University Council on Technology
4/23/99 Minutes
3:00 p.m. to 5:00.p.m.
3rd floor Conference Room
Moulton Hall
Kent Campus
Present: Cathy Bakes, Ray Craig, Rosemary DuMont, Alan Evans, Paul Farrell (chair), Barbara Hanniford, Alice Iden, Mike Kreyche, Terry Kuhn, Jeremy Ohde, Bruce Petryshak, Bernie Reynolds, Arden Ruttan, Greg Seibert, Michelle Craig for Roberta Sikula, Drew Tiene, Don Tolliver and Denise Zelko
Absent: Peggy Doheny, Lowell Croskey, Brad Foust, Pamela Grimm, Judy Hirschman, Larry Jones, John Kerstetter, Pam Mitchell, Pam Ramey, Darrell Turnidge and Kevin West
Guests: Lois Muir, Provost’s Office
Lisa Aichlmayr, Stater
I. Welcome and Call to Order
Paul Farrell (Chair) welcomed the council and called the meeting to order at 3:10 p.m.
II. Approval of 3/12/99 Minutes
The minutes were unanimously approved as submitted with one spelling correction. It was noted that Stevens should be spelled with a v.
III. New Business
A. Presentation on the new Telephone Switch Plans
Bruce Petryshak introduced Mr. George Dallas, President and founder of Total Systems Integration who gave a presentation regarding the telephone switch known on campus as Project 97097. Bruce stated that this is an infrastructure project with connection to an intelligent network capable of supporting voice, video and data as network across the entire Kent State system.
Mr. Dallas presented a detailed overview and the project goals of the new telephone system. From a voice, data and video standpoint, Kent will have a modern and current network where technology used is state of the art with Kent being one of the most high tech universities in the United States. The new system will provide a modern telecommunication system with campus-wide voice mail with unification of the Kent and regional campuses. The new system will provide video enabled campuses retaining and attracting students, expand the distance learning capabilities and prepare for Y2K issues. This is a long-term solution. It is a ten-year project from the standpoint of commitment by the vendors, however it is a short-term project in terms of installation. The new system will be installed and in service by the end of the year.
Mr. Dallas stated that the University is currently using the Ameritech Centrex System with key systems meaning that there is not a central telephone system with many different telephone systems being used across campus. This system is hard to use, annoying and inconsistent with phones in one department being different than phones in another, there is no number portability, no direct inward dialing and no consistent voice mail system.
The new all digital PBX phone system can easily be upgraded and expanded with the capability of adding or deleting one line at a time. All data entry for changing, adding and deleting is done at the central terminals and can be done from any network at the Kent or any of the regional campuses providing you have authorization.
The new system offers an integrated student system. Dorm rooms will have a local campus number having to dial only five digits across campus. Generally there will be one phone per room with each resident having a separate voice mailbox. To prevent fraud, each student will have their own pin number with individualized billing for each student in the room.
Every person living or working on the Kent or any regional campus will have their own phone number and voice mailbox. The voice mail system will be 100%. All calls to and from any of the regional campuses will be a local call. The majority of phones will be display phone with speakers allowing caller ID with buttons for individualized programming and auto attendant features.
This system has several redundant T-1 links connected to all the regional campuses. There is a series of telecommunication links out to each regional campus and in between the belt and suspender approach so if there was an ice storm and it knocked down the lines one still could call. This network brings the regionals back to the Kent campus and will share a connection to the long distance carrier. The regionals will now be able to take advantage of the bulk rates instead of each campus having their own long distance carrier. With the new system, if a call is made from any of the regional campuses and it is a local call for the Kent campus it will now also be a local call for them and vice versa.
This network is fully meshed using the same network to handle telecommunications, data communications, internet access and distance learning. There are also links to the State of Ohio Department of Administrative Services used for distance learning and from there connecting to any other university in the State of Ohio and any other K – 12 institution.
There will be continuity of services across all campuses offering voice mail, direct inward dialing and access to everyone with a smooth flow of voice communications.
