CWRU to be site of premier network

The Peter B.Lewis Building, designed by Frank O. Gehry, will be the first at any university in the country to feature the new switched gigabit to the desktop standard being introduced at CWRU.

The University will soon have one of the world's fastest, highest density and advanced wireless computer networks as part of an unprecedented multi-year, multi-million dollar partnership that also will provide premier data, voice and video services campus-wide. The CWRU Board of Trustees approved March 2.

CWRU has reached a long-term agreement, or Integrated Technology Partnership (ITP), with Sprint and an alliance of world-class technology vendors, including Cisco Systems Inc. Through this ITP, Sprint and Cisco will implement integrated gigabit ethernet to the desktop and introduce a new, campus-wide plan for wireless technology to support mobile and flexible network access.

"The new CWRU network raises the bar for enterprise networks. In addition to unsurpassed speed and capacity, the CWRU network will position the University as the premier network, delivering immense and ubiquitous computing capability," said Joe Aulizia, senior director of operations for Cisco. "We do lots of networks. This one has everyone's interest."

The network is replete with redundant paths affording the entire campus significant improvements in reliability and robustness, according to Lev Gonick, CWRU's vice president for information services and CIO.

"The Integrated Technology Partnership begins with building a world-class network that will support data, voice and video," Gonick said. "The vision is to allow the university to meet its goals of distinction, research preeminence, technological innovation, student learning and student life through the applications that will run on this massive, pervasive and ubiquitous computing and networking environment."

"We believe that our new home in the Peter B. Lewis Building has added an important mark of distinction," said Mohsen Anvari, dean of the Weatherhead School of Management. "As we take occupancy of the Lewis Building over the summer, we want the world to take note of the incredible architecture as well as understand that what we are doing inside the building with our curriculum and leading-edge technology frames our vision of the future for the Weatherhead School of Management."

"Students returning in the fall are going to be just amazed at the new network capacity both in their residence hall rooms and the new, state-of-the-art wireless infrastructure that is being built out," said Don Kamalsky, CWRU's director of housing and Greek life.

"The ITP has many unique features beyond the technology itself," said Interim President James W. Wagner. "This network was designed in response to a clear, unambiguous directive by the faculty to support a world-class network to enable research, scholarship and teaching. Students asked for speed, ubiquity and flexibility. The university is responding to improve the quality of scholarly as well as student life.

"The ITP also will allow all of our affiliates in University Circle to acquire comparable infrastructure on the same terms and conditions as we've received," Wagner added.

Ten cents of every dollar spent by the University toward this new computing and networking environment during the first 18 months will go toward a Sprint-CWRU fund. This fund, to be administered jointly by CWRU and Sprint, will be used to purchase additional goods and services, some of which could be confidential candidates for mutual research, development and implementation.

The partners are expected to release additional details of the agreement by the end of March.

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