NC State's Infrastructure
Physical Infrastructure (Layer 1)
The physical infrastructure that supports voice, data, and video services at NC State is governed by the University Wiring Standard UWS 2.0. The majority of campus buildings are wired to the UWS 2.0 standard (based on Cat 6 cabling). An additional large part of the campus has infrastructure based on Cat 5 cabling. A handful of university buildings have older (Cat 4 or legacy) cabling. Virtually all buildings on campus are linked together with single-mode fiber optic cabling housed in concrete-encased underground ductbanks.
Building-by-building breakdown of physical infrastructure. Campus map showing the status of building cabling.
For further information regarding the physical infrastructure at NC State contact Ed Rogers.
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Wireless Infrastructure
NC State is in the middle of a large-scale deployment of wireless LAN service across the campus. This project is called the Wireless Nomad Project. It’s purpose is to create both a coverage infrastructure (based on 802.11g/a technology) and an instructional infrastructure (based on 802.11a technology) for classrooms. In addition to whole building installations there are a large number of wireless hotspots scattered around campus.
Wireless coverage maps for the campus.
For further information regarding the wireless infrastructure at NC State contact Ed Rogers.
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Cable TV System Infrastructure
Comtech delivers cable television services to the campus via an in-house campus distribution system. The system currently provides 100 channels of programming to all residence halls and campus Greek houses as well as a few administrative/academic buildings. A single cable feed is delivered to the Comtech CATV head end from Time Warner Cable. Comtech adds additional channels and distributes the services over the campus fiber optic network.
In addition, a project is underway to pilot delivery of CATV service to the campus via the existing data network. The project is called the IPTV pilot.
For further information regarding the CATV infrastructure at NC State contact Rick Brown.
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Video Systems Infrastructure
Two main video transport infrastructures are in place to serve NC State’s distance education and video conferencing needs. The first is an analog video network that uses the campus fiber backbone to deliver NTSC quality video services. Appr. 20 NCSU campus locations are linked via a large analog video switch. The second is an IP-based overlay video network. It links campus endpoints with both on-campus and off-campus site. It uses a multi-point controller unit (MCU)/gatekeeper combination to manage sessions.
For further information regarding the video systems infrastructure at NC State contact Bill Cole.
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