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Bright Idea
NYIT builds a cutting-edge broadband network for students and faculty.
By Joseph C. Panettieri and Robert Sherwin
Unlike many businesses and colleges, NYIT has found a way to stay far ahead of the technology curve.
Indeed, NYIT recently installed a state-of-the-art network that is expected to meet student and faculty needs through at least the next decade. The fiber-optic network is among the fastest digital pipelines on the East Coast, capable of carrying data, voice and video transmissions at speeds that were unattainable just a few years ago.
"This network represents a breathtaking infrastructure upgrade," says NYIT President Edward Guiliano. "Deploying it took very thorough planning, and it's very gratifying that we pulled it off. It's important that we live up to the Technology in our last name."
For students and faculty, the network will provide rapid access to multimedia applications, DVD-quality videoconferencing services and blazingly fast Internet connections. Moreover, the network is based on open standards like IP (Internet Protocol), which means it can evolve to support applications that have yet to be invented. "Simply stated, it's a very hot network," says John Southard, executive director of NYIT's Office of Information Technology.
NYIT's faculty can't wait to plug into the new system. Just ask Dr. Rajendra ("Raj") Tibrewala, professor of management (quantitative analysis) at NYIT. "Here's a scenario to consider," says Dr. Tibrewala. "Suppose we give a business case study to our students. Using the new infrastructure, our classroom can be videoconferenced to a Fortune 500 senior officer. The senior officer can listen to the class discussion and comment on the case study without leaving his office. With the help of this technology, we can get hard-to-reach senior officers for 30 minutes at a time."
Before the new network arrived, such a scenario wasn't possible because business executives rarely have time to personally visit a college campus, says Dr. Tibrewala.
Still, deploying the new network wasn't an overnight decision. Roughly five years ago, NYIT realized that its voice and data infrastructure wouldn't scale to meet the college's future growth. Each of NYIT's three New York-area campuses-Old Westbury, Central Islip and Manhattan-had some modern PC networks in place, but Internet bottlenecks and slow data links often led to sluggish communications. Moreover, the college's legacy phone system didn't offer modern capabilities like direct-dialing between campuses.
Strategic Plan
Eager to get ahead of the technology curve, NYIT in 1997 requested a network analysis from AT&T. Duane Albro, an executive in the telecom industry and a member of NYIT's Board of Trustees, helped the college to quickly identify potential telecom and data partners.
"At no cost to the college, a major-league team of consultants ultimately assessed our long-term needs and our options for the future," recalls Dr. Guiliano.
Several key staff members, including the Office of Information Technology's Brian Maroldo and Professor Stan Silverman (who also serves as director of NYIT's Tech-
nology-based Learning Systems), offered guidance each step of the way.
The AT&T consultants, working through Verizon (known as Bell Atlantic at the time), presented their findings to NYIT's Educational Technology Committee in 1998. The news was mixed: NYIT would soon need a new network, but deployment costs were prohibitive at the time.
Still, NYIT soon would have several major factors working in its favor. In 1999, the college refinanced its debt through a triple A-rated bond offering. The timely move-which occurred the week Dr. Guiliano took over as president-provided NYIT with ample funds at favorable terms.
Around the same time, NYIT wired selected buildings with the future in mind. "We knew where we were going, especially once we had the consultants' blueprint," says Dr. Guiliano. "We carefully planned each step toward the new network infrastructure."
Meanwhile, the dot-com boom was in full swing, and technology prices were plummeting downward as hardware companies, software companies and Internet specialists raced to corner their respective markets.
Nice View
Suddenly, NYIT found itself in the catbird seat, as broadband specialists scrambled to line up customers for their fledgling network services.
NYIT Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer, Joe Cook; Professor Silverman; Professor Tibrewala; Dr. Chellappa Kumar, associate professor of biochemistry at NYCOM as well as its Technology Chair; and a working committee of another half-dozen NYIT faculty and staff assisted with the proposal process. In particular, they lined up candidates to consider and then negotiated the best of terms for NYIT.
The bidding process took roughly seven months. NYIT in 2001 embraced a proposal from Cablevision Systems Corp., the $4.4 billion cable and Internet service provider. Cablevision won the bid process partly because the company's high-speed network stretches across Long Island and has links to Manhattan, and partly because of price, service and quality.
Cablevision's backbone network uses OC-12 (the OC stands for optical connection) and ATM (asynchronous transfer mode) technology, which can carry data, voice and video traffic at up to 622 megabits per second (Mbps). By contrast, a traditional cable-modem network typically carries traffic at less than 10 Mbps.
Cablevision broke ground on the project in late 2001. The company installed nearly 19,000 feet of fiber optics at NYIT's Old Westbury campus and roughly 15,000 feet of fiber optics at its Central Islip campus. The new wiring, which was completed in May, required trenches to interconnect every building on the Long Island campuses. (The Manhattan campus already had modern wiring in place.)
NYIT expects to activate the new high-speed network and related applications shortly before the fall semester kicks off.