The Kent campus has an extensive fiber optic backbone entering every building with redundant paths to each building offering reliability and high speed for voice, video and data. The ATM network ties this together and will be upgraded to the new system offering the highest speed data connection to each building and will connect to all existing networks. The ATM backbone will provide ethernet services as well as ATM services to the desktop using category 5 cable that is currently installed.
Five major locations, the Library, Moulton Hall, Tri Towers, Merrill Hall and the Ice Arena will be interconnected and called ATM core switches using OC-12 links with each location having a dedicated link to the other four core switches. The core switches and central processing units are completely duplicated. This will allow the campus to have a very high availability of 99.999%. Every building on campus will have a switch within it providing access to the users and the users to the ATM core network having a minimum two OC-3 links. Each building will have a minimum of 300 plus megabits of data capacity. Typical networks will have one centralized router that controls everything this network has two on-line redundant routers with multiple OC-3 links. These are physically and electrically diversified across the campus.
The ATM network system will provide high-speed links to the regionals. Four single T-1 lines will be aggregated together and treated as one logical pipe. These links are duplicated for reliability. The ATM network that is being put out to the regional campuses will interface with their existing networks and provide a much greater grade of service and higher speed network access service. This system provides ATM switch virtual circuits between campuses. The T-1 lines provide the quality of service path for voice and video. We are all now linked and are one large university.
This ATM was specifically designed by telecommunication companies to allow the aggregation of voice, data and video on wide area lans. We are using this same technology to transport data, voice and video reducing costs yet improving service.
The voice impression technique will be used and instead of allowing 24 voice circuits to fit on one T-1 line we can compress that voice eight to one so we will use only one-eighth on that line to the same capacity as we did before. We will either have eight times the capacity on that T-1 line or have seven-eighths of the capacity for use for data and video. The video and voice are assigned the highest quality of service and have priority over data.
The ATM quality of service will allow campuses to broadcast quality video. Video casters will broadcast live video transmissions and TV satellite signals across the network. Any PC that is connected to this network will have access to approximately 15 video channels where they can view live, full screen, VCR quality presentations from their desktop. Stored video, such as speeches, lectures and movies can be viewed off of video caches from any campus.
Distance Learning rooms will connect directly to the ATM network and allow them to share the bandwidth to the regional campuses. The ATM network allows roll around distance learning systems for small team, video conferencing. A video conference cart is wheeled around, plugged into the network using the web interface on it and by clicking on the video phonebook the connection would automatically be dialed and set up.
MPEG-2 video conferencing is low latency using the ATM CODEC. The network will be capable of transporting MPEG-2 video with remote management capabilities and is compatible with room control devices that we currently have today.
Bruce Petryshak stated that a web site is being developed and should be available in the next couple of weeks. There will be two segments, one with a password and one open to the public that will have time lines and status reports.
Q: What kind of software is required of departments that are not totally PC oriented?
A: If you have a PC to do desktop video there are two ways of doing it. The low-end solution with a small screen is the IP video costing between $300 - $400 running out your ethernet card. You will need a camera and a card to interface the camera. For a broadcast quality video the cost would be $3,000 and upwards for a high quality camera, dedicated CODEC and ATM connection to that PC and a high quality microphone.
To play videos you have a PC connected to the network. This project will connect all the networks and all the buildings to the ATM backbone and give you the high-speed links out of your buildings to the ATM backbone enabling you to receive live or stored videos. The requirement for PC and MAC is a device that is 250mgh or faster because the actual decoding of the Mpeg-1 video screen is being done by software by the CPU. If you have a slow speed PC you won’t be able to do anything else while watching a video. If you have a pentium class running 300-400mgh you can do whatever you want. The solution for the low speed PC is a hardware Mpeg-1 decoder card costing $150-200 and you need an open slot to drop that in.
Q: What about non PC’s, Unix workstations in particular.
A: This is a creek you might be up then.
Q: There might not be commercial software but if you have the standards that are coming into it?
