NETS staffers Bryan Anderson and Jeff Custard inspect the newly installed Proxim microwave antenna assembly on the roof of NCAR's Foothills Lab Building 3.

Rick Mumford (top), Del Harris, and Jim Van Dyke of NETS install a conduit as part of the microwave antenna assembly on the roof of NCAR's Mesa Lab.

Photos: Del Harris and Jeff Custard, NCAR/SCD

SCD provides wireless backup for UCAR fiber network

SCD's Network Engineering and Telecommunications Section (NETS) has just activated a wireless network link between UCAR's Mesa and Foothills campuses to protect the organization from cuts to fiberoptic cable between the sites.

The Mesa and Foothills laboratories are connected by the fiber lines of the Boulder Research and Administrative Network (BRAN), which carries network traffic between the two facilities at an aggregate rate of two gigabits per second. This traffic includes phone service, email, Internet access, videoconferencing, and job submissions to SCD-supported supercomputers and the Mass Storage System.

The BRAN fiber infrastructure is normally stable and reliable. However, unusual activities such as roadwork, excavations, or construction projects could potentially cut or disrupt the cable, bringing the entire UCAR network down.

The new Proxim Tsunami 480 wireless link protects against such an eventuality. Two microwave antennas, one at the Mesa Lab, the other at Foothills, broadcast and receive network transmissions at a total rate of nearly one gigabit per second across a distance of four miles. The wireless system ensures that if the land lines between the Mesa and Foothills campuses are ever cut, UCAR will have a backup data link to take over.

Over a period of several weeks, NETS staff configured, installed, and tested the Proxim equipment on the roof of the Mesa Lab and Foothills Lab Building 3, bringing up the system on 10 June 2004. NETS network engineers Jeff Custard and David Mitchell integrated the network software, while Bryan Anderson and Dell Harris handled most of the hardware installation.

The Proxim equipment was initially purchased in 2002 to provide wireless network capability to Center Green before that facility was wired for fiber. After eventually connecting Center Green to BRAN, NETS installed a small "TeraBeam" wireless link between Center Green and Foothills to ensure that any damage to the fiber between the two facilities would not disrupt network activities between them.

With wireless now operative between Foothills and the Mesa, all UCAR is now protected by wireless backup.