Ready To Go
That's great news for NYIT's students, faculty and staff. Indeed, the new infrastructure paves the way for advanced videoconferencing systems, wireless networks and new phone systems that will ease day-to-day life at NYIT.
"NYCOM wants to do distance learning with 17 or 18 hospitals across the country," notes Al Dagro, NYIT's telecommunications project manager. "That's an incredible ambition. You need a lot of bandwidth for the type of high-end video applications they want to run." The new infrastructure, Dagro says, will meet those needs.
Dagro is a relative newcomer to NYIT. He joined the college last fall after overseeing major telecom initiatives at Northrop Grumman Corp., The New York Times Co. and St. John's University.
Dagro is among several dozen people involved in the infrastructure project. Instead of praising individual faculty and staff, Dr. Guiliano says the project was a team effort that involved NYIT's Board of Trustees, several committees, and talented faculty and staff members.
Still, several key people helped to carry the project across the finish line, including Director of Technology Margueritta Steele, Cook, Maroldo and Dagro.
In addition to managing the fiber-optic installation, Dagro had to solicit and review proposals for a new telephone system. Several major technology companies bid for the project in the spring of 2002. Avaya Inc., a recent spin-off of Lucent Technologies Inc., won the bidding process because of its reputation for delivering reliable, scalable telecom systems.
The new system, slated for gradual deployment this summer and fall, will include roughly 2,000 desktop phones, related software and a PBX (private branch exchange), which routes calls to the proper phone extensions. Dagro says the new phone system will offer advanced call-management software, new voice mail capabilities, direct dialing between campuses, and other services that improve communications while cutting NYIT's monthly telecom costs.
While Dagro focuses on NYIT's telecom needs, Brian Maroldo is the keeper of NYIT's data network. Quiet but technically astute, Maroldo spends most of his waking hours in NYIT's data center, which is located in the basement of Harry J. Schure Hall on the Old Westbury campus.
"Brian is a talented guy," says Cook, who joined NYIT in 2000. "Once I met him, I knew he was up to the challenge of deploying this new network."
On a typical day, Maroldo's desk is littered with technical documents, beta software, and a bottle of Tums, which cushion the blow as he wolfs down lunch from Wendy's.
When Maroldo manages to escape from his office, he leaves with a fully equipped utility belt that would make even Batman envious. In addition to his trusty cell phone and a beeper, Maroldo's digital survival kit includes a mini flashlight, a Swiss Army Knife, and other tools that only a geek (or a boy scout) could love.
By all accounts, Maroldo's position requires a delicate balancing act. In addition to embracing new technologies, he must play devil's advocate when NYIT adds a new wrinkle to its technology strategy. One prime example: NYIT plans to embrace wireless LANs (local area networks) in several campus locations.
Possible deployment areas include the student dormitories in Central Islip; portions of Harry J. Schure Hall and the Quad; the cafeteria in David G. Salten Hall; the study area in Wisser Memorial Library; and study areas on the Manhattan campus.
The proposed wireless networks would negate the need for costly room-to-room wiring (not to be confused with building-to-building fiber optics). Specialized antennae, installed on ceilings or walls, would allow wireless PCs and notebooks to communicate with NYIT's new fiber-optic infrastructure.
Maroldo doesn't dispute the benefits of wireless networks, but he moves forward cautiously whenever NYIT tests new devices. Tentative plans are in place to evaluate wireless networks in the Central Islip student dorms this summer, and production deployments could begin in August.
NYIT's faculty has high hopes for wireless LANs. "I'd like to see every student with a wireless laptop," says Dr. David Hogsette, associate professor of English at NYIT. "In theory, students could connect to the Internet or the NYIT learning environment from any classroom that has wireless network access. All of our classrooms could suddenly become smart classrooms."
While Maroldo focuses on present-day work, Professor Silverman continues to test emerging technologies that may extend or enhance NYIT's network infrastructure.
One prime example is the Tablet PC, which Microsoft unveiled last year. The Tablet PC offers the power of a laptop, in a design that resembles an Etch A Sketch toy.
The device has a stylus that allows users to write notes directly on the Tablet PC's display. The product also includes an embedded digital camera and optional wireless LAN connectivity. Numerous companies are expected to ship Tablet PCs later this year.
Silverman sees several potential applications for the new devices. For instance, NYIT's architecture students could take notes and digital photos as they visit buildings and various locales. Continuing this example, the notes and digital images could be uploaded wirelessly and stored on NYIT's network.
Still, it's unclear if NYIT or the broader market will embrace the Tablet PC format. Microsoft has struggled to promote pen-based computing since the late 1980s.
Welcome Back
Even if Tablet PCs don't gain traction at NYIT, students and faculty can expect some dramatic technology improvements when they return to the college in the fall.
Concludes Herbert Fox, professor of mechanical engineering at NYIT: "Our president fully understands the need to constantly update NYIT's technology and he's developed the resources to do that. Not only are we aware of the technology revolution, we're staying on top of it and constantly pushing forward."
Watch for the big push this fall.
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