General Overview

UC Santa Cruz has developed a ten-year telecommunications master plan to guide investments in communications infrastructure over the next decade in support of campus instruction, research, and administration.  This plan was developed to align with the 2005 Long Range Development, Coastal Long Range Development, and 10-year Campus Capital Plans.  The plan outlines numerous projects that are described below.

Schedule of Projects Associated with the Telecommunications Master Plan

Telecommunications Infrastructure Upgrade Project

Contact: Kevin Foise, PP&C Project Manager
The campus has been divided into four geographic areas, grouped by each area’s primary network routing hub (ADF).   In each area outside plant fiber will be augmented and non-residential building will have telecommunication closets, inside building wire and network equipment upgrades that support 1GB to the desktop as well as additional wireless service expansion and conversion to Voice over IP technology which converges network and voice services over a single wall jack. 

Phase A - Neil Goldstein, ITS Project Manager
Provides for a secondary telecommunications hub at the base of the campus for greater service reliability.   Facilities served by Phase A include those buildings that are served by ADF’s in at Oakes/College 8, Porter and West Science Hill buildings fed out of the Thimann Laboratories ADF.  A building list for Phase A can be found here.

Phase B
Facilities served by Phase B include those buildings that are served by ADF’s in Interdisciplinary Science Building, Social Sciences and Communications.  A building list for Phase B can be found at here.

Phase C
Facilities served by Phase C include those buildings that are served by ADF’s in Stevenson, Crown, DARC and the Bookstore.  A building list for Phase C can be found here.

Phase D
Facilities served by Phase D include those buildings that are served by ADF’s at the bottom of campus, as well as off campus locations Delaware, Long Marine Labs and Mount Hamilton.  A building list for Phase D can be found here.

Network Stabilization – Katie Scott, Project Manager
Network Stabilization consists of two phases.  The first phase, which has been completed, was to convert the existing set of campus wireless access points to 802.11n access points that leverage modern security protocols and to provision Eduroam services (secure campus wireless authentication to users that may be travelling to other Eduroam locations internationally).
The second phase of this project began June 18, 2012.  The oldest network switches on campus (primarily in residential halls) will be replaced with current electronics.  This will stabilize failing portions of the network until such time that these switches will be replaced as part of residential hall upgrade projects intended to occur over the next seven years.

Family Student Housing is currently served by older cable modem technology that will remain in place but be upgraded to provide four times the current access speeds for the residents.
The residential areas will have the in-building cabling, closet upgrades, wireless expansion, and VoIP services upgraded on a schedule that is outside of the phases A-D and is scheduled alongside Student Housing residential hall renovation schedules.  

Network Stabilization Project Schedule

Student Phone Decommissioning – Katie Scott, Project Manager
The campus has supported land-line phone service in each of the residential dorm rooms and apartments.   The proliferation of cell phones and smart phones has rendered this service unnecessary and expensive to operate.  A project has been launched which will decommission this service prior to the beginning of the fall quarter.
Hallway courtesy phones are being placed at strategic locations in order to ensure some form of telephone access in the event of an emergency or cell phone system failure.  Some land-line phones will remain for residential advisors and these phones will likely be converted to VoIP services at the time the residential areas are renovated by Student Housing.  Emergency phones and elevator phones will remain in place and will be served as they have historically been served.

Student Phone Decommissioning Project Schedule

Voice over IP Pilot – Louis DiGregorio, Project Manager
Voice over IP (VoIP) services will be a fundamental shift in how voice services are provided on campus as part of the construction projects Phase A-D.  The campus must prepare both the staff and the infrastructure to support this new service. 
A pilot project will take place this summer to provide the basic infrastructure that supports this technology and to convert IT phones in the Communications Building to VoIP.  With this experience, a more formal customer centric pilot will be launched to convert the Humanities Building to VoIP service in October, 2012.

Part of this pilot includes making the network more resilient in the Humanities Building, providing extended two hour battery back up time for network and voice services, updated electronics which will also enable gigabit service to the desktop, power over Ethernet switches which will enable easier wi-fi deployment to underserved areas, and new VoIP handsets.  The VoIP service will also be integrated into the campus voice mail system for consistent services with the rest of the campus. 
IT plans to leverage input from the Humanities faculty and staff to refine the service offerings and to make future conversion plans in follow on departments (scheduled to commence in late September, 2013) more seamless.

IP Television – Louis DiGregorio, Project Manager
The campus cable television service through Comcast has been provisioned through a franchise agreement with Santa Cruz County that expires in early 2014.  The expiration of this agreement also marks the expiration of very favorable cable television rates for the campus.

In preparation for this and in recognition of new student viewing patterns that rely heavily upon the internet, the campus is preparing to implement a video over IP system.  This will involve going out to bid for a provider that can provide cable services over the internet in order to reduce the costs associated with managing multiple cable plants. 

This will result in the building of a new campus cable television headend which will split programming into two segments – one that serves the old coaxial plant that feeds most residential halls and one that will be provided over the network infrastructure to those residential areas that have their network electronics and cable plant upgraded.

The current Student Housing renovation schedule indicates that Merrill will be the first upgraded college and the new cable television service is expected there in Fall 2013. 

 
Distributed Antenna System (DAS) – Project Manager Louis DiGregorio
UCSC is situated on hilly and forested terrain that makes it difficult for cell phone coverage.  As a result, the campus implemented a distributed antenna system that amplifies cell phone signals around campus in an effort to improve coverage.  Despite this, in-building coverage can still be difficult and the advent of energy efficient reflective glass in newer buildings has exacerbated the coverage problems.

This project is intended to develop a new in-building distributed antenna system design that can be incorporated in the construction of new buildings and can be used to strategically enhance coverage in buildings that the campus decides to fund on a case by case basis.

Doing this requires an in-building amplification system design that is carrier neutral as well as a set of contract agreements with the various carriers to provide coverage in those buildings.  It represents a complicated conversion of business terms and infrastructure enhancements through a distributed antenna system provider and with the applicable carriers. 

The project will involve developing sample designs and building renovation estimates for possible funding and execution as a proof of concept for future building projects.  The Bio Medicine Facility has been chosen as the first building to develop a design around.

Phase A-D Building Lists as of Jul 20, 2012