Twelve years on, now that ResNet is "complete", here's the original motivation that frightened the university into realising it would not be able to afford to do it.
At this point, ResNet became a good idea rather than anything feasible.
Proposal for networking residences at Rhodes University 1994/10/18
-------------------------------------------------------
Prepared by F. Jacot Guillarmod and J. Stevens, Computing Services
This document outlines a preliminary estimate of the costs of providing
high speed network connections to all the residences at Rhodes. The
figures and calculations are necessarily approximate at this stage, but
give a reasonable feel for what such an exercise would cost.
There are some implicit assumptions - namely that the proposed upgrade
of the central campus backbone to academic departments and research
institutes has taken place, and that connecting the residences would
complement it to provide near complete network wiring of the entire
campus... something quite remarkable in any context.
However, there remains the problem of how to deal equitably with
students who do not live in residence. The University will have to
take a decision as to whether or not such students are being
disadvantaged, and whether it has an obligation to providing equal
network access. One solution could be to provide dialup SLIP access
via a reasonably large modem pool. The expense would not be large, but
the details of this exercise have not been investigated in depth.
Basic premises
--------------
There are 40 separate residence buildings at Rhodes - including the
Union as a sop to the oppidan community, averaging about 50 rooms per
building. This means that 2000 connection points have to be provided.
It is highly unlikely that 2000 workstations will ever be connected at
the same time, but it should be possible to be able to connect a PC in
any room of any residence to the campus backbone. This will be
referred to as "Option 1".
Another possibility is to provide network connections to a cluster of
terminals situated in say, a residence common room. This will be
referred to as "Option 2".
In both cases, the central backbone infrastructure will need an
additional upgrade, and the costs of this upgrade are independent of
the actual wiring strategies followed within the residences.
Finally, as an intermediate measure, the cost of establishing a "remote"
terminal room has been included to give some perspective on short term
possibilities.
Because of the increased number of connection points, it is essential
that the SNMP based network management be upgraded from the present DOS
based platform to a Unix based system of some sort. Effective network
management will become increasingly important as the network size
increases.
In addition, there are implications as regards configuration management
of such a large network - the registration of ethernet card numbers and
the allocation of IP network numbers on a fluctuating, irregular basis
- that may necessitate major changes in the way these administrative
tasks are presently handled.
Note that this proposal does not cover the costs of the PC's, or
associated ethernet cards that would be connected to the network.
In fact, by assuming that students can and will provide their own PC's
for connection to the network could result in unexpected savings in
providing central resources.
Costs of backbone infrastructure
--------------------------------
By looking at maps of the campus, it appears that the residences are
clustered in groups around the dining halls. The idea is to provide a
long haul fibre-optic link from the central campus (the computing
centre) to each of these dining halls, and to sub distribute fairly
short runs of fibre to the individual residences. There are
approximately ten such areas on campus, each associated with about four
residences. The hardware outlined below will provide 100 megabit
switched connections from the computer room to each "centre", and 10
megabit switched connections into each residence. There will be spare
capacity on the hubs to allow network connections in the dining hall
areas if this was required. Note that it might be possible to use this
fibre infrastructure for power control and PABX telephone distribution.
Fibre costs
10 x 1000m @ R14/metre (10 kilometres) R 140 000-00
40 x 200m @ R14/metre ( 8 kilometres) R 112 000-00
20 x "long" splice boxes @ R500 R 10 000-00
80 x "short" splice boxes @ R250 R 20 000-00
100 x terminated fly leads @ R170 R 17 000-00
Total R 299 000-00
Trenching and piping costs
18 000 metres piping + manholes @ R30/m R 540 000-00
18 000 metres labour @ R14/metre R 252 000-00
Total R 792 000-00
Fibre concentrators
10 x 10 mbit fibre hubs @ R40 000 R 400 000-00
3 x Central 100 mbit fibre hubs @ R60 000 R 180 000-00
Total R 580 000-00
Upgraded SNMP management station
Appropriate hardware and software R 150 000-00
Total R 150 000-00
Total for backbone infrastructure R 1 821 000-00
Note that the total distances are worst case. It may well be possible
to save considerably on the trenching and piping by making use of
existing piping runs, or somehow getting access to the Telkom ducting
system. It may also prove possible to save on some of the long fibre
runs by sharing some of the multiple pairs within the cables, but this
would depend on whether it was required that the PABX system be
accomodated. Another possibility would be to use some method for
stringing the cable aerially between suitable posts in "difficult"
areas. All these permutations could dramatically decrease the costs of
distributing fibre.