A: If you have a Mpeg-1 decoder in your Unix workstation, if you have a Sun or something like that, yes you can play it.
Q: Are there and LAN requirements that we have to be planning for?
A: Not all buildings on campus have a complete LAN or category 5 cable yet. In order to plan for that, cable is being put in now in some of the buildings that don’t have network switches are going to be receiving them as part of this project. ATM interfaces to the residential facilities have an ATM network as well this is also being upgraded.
A good selling point to the students is that they will have very high speed access to the internet in the dorm room with the ability to view prerecorded lectures as well as instruction material.
Q: What about off-campus students?
A: There is also a plan for the off-campus students too. You will be able to stream 4 frames per second depending on your connectivity. It is more an IP based video with a smaller screen. A feasibility study was done of connecting over 6,000 apartments that are close to the University providing fiber optic cable to them, providing both telecommunication and data networking services and possibly cable TV services.
The way this works is that the University sells the service in bulk to that apartment complex, the apartment complex pays the University then they resell it to their students. However the telephone services are billed by the University. A feature in the telephone system is the ability for students on the main campus that are now part of the system are now toll free calls. This is an advantage of staying in a dorm.
If you are a Roadrunner customer, we do have a connection and have usage of that network.
Q: What is voice mail forwarding?
A: Someone calls you and leaves you a message and you want your boss to hear it you can forward it to him and the others you want to hear it. Voice Broadcast can also be done where a message can be sent to a department or the whole campus leaving messages in the voice mailboxes.
Q: Are the phones part of the contract?
A: Yes, everyone gets a new phone with the majority of the people getting an eight-button display with speakerphone with hands free operation. About 15% of the people need 20 button phones. With new system the phone call will come to directly to you. Phone will have the ability to use the do-not-disturb, forward all calls to, or just campus call or just local calls to voice mail. There can also be special messages for different occasions.
Q: Is the existing phone equipment, such as fax machines compatible?
A: Yes. All existing analog equipment is compatible. The differences will be that those lines will come through the new phone system.
Q: Have the deans, chairs and directors heard this same information?
A: Yes.
Q: How many new lines are budgeted for?
A: 1610
Q: Currently?
A: The contract is written such that certain telecommunication terms based upon one in one hundred call will receive a busy signal due to congestion on the network.
Q: Does this mean that each person will have their own individual phone number rather than an extension?
A: Everyone has their own phone number, no one will have extension numbers calls can be forwarded to home if you want to receive your calls at home.
Q: Does this mean a long distance call for whoever is calling.
A: No it is a local call to campus and then call forwarding can be allowed within the local calling area with the option of denying long distance call forwarding.
Q: I was told the new telephone system would fit within the existing budgets, will it?
A: That is what the goal is, however some offices will go up because of the way their phones are put together and others will go down.
Q: Will it cost any department more than what they are currently paying?
A: It is possible. But it can’t be answered for sure because the exact details have not been gone through exactly. All the features talked about, such as voice mail, speakerphones and those kinds of things are classified as base service with no additional charges. There is upgraded quality of service with no premium attached. However, if you are an office that has one phone line or five phone lines with 20 extensions on a key system you will now have 20 phone lines that will affect your phone bill. This needs to look at this and see how it comes out right so in effect there is no more out of pocket. The cost per phone line will be less but you will have more phone lines.
Q: Specifically referring to the College of Business and Math and Computer Sciences on their own Merlin systems.
A: As an example if you have 400 users you will have 400 incoming and outgoing lines. It was mentioned to the chairs and directors that we will look at the model and consult with those groups before this happens. The survey showed that some departments had a limited number of phones because there was no place on the existing system to add more lines so they had to share phones. On the new system there will be more phones with no one sharing phones. The actual costs of the phones to the University and is much less than we are currently paying for the phone service we have. What we have been able to do is take our current phone bill, buy a new phone system, buy a new ATM backbone system and video gear for the same money we were paying Ameritech. The net result to the University is very close to the same amount of charges we had initially. We have consolidated systems and are taking advantage of digital technology. The old system is an old, high maintenance expensive analog system.
