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16,000 CWRU Computers Getting Gigabit Ethernet

lowlypeon writes "In a move that makes going back to college more tempting than usual, Case Western is installing fiber connections in 16,000 computers over the next year to give students a 1 gigabit per second Ethernet connection. Administrators aren't sure what anybody needs that kind of bandwidth for yet, but they are curious to see how it gets used."

2 of 445 comments (clear)

  1. Monitoring multiple Gigabit Links by slashnik · · Score: 4, Interesting

    "Administrators aren't sure what anybody needs that kind of bandwidth for yet, but they are curious to see how it gets used"

    I am interested to find out how the administrators will find out how the links are being used. What hardware/software has the power to track this level of traffic on a switched network.

    Will they be using integrated RMON2 NAM cards in the switches or possibly analysis of Netflow data from the routers.

    However they do it there will be a geat deal of data to crunch

    slashnik

  2. Case networking, the early days by Animats · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Case was into networking very early, but not too successfully. In the late 1960s, Case was briefly on the ARPANET, but became the only site to be kicked off by ARPA because their R&D project didn't produce much. An early laser link (helium-neon, in air) carried 2400 baud synchronous data for a card reader/printer across Cedar Avenue.

    Case was once famous for doing the wrong thing really well. Just as interactive computing started to work, Case developed one of the best batch operating systems of the era. This was so cost-effective that it kept Case studends on punched cards much later than other comparable schools. The entire school ran on a 1 MIPS machine, with enough free time to support a private company selling excess time to commercial users.