Benefits of the ICCN

How does the ICCN benefit the University?

The benefits of the Intercampus Communications Network (ICCN) are numerous, and the ICCN plays a significant role in furthering the academic and research missions of the university.

Benefits of the ICCN include:

• The ability to connect all three University campuses in a high-availability, redundant, and cost-efficient manner.
• Major per-unit cost savings for bandwidth.
• For academic units, increased network capacity for the academic and research needs of scholars and researchers, including access to innovative programs (e.g., digital libraries, indices, and databases) and web-based services for bandwidth-intensive applications such as streaming media for online learning applications.
• Greater flexibility, scalability, and reliability for configuring future telecommunications needs, allowing the University to make decisions based need rather than cost.

With the ICCN, the University has access to 500 times as much bandwidth for just three to four times the cost of commercial circuits. The University also manages the ICCN, which ultimately allows for greater flexibility and adaptability.

A University-owned and managed fiber network allows academic, research, and administrative units access to:

• High reliability and performance telecommunications among the campuses.
• University sites in the Chicago area.
• Peer and partner universities.
• Research laboratories and centers.
• Agencies and companies located on the commercial Internet.
• The academic Internet2 network, and the next generation National LambdaRail.

Security and Reliability

For the end user, the ICCN provides much lower levels of latency (i.e., system response time, a critical factor for University-wide administrative applications) and better network reliability for course management software and videoconferencing systems.

The ICCN also provides an added layer of protection and redundancy against equipment failure or accidental fiber cuts. For example, data between the Urbana and Chicago campuses normally flows on the fiber that is directly between the two campuses. Should the intermediary electronics in Rantoul or Kankakee fail, Urbana-Chicago communications are immediately rerouted by way of the Springfield campus.

In addition, each campus has dual electronics on the ring. Should the Chicago-facing electronics on the Urbana campus fail, all traffic is instantly re-routed to the Springfield-facing electronics. The ICCN has been designed to be as reliable and redundant as current technology allows.

Since both the Campus Network Upgrade Project and the ICCN began, network reliability has increased to 99-plus percent. Thanks to the upgrade, the network is now more secure and less vulnerable to threats and malicious attacks.

For students, faculty, and staff members at the University, a modern, reliable network results in:

• Quicker, easier access to online courses, lectures, and research materials.
• Faster downloads of desktop video, multimedia, and other bandwidth-hungry applications prevalent on campus today.
• Easier access to online learning and collaboration tools (wikis, blogs, and course management systems, for example) thanks to improved network reliability.
• Increased UIUCnet Wireless coverage.

For researchers at the University:

• Decreased download and upload times of data and research, especially large data sets.
• The ability to share information more easily and faster with colleagues. Working with collaborators from across the country is as easy as if they were down the hall.
• Greater flexibility to adapt to emerging technologies (Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) phone service, for example), ensuring that the campus is ready for the technologies of tomorrow.
• Increased firewall and traffic management capabilities at the network entrance and exit to and from campus, allowing data transfer speeds of up to 10 Gbps to satisfy the demands of research computing.