yet. There has been an issue between them and Verizon in provisioning the circuit. I still like the Level3 option and even though I might be able to cancel my agreement with them at this point, I would still like to proceed. I like them because it's another Tier-1 provider."
Stevens purchased the additional bandwidth for several reasons; Rosenberg mentioned that our current bandwidth was too little to support our campus's size when additional loads such as videoconferences were placed on it. Rosenberg said that the addition of the Level3 circuit was welcome because it provides additional redundancy to the Stevens network. He added that now that we have access to multiple Tier-1 Internet connections, it gives us a better position in price negotiations for bandwidth.
With more bandwidth comes more responsibility, Rosenberg noted during the summer interview. Rosenberg said that Stevens is considering restricting certain Internet services that currently are open. These services include Skype, an Internet telephone service by the creators of Kazaa, and BitTorrent, a popular peer-to-peer file distribution protocol. Jonathan Matos '08, current Student Government Association Vice President, noted "I think blocking Skype is unnecessary, considering it's primarily used for talking, but I can see where blocking BitTorrent might be smart considering piracy and everything that goes along with it." In a follow-up interview with Rosenberg, however, he noted that the new packet shaper that Stevens has installed to handle the increased bandwidth is smart enough "to contain Skype and BitTorrent." He added, "We now have no plans to shut it down."