Network Installation Specifications
Rhodes' network grows and expands all the time, and the work of building the network is undertaken by our in house staff and by external contractors and sub-contractors alike. To ensure that everyone who works on our network is on the same page, we have developed detailed documentation of our specifications and requirements. This is important to ensure consistency and uniformity, adherence to the campus-wide network design, and the long term maintainability of any installation.
From time to time we're asked to justify various aspects of our network installations (costs, room sizes, etc). For this reason we've chosen to make our installation specifications easily accessible on our web site (these documents are normally closed, company-confidential documents). The hope is by publishing them we foster a sense of transparency about our operations amongst the University community and other stakeholders, and impart some idea of the logistics and planning that go into ensuring a stable and reliable network platform.
Our network specifications are living documents — we frequently alter and amend them to keep abreast of changing technologies and to incorporate the lessons learnt from each project we work on. As such it is unlikely that every part of our network meets (or will ever meet) all the requirements they contain; instead these specifications reflect a point in time — any new work on our campus must comply with the current specifications, whatever they may be at the time. Over time we continuously retrofit and upgrade existing installations to better comply with these specifications.
For these reasons:
- If you're a member of the University community who needs new network point(s) installed, please contact our Help Desk who'll give you a quote and schedule the work for you. (Do not assume that because these documents are published you can contract work in isolation of the Information Technology Division — even a cursory read through them will explain why this is the case.)
- If you're a contractor who's been commissioned to do some work for us, please make sure you've received the latest copy of these specifications from us (do not assume that what is here is necessarily the most recent version).
Documents
ICT installation specifications (fibre work and network cabling)
OSPF routing design (IPv4 & IPv6)