Q: What about telethons?
A: This system is ideal for that. This system has automatic call distribution system so as people sit there on the telethon as soon as you hang up with a call you are able to busy out your position because when you handle a call you have paperwork to do. If it is automated we also have computer interface such that we could take our system attach it directly to the telephone system and use as caller ID. If we have a database on that telephone number you can bring that screen up and when the call is answered you already have the data. This will distribute the calls allowing the operator who has work time after accepting the call to fill out a form or whatever and his position will be busy for 10 seconds and then be available again. The operator who is most idle will get the next call. The calls will go into queue. and you can get a message and see how many calls you have in queue
Q: Who do we work with?
A: The person who is awarded the contract will go to each department and sub-department head and interview them asking what is unique about that department. Seminars will be given regarding general standard features and options that are available. They will then set it up and begin the programming and identify every phone, every data outlet and phone outlet on campus. It will then be tested out.
Q: Is the name of the contractor available yet?
A: Yes, the tentative contractor is NEC. NEC is in the top 3 companies in communications, computers semiconductors. NEC is the telecommunications data provider for several other universities in Ohio as well as large ivy league schools. They are very easy to work with and are focused towards education and they understand our business. The hardware is a consortium of multiple vendors with NEC being the contractor.
Q: Who will supply the ATM?
A: The ATM is manufactured by Nortell Networks.
Q: Within the University will you dial a five-digit number?
A: Yes, and when dialing a long distance call you dial the ten digit number and the telephone system has a feature called least cost routing determining the most inexpensive route and route the call in that direction. The system has a complete billing system so all extensions are billed for long distance calls with a recording of all extensions with a billing reconciliation system so when we receive bills from long distance carriers we can check it against our own internal billing. There is a toll fraud detection system that instantly alerts depending upon the parameters set up.
Q: Is the five-digit dialing from any of the campuses?
A: If you have an extension 55555 and you are going to be working somewhere else that number will go with you ringing there. There will be complete number forwaradability not having to take a number change if you change locations.
Q: What will we have in addition to 672?
A: There is a full 10,000 block within the 672 exchange and we will probably open up another number.
Q: Do you know what that number will be?
A: No, but we have the whole 67 exchange. If your personal current number is 672-9000 under the new system when off campus people want to call you they will still call that number and if calling from on campus you would call 29000. When the new block is open say 673 they will call 39000. We are going to try to keep existing phone numbers as close as possible to what they currently are.
Q: Since the new system is digital can we connect analog devices?
A: They won’t connect but we have a percentage of analog ports. If you need to connect a modem or a fax machine you need an analog line. Approximately 20% of the lines on campus are analog lines for existing equipment.
Q: Are we buying or leasing phones?
A: The phones are provided as part of the package. The contractor has provided us with both a buy and a lease price. The financial people here at the University are researching this. A key to this package is the ten-year managed services package, which means that all the software upgrades, and those types of things are included over the next ten years. This is a fully managed product plus training for all our technicians, operators and maintenance people that are included in this. Another key feature is that we can have a large pool of operators at Kent campus or anywhere answering calls from any campus being forwarded to a central operator who could then forward the calls. Another feature is technology protection for the ten years so that if a standard is changed and there is eight or twelve number dialing required and our system can’t do it we will get the upgrades even if it is a hardware swap the software is part of it at no expense. This is included in the entire network hardware and _______ as well.
Q: What is the process for helping departments sort through and setting up phones?
A: There will be seminars for all department heads to explain the new system to them then engineers will visit each department and clerical staff and design a whole operational scheme for that department. It might start at a high level breaking down into subdepartments.
Q: In terms of DAS in the State of Ohio, is that dark fiber or are we paying connectivity.
