The purpose of this page is to provide updates on NIHnet engineering initiatives, network upgrades, service enhancements, and similar topics. Our goal is to make the information accessible to all staff while we also include some technical details targeted to our colleagues the IT community.
Topic: NIHnet Off-Campus Ring #1 Service Upgrade
Service area: Executive Blvd, Fishers Lane/Parklawn
June 26, 2007
The NIHnet Off-Campus Ring #1 provides fully diverse network connectivity to NIH and other Federal customers within the Executive Blvd Cluster, the Fishers Lane/Parklawn Cluster, and some outlying buildings within the Greater Rockville Area. NIHnet employes a technology called Course Wave Division Multiplexing (CWDM) to provide multiple high-capacity network connections over a single pair of fiber optic cable, greatly reducing our recurring costs.
During the months of July and August, 2007, NIHnet engineers will be expanding the Ring #1 infrastructure in order to meet the following objectives:
- Increase the primary path for Executive Blvd customers from 2 Gbps to 10 Gbps, and the secondary to 4+ Gbps. Increase the primary and secondary paths for Fishers.
- Place/Parklawn customers to 4+ Gbps.
- Provide full node (hardware) redundancy in both EB and Fishers for building connections to the ring.
- Improve efficiency of routing on the ring, allowing customers to communicate more directly along the ring.
- Improve efficiency of external NIH customers which utilize the ring infrastructure.
Topic: NIHnet Core Infrastructure Upgrade
Service area: All Areas
June 25, 2007
During FY2007Q4, engineers will upgrade the two primary NIHnet Core Routers as part of the regular 5-year refresh cycle. The new routers will provide:
- Latest backplane technology, providing support for, among other things, additional 10 Gigabit Ethernet ports, improved power, and similar advanced services.
- Native in-hardware support for IPv6, allowing us to meet 2008 Federal IPv6 transition goals.
Due to the redundancy built into NIHnet and the rolling nature of this upgrade, this service enhancement should not be service affecting.
The NIHnet Primary Distribution Routers will be refreshed during FY2008.
