Network Backbone Upgrade

The routers that make up the backbone and internet connections for UWM will be replaced with modern equipment. Most connections to this new equipment will be upgraded to increase bandwidth and reliability at the same time, including UWM’s primary and backup internet connections via UW SysNet.

Because of limitations of the existing hardware, this upgrade will require service interruptions while equipment is replaced.

The current network infrastructure supporting backbone routing for UWM was installed in July of 2012. Due to resource constraints, it has not been substantially upgraded since. The cost of maintaining this aging equipment, the increasing risk of failure, the risk to research data, and the growing issues of incompatibility between newer technologies and older, slower interfaces have reached a tipping point where the replacement of this hardware is critical. The hardware in place can no longer be upgraded cost effectively and is limiting research and operational progress. There is no perfect time for work that will cause large-scale interruptions, but UITS Network Engineering staff in coordination with UW SysNet have identified July 19th as the least disruptive date for this maintenance window.

The new equipment is physically in place, and testing and configuration has been completed.

During this maintenance window, UWM’s primary internet connection will be removed from the old routers, and new connections brought online on new routers. This should be the most disruptive phase of the work and is the first step because it is critical to the success of the rest of the replacement. This service interruption should only last a minute or two. Once internet connectivity is verified the rest of the core network will be moved to the new backbone. These upgrades will cover each quadrant of the Kenwood Campus, UWM Datacenters, and remote site connections. These moves will happen in parallel and will interrupt network service for affected areas while older connections are disabled and new high-speed interfaces are connected.

Every area of UWM will see some service interruption during this window. The average experience for a user or device at any location should be a loss of internet connectivity at the start of the work. During this internet-affecting phase access to and from services inside UWM’s network should be unaffected. As an example, a user may not be able to check email, but printing should work.

Immediately after the internet connection work is complete, the migration of the UWM core network to the new backbone will take place. This will cause interruptions to and from all buildings in each quad, access to and from UWM Datacenters, and access to and from off-campus sites such as the School of Freshwater Sciences or WUWM while connections are moved. Each affected area should come back to full service the moment the core is connected to the new backbone. These access interruptions should last only a minute or two as each area is migrated.

Ethernet connections will not go down, but because routing is affected services may not be reachable. Authentication to UWMWiFi may fail for several minutes while a given core node or UWM Datacenter connection is migrating. In general, individual connections will remain up, but access to services will be unstable until work is complete.

Because of the critical nature of the affected infrastructure, this window has been defined to last 8 hours in order to respond to any problems that may occur with interfaces, fiber optics, or configuration. UITS Network Engineering and UITS Network Services are working to ensure everything is prepared and staged so that the work takes the minimum amount of time and causes the least disruption to the operation of the University as possible. We are hopeful that the work can be completed within the first hour and an “all-clear” can be sounded, but the expectation should be that there could be ongoing issues throughout the entirety of the 8 hour window.