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Rocky Mountain Biological Lab. Networks and Services. RMBL. A research field station established in 1928 Scientists from around the world migrate there during the summer Provides logistical support and infrastructure to field scientists and students
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Rocky Mountain Biological Lab Networks and Services
RMBL • A research field station established in 1928 • Scientists from around the world migrate there during the summer • Provides logistical support and infrastructure to field scientists and students • Longest continuously studied alpine environment in the world • Supports more than 75 scientists/researchers and over 150 students annually
Infrastructure • Two core data networks supporting students, researchers and staff • Remote weather station network that continuously monitors climate in the West Elk mountains and down to Almont
Core Network • Internet connection is a DS3 (44.736Mb/s) connection to Internet Colorado using point to point radio links • 15 usable public IP addresses for external devices • Core network consists of 4 wired Cisco 3560 switches
Wireless Network • Initially installed during the 2012 season • 24 wireless access points (WAP) with 2 new WAP’s on order • Originally designed as a Mesh network • Provides coverage to 35 buildings and most areas outside • Gigantic improvement over the legacy networks that were installed piecemeal over the past 15 years
802.11a wireless backhaul Internet Colorado’s Hardware: 802.11n client access point
Weather Stations • 5 permanent stations and 6 portable stations • Each station logs up to 3 years of data in a CSV format • Central server polls each station every 15 minutes and downloads their logs via public frequency radio network (2.4Ghz) • Each station measures: • Temperature • Humidity • Barometric Pressure • Precipitation • Snow Depth • Wind Speed/Direction • Radiation
Network Management • SpiceWorks Network Management Suite • Networking Features: • Remote Monitoring (Alerts if an interface goes offline) • Bandwidth Usage Reports • SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) • Monitoring or managing a group of hosts or devices on a computer network
IT Issues • Spanning tree protocol doesn’t work well with Mesh networks • Mesh network created broadcast storms that would take down the core network every three days • Upgraded wireless network in 2012 to give coverage to areas that weren’t previously covered (kept the old T1 1.544 Mb/s internet connection • Saw a significant increase in complaints due to slow internet connection speed (nothing about better network connectivity) • Upgraded the internet connection in 2013 • Saw a significant increase in complaints due to connectivity problems and internet connection speed • Consistently using the speed buffer built into our connection (ISP provides a 5Mb/s buffer bandwidth during peak hours) • Implemented content filtering to prevent excessive use of video streaming/downloads by student during peak times • Saw a significant increase in complaints by staff and researchers due to their inability to access sites they saw as critical • Public spectrum wireless network limits the configuration options