The University has been awarded $4.8 million from the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) to develop the campus computer network to meet expanding research demands. With anticipated matching funds and other University contributions, total funding for this project will amount to almost $15 million. Although the CFI funding is targeted to research requirements for fast, reliable and secure transfer of large amounts of data, remote program execution, audio and video conferencing, and access to shared research facilities and services, the development of the campus computer network will provide significant benefits for our entire community.

The successful CFI proposal was a team effort led by Rick Bunt, Associate Vice-President, Information and Communications Technology, who is the principle investigator on the project, dubbed USR-net (the University of Saskatchewan Research Network). The other members of the proposal team were Julia Taylor, Director, Research Services, Ed Pokraka, Director, Information Technology Services, Glenn Hollinger from Information Technology Services, Dave Bocking from the Department of Computer Science, and Tony Whitworth, Vice-President, Finance and Administration. The proposal highlighted the research of a broad cross-section of high-profile users, nine of whom are co-investigators on the project. These are Derek Eager, Julita Vassileva, and Carl Gutwin from Computer Science, Katie Mitchell and Alex Moewes from Physics and Engineering Physics, Roger Pierson and Louis Delbaere from the College of Medicine, Bill Crosby from NRC/PBI, and Michael Bancroft from the CLS. Together, their research made the compelling case required for this level of funding.

Our computer network is a very significant part of the campus infrastructure, and the University has invested almost $15 million in its development since 1985. Seventeen years of development have provided us with a pervasive fibre-optic network reaching more than 40 buildings and connecting over 7,000 desktop computers and servers. Approximately 3,000 of these computers have 100 Mbps network service and 2,000 have dedicated 10 Mbps service. The remaining 2,000 have shared 10 Mbps thin-wire Ethernet network service, which delivers much less bandwidth than is required for many contemporary applications. A 1 Gbps core backbone reaches 36 of 150 network closets and 100 Mbps is provided into 81 additional closets. Connection to the Internet is provided at 12 Mbps (soon to increase to 20 Mbps), and connection to CA*Net3, Canada's research network, is provided at a rate of 1 Gbps through the Saskatchewan Research Network, SRnet. Although our network is deservedly a source of campus pride there are new requirements emerging from our research programs that cannot be met. This was the motivation for the proposal to CFI.

Planning for the USR-net project will begin immediately, coordinated by the office of the Associate Vice-President, Information and Communication Technology, in collaboration with Information Technology Services. Over a three-year time frame this very large project will bring wide-sweeping changes. All connected desktops and servers, for all academic and administrative users, will be provided a minimum 100 Mbps network service (1 Gbps where required). Older, 10 Mbps-only, computers will still be supported, but at that slower speed until the computers are upgraded or replaced. Improved service will be provided to both the Internet (100 Mbps when available) and CA*Net (up to 10 Gbps when available), and increased backbone capacity will be put in place to support much higher volumes of traffic. The project will also address technology to enable reliable operation around the clock and state-of-the-art tools for network management.

The following are the key elements of the project:

• 2,000 new service connections will be provided to researchers to meet current and future needs for network access. Although the process for allocating these connections has not been defined, the office of the Associate Vice-President, Information and Communication Technology, will administer it.
• An additional 60 high-performance servers will also be provided with gigabit connections to meet their needs. Some of these will be located in the campus computer centre, while others will be delivered to research labs across campus. An allocation process similar to that used for the additional 100 Mbps service connections will be used to allocate these new servers.
• The network backbone must be able to handle the increased aggregate traffic load from all desktops and servers, including gigabit-connected servers and research workstations. To handle this demand, a 10 Gpbs backbone will be installed to interconnect components of the network.
• As we become more dependent on the network in our research, reliability becomes an increasing concern. To provide enhanced reliability, every area of the network will be connected to the network backbone in two locations and redundant paths will be provided for all network traffic. This will reduce the impact of equipment failures and required maintenance on the network.
• To meet the needs of national and international high-speed and high-bandwidth network applications, a connection to CA*Net4 will be provided at a speed between 2.5 and 10 Gbps.

In summary, the USR-net project will benefit every user of the campus network-faculty member, staff member, or student-by improving the capacity, performance, availability, and reliability of the network, and by improving connectivity to other universities and research organizations both in Canada and abroad. It will benefit not only our research, but our teaching, our learning, and our business services as well. This is not just an IT project but a campus project of unparalleled scope and impact.