Network Model and Security
The residential network (ResNet) is a high-bandwidth, high-capacity Internet network designed to provide academic related resources. We connect to the California Research and Education Network, also known as CalREN. The connection is allocated by the Internet service provider CENIC. A vast majority of California schools, including universities and K-12 schools, connect to CalREN. Locally, our network is powered by high-end Cisco switches with fiber-optic backbones. All of the residence halls are 100BASE-T (meaning local network speeds of 100 Mb/s) except Cerro Vista and Poly Canyon Village, which are equipped with 1000BASE-T (meaning local network speeds of 1 Gb/s or 1000 Mb/s).
The network is equipped with two appliances that control the general flow of Internet-bound traffic. The first is Cisco Clean Access. This security application provides a means to ensure that only Cal Poly students, staff, and faculty access the network. In addition, Clean Access ensures computers are protected against the general threats of a large-scale network by ensuring users are protected via software and update requirements. Clean Access became necessary as the majority of users ignored protecting their computers. Network outages due to viruses and malware were very commonplace prior to our Clean Access implementation. More information about Clean Access can be obtained on the Cisco Clean Access page in our Information section.
The second network appliance is Procera Network's PacketLogic. This "bandwidth shaping" application ensures network access for different protocols and prioritizes traffic based on certain rules. The on-campus Internet connection is ALWAYS at 100% utilization. The system is configured to place a high priority on educational related traffic. This means that traffic not specifically being used for educational purposes might experience a slow-down. Ultimately, speeds depend on the current level of total network traffic. The more users online using different (educational or non-educational) services will impact individual users' speeds. PacketLogic makes the best-effort attempt to ensure users are able to access educational resources when network bandwidth is being heavily utilized.
Last Update: 10/6/2009
This website best viewed in Safari 4, Firefox 3 & IE 8.
Internet Explorer 6 not supported.