A: DAS has a project called SOMAX. This is a postalized T1 rate, which means that a T1 line to any educational institutional is $450 a month regardless of the distance. There is a new contract called SOMAX 2000 being negotiated now which will offer postalized DS3 and postalized OC3 rates. As part of this project we explored the possibility and financing of DS3 links to the regional campuses and it is our conclusion that is desirable in the next two or three years that financially it does not make sense now because there is a limited bandwidth available. The bottom line is that bandwidth will be available with something called the next generation internet. There is also a project that is active with DAS that is focalized ATM service. This is intended to be used for video distribution for K – 12. When this comes about we will be prepared to connect and order the required bandwidth into that ATM cloud so we can buy that postalized ATM service at that time. What it requires is that Kent’s ATM network having a registered amsep address allowing ATM to connect to ATM’s without having to go through a router.
Q: What are the two time points for having lines for a partial switchover?
A: In mid-August we plan to have a new ATM backbone and the copper cabling in place and the data network rolled over to the new ATM backbone tested and running. We then begin connecting and testing the new telecommunications systems. Over the Thanksgiving holiday phones will be placed and plugged into the new phone jack. People will them come out call and test on a parallel network to verify that the equipment works. The weekend of cut over the Ameritech circuits will be removed the circuits will be rolled over to the new PBX system with the new phones working. The contract has just been awarded and the schedule is just being built. It is planned that the administrative lines might roll over the Thanksgiving holiday and the student residential lines may rollover the Christmas holiday. Cutovers normally take from Friday to Sunday afternoon.
Q: Where do the academic departments come?
Q: How early can we assign phone numbers?
A: As part of this project is an on-line directory because of the central counsel that handles the voice mail administration and as we add and delete people the directory is updated. There will still be a need for a hard copy directory but it will not be synchronized with the on-line directory. If you have security access you can view real time charges.
Q: Can you do desktop?
A: Every building will have a certain amount of ATM pots available in and in addition to that there are a couple of pilot buildings that will have ATM’s to the desktop. This will not be for everyone initially.
Q: Does this mean all new network cards?
A: This means all new network cards that run about $150.
Q: What provision do you see for faculty digitized video distribution?
A: Some of the other universities have built a lab area for professors to come in with some of the digitized equipment there to allow someone to take and place information directly on the video caches. If you have a Mpeg 1 or Mpeg 2 format video you can place it on a video cache. If you have a VCR tape you want played and it is at the library it can be played across the network for you and it can show up at the classroom and played through a projection device like this. If this is something that you own the copyright to you can place it on the video cache and not only can you being playing it but 70 other people can be playing it at 70 other locations.
Q: Is this capability going to be available by the end of the year?
A: Yes.
Q: What about copyright issues?
A: There will be copyright issues but from the engineering standpoint it is nothing to be dealt with. If you own the copyright fine, some places are purchasing the rights to put it on a stored video cache. Some have their own production departments and are producing their own video material or are recording their own lectures and classroom demonstrations and placing them on the cache.
Q: What is the size of the cache?
A: 400 hours for each cache with two of them in here. They are easily expandable and all managed as a logical unit with a video manager. An example a video cache could be at Ashtabula and one at the Kent campus. If you are at Ashtabula and click on a particular video, the video management software on the webpage is smart enough to know that there is a copy there and play it there and not over the area wide network, but if ten of us want to watch the same video it manages that and generates ten for us.
Q: Would it be reasonable and possible to put the presentation on-line?
A: There is a webpage being created and it will have all the presentations, time lines and progress. The URL will be made available when know.
Discussion was had regarding a letter Paul Farrell received from English in respect to the faculty not having phones. Paul Farell stated that this issue first arose when the Academic Computing Study was being done. A decision was made that every faculty member should have a PC in order to communicate with their students stating there was an inconsistency if there were no phones. Other members stated that Philosophy and Pan African Studies were also without phones.
