NEWS: West Plains gets High Speed Internet!

Networking and MOREnet activated a high-speed Internet link for the West Plains campus today.  The 320Kb line was replaced by a 10Mb connection giving 32 times the bandwidth!  Both campuses now have their own Internet links.

All West Plains users will notice faster access to the Internet and to Missouri State University Springfield resources.  Springfield users will obviously have faster access to West Plains resources as well.  Since the Internet links are now used to communicate between campuses instead of through a private link, an Internet failure by either campus will result in a loss of inter-campus communication.

July 24, 2000

Missouri State University Networking and MOREnet activated the long-anticipated high-speed Internet circuit for West Plains.  The new Internet feed for West Plains is an ATM OC3 circuit similar to the one that has served the Springfield campus very well.   Although OC3 can run as fast as 155Mb, it was determined 10Mb of bandwidth would initially be activated to save on line charges.  The new circuit provides 32 times the bandwidth previously available to West Plains.

All users at West Plains should see dramatic improvements in access to the Internet.  Communications between campuses will also benefit significantly because this new link is also indirectly used to connect the two campuses.

Technical Update

West Plains was previously connected to Springfield using five channels of a DS1 (or T1) circuit that was initially installed for use by our Distance Learning network, BearNET.  The DS1 is conditioned into an ISDN PRI, using Madge ISDN switches which are owned and operated by Missouri State University.  This allows BearNet users to dial up each other on the network or anywhere in the world using standard telephone numbers.  Each video call uses six channels and a PRI has 23 bearer channels, which allows for three video calls with five channels left over.  Those five channels, not readily useable by the video network, were allocated to West Plains to carry Internet and inter-campus traffic.

This arrangement introduced extra complexity in the data connection, which was relatively slow, and made West Plains dependent on Springfield for access to the Internet itself.  The five channels on the DS1 that are no longer being used by the data network will be allocated to the video network, adding needed capacity for smaller video systems that have been developed which use ISDN BRI to communicate using as few as two channels.

The diagram below shows the new data links toward the top, and the old links toward the bottom.  Missouri State University-Springfield houses one of the five MOREnet nodes which service all of Missouri.  This node, which resides in Blair Shannon, services all of the 417 area code and is represented by the top green box.  Previously, West Plains had to go over five channels of the PRI to Springfield, through the Springfield networks, the Springfield Gateway Router, over the 20Mb/sec OC3 to the MOREnet node in Springfield, and finally to the Internet.  Now West Plains users hit the West Plains Gateway Router, go over the 10Mb/sec OC3, hit the MOREnet Node in Springfield, and then reach the Internet. 

Traffic between the campuses will also use the new facility.  Springfield users will use the Springfield Gateway Router, 20Mb/sec OC3, MOREnet's Core Node in Springfield, the 10Mb/sec ATM, West Plains Gateway Router, and the West Plains networks.  The converse is true as well.  This diagram helps to illustrate that we are now dependent upon MOREnet (technically, our Internet connections) for traffic between campuses.  The ISDN PRI five-channel circuit will be removed within a few weeks once the new service has proven itself.  No problems are anticipated.

Because MOREnet's node resides in Blair Shannon, Springfield's Internet link, the 20Mb/sec OC3, consists of only a 100-foot, single-mode fiber patch cable.  West Plains' circuit is serviced out of the Springfield node because West Plains resides in the 417 area code.  This circuit is provided by Sho Me Power with segments being delivered by AT&T.

If you have any questions regarding this enhanced service, please contact Mark Harsen in Networking.