Checking it out … CommScope Business Development Manager Craig Gilmore (right) shows some of the subtle features of the Fibre BUDI – wall mountable distribution boxes – to (from left) Aotea Site Foreman Nick Martin and Aotea Assistant Communications Manager Simon Perry.
Next-generation IT network is rolling out across the Dunedin campus to deliver more information faster – data, video, voice – while also saving significant money on the installation, power and support year-on-year.
University of Otago Head of IT Infrastructure, Wallace Chase, says the speed of the new XGS-PON network is equal to downloading one high-definition movie in about 40 seconds or downloading 25 MP3 songs in a second – just one glass fibreoptic cable smaller than a strand of human hair can supply up to 32 people simultaneously with one gigabit a second (Gbps).
The new network is “plug and play”. When staff need even faster connectivity – usually for research work – new cabling is no longer installed, instead the small desktop box (ONT) is simply replaced with another type of ONT then plugged in and they have 10 times the speed, 10 Gbps .
The network can even be wound back during construction upgrades so it does not become collateral damage then wound back out after the building work is finished. Also, new technology upgrades can be introduced without upgrading the cables, and installing this network is about 50 per cent cheaper than installing a coper-wire based network.
The new network is already in Science III and II. It will be rolled out next year at a location yet to be decided.
The big and small of it … new glass fibre optic IT network cabling (left, coloured black) in the Science III building compared to the previous cabling (right), which was copper covered in white insulation.
Award winning
The first installation, in Science III, was like "rebuilding an aircraft while flying it full of of passengers, Wallace says.
That work has just won the 2024 BICSI South Pacific Excellence in ITC Infrastructure Installation Award (Medium Project), for which Wallace says IT Project Manager Annette Hunter, Otago’s IT Infrastructure Network Services team, Aotea Electric Southern, Nokia, and Lexel Systems deserve congratulations and thanks.
Their work is vital as Otago is believed to be among the top 10 information communication technology users nationwide and needs to keep up with the massive data our research generates, he says.
Cheaper to run
The new network has so few ‘moving’ parts, it requires less IT support and electricity, and produces fewer climate-warming carbon emissions, Wallace says.
Replacing Science III’s copper wires with fibreoptics – while recycling the redundant copper cable in Dunedin – makes the Science III network 95 per cent more energy efficient than buildings still using copper and the copper connections between buildings.
Fibreoptics also often use up to less than five per cent of the space than copper cables, because they have no cabinets and use fewer cable trays and other materials.
There are fibreoptic networks between and inside some buildings that still use electronic switching, but can upgrade to GPON using the existing cables, in an efficient process that saves both time and money, Wallace says.