Lois Muir stated that during budget cutbacks some departments chose to give up telephones rather than other choices. There is misinformation and some historical issues regarding fairness between departments. This has only happened in one college with many layers and some of it being departmental with the dean having a part to play. It should not be long before it is rectified. The Dean of Arts and Sciences has currently devised a plan for his budgeted areas to make sure telephones are in these departments but it is up to the department to take to make this happen.
It was stated that academic departments currently have a major issue as they been asked to plan to make potential budget cuts. If the cost of the new phone system to academic departments increases this is not being addressed in terms of strategic budgeting with it being likely that more faculty will decide to pull phones out because the choices are very limited. You can get rid of part time teachers or pull the phones. It was stated that English has a $40,000 budget line committed for salaries and they cannot cut part-timers because they have an obligation to teach to entry freshmen. Their options have been limited having to cut non-tenured track full time faculty.
It was stated that one half million dollars was distributed last year in new current expense money. They could have said the X amount of money will be used for telephones. This action has not been taken. The money is distributed to colleges then deans distribute to departments. Maybe this is a mistake and should be more direct since people are not opting to utilize phone lines. One way or another this will be corrected because there is a uniform feeling that it is not appropriate for faculty not to have telephone lines. There are a lot of ways to do this with one way just saying that X amount of money will be used for that. It was stated that the increase in budget that the English department received last year would have only covered one-third of the telephone bill not including installation or purchasing. The current scenario is that we are looking at new money being infused into what we are doing so choices can be made about priorities.
It was stated that as we move into distance learning the telephone is going to become a more critical tool for distant students to reach faculty. In large departments many faculty members have the same telephone number and this is a situation where costing is a concern. Currently in the English Department four to six faculty and six to eight part timers and grad students share the same phone. As we enter the new system will that situation be known? There is a phone there but if you look in the directory there are twelve to fourteen people with that same number. There is also a privacy issue. Are these situations known or will it be denied because of not being aware of the situation.
It was explained that the inventory was done to maintain the costs level on the existing equipment already installed. There would be additional cost if you wanted to expand.
Lois stated that they collect and listen to requests about budgetary priorities but they are not getting people asking to get phone lines. It was suggested that maybe the Council could be helpful in getting either one time or continuing costs.
A motion was made stating that the UCT feels that individualized phone access for all faculty is a reasonable expectation at the current University and that strategic planning at the University level should insure that cost model include that. This was voted on and approved unanimously.
It was suggested at the last meeting that it would be nice if the Council would meet with the consultants regarding applications development in the UIS area and see what the computing and support needs for various groups are.
A motion was made for the Council to meet from 2:00 to 5:00 on Wednesday, May 19, 1999. This motion was voted on and unanimously approved.
Nominations were opened for the position of Chair and Vice Chair for the University Council and Technology. Nominations were made and accepted by Paul Farrell agreeing to run as Chair and Ray Craig as Vice Chair. Separate votes were held with both nominees and their positions unanimously approved.
This should be read in advance to the next meeting so the draft can become more finalized. There are a few factual things still missing and it would be useful if Council would fill them in. Feedback would be very useful regarding the uncertainty of the level of support staff for academic and less extended administrative departments in terms of adequacy and particularly labs.
One issue that has arisen is that a charge was to review the Academic Computing and Networking Information System Study so we felt it was not within our purview to make recommendations on specific issues. To some extent we will in the procedure of putting in summaries identify what we feel are more important issues but given that another committee was charged to make recommendation however observations are acceptable.
It is realized that since the reports were done six years ago things have dramatically changed. Comments, corrections, feedback or thoughts should be e-mailed to allow the subcommittee to make a good document.
Because of the time it was suggested that Old Business and the Standing Committee Reports were not discussed. It was asked if anyone had any urgent business that needed to be discussed.
Denise Zelko passed out the Ohio Four Year Public Higher Education Institutions Survey of Technology Fees, a summarization of feedback she received from the budget offices regarding the charging of technology fees.
This summarization will be put on the web page and attached to the minutes.
A motion was made and it was unanimously agreed to adjourn the meeting at 5:29 p.m.
C: President
Provost
Chief Information Officer