Another factor to be considered is that an equipment supplier might be
so overcome on seeing such a bulk order that interesting discounts might
be forthcoming.
Cost of wiring up a residence, Option 1
---------------------------------------
This assumes wiring up a connection point in each room of a 50 room
residence and providing a 16 port hub + 50 way patch panel that connects
onto the fibre infrastructure. Because it would be desirable to have
this installation carried out in a finite time, external contractor
costs have been included. Note that additional 16 port hubs can be
provided for approximately R 6 000-00, at no additional labour or wiring
costs.
1 x 16 port manageable hub + patch panel R 20 000-00
UTP Cat 5 wiring + plugs + terminators R 30 000-00
Conduit + face plates R 40 000-00
Contractor R 20 000-00
Sub-total R 110 000-00
Total for 40 residences R 4 400 000-00
Cost of wiring up a residence, Option 2
---------------------------------------
This assumes wiring of a limited number of connections in a common room.
The security and responsibility aspects of such a scenario have been
ignored.
1 x 16 port manageable hub + patch panel R 15 000-00
UTP Cat 5 wiring + plugs + terminators R 10 000-00
Conduit + face plates + desks etc R 7 000-00
Contractor R 5 000-00
Sub-total R 37 000-00
Total for 40 residences R 1 480 000-00
Cost of wiring up a "remote" terminal room
------------------------------------------
As an interim measure, it may prove quite useful to set up a terminal
room or PC Laboratory in some area, or areas, of campus. Without a
detailed proposal of the exact location or size of such an area, a
specimen calculation of a cluster of 48 terminals in Kimberley Hall has
been drawn up to provide a worst case to compare against.
There is some uncertainty as to the context in which this wiring
exercise would take place... i.e. if it forms the first phase of a
later expansion into neighbouring residences, it would need to be
"over-engineered". If, however, no further expansions were planned, it
could be trimmed down considerably.
The numbers that follow assume that further expansion will take place.
If no further expansion is required, the cost of the two fibre hubs can
be subtracted. Similarly, if the proposed terminal room is to be sited
somewhat closer to the central campus, the costs of installing fibre
optic cable will drop accordingly.
Again, it may be possible to reduce the costs of piping and trenching
by sharing facilities with work that may already have taken place.
Note that this estimate assumes that the proposed upgrade to the
central campus backbone has taken place. (i.e. the connection of
academic departments and research institutes).
The costs of workstations and ethernet cards has not been included.
Fibre costs
1 x 1200m @ R14/metre (1.2 kilometres) R 16 800-00
2 x "long" splice boxes @ R500 R 1 000-00
2 x "short" splice boxes @ R250 R 500-00
4 x terminated fly leads @ R170 R 680-00
Total R 18 980-00
Trenching and piping costs
1200 metres piping + manholes @ R30/m R 36 000-00
1200 metres labour @ R14/metre R 16 800-00
Total R 52 800-00
Fibre concentrators
1 x 10 mbit fibre hubs @ R40 000 R 40 000-00
1 x Central 100 mbit fibre hubs @ R60 000 R 60 000-00
Total R 100 000-00
Terminal room cabling for 48 work stations
3 x 16 port manageable hub + patch panel R 30 000-00
UTP Cat 5 wiring + plugs + terminators R 15 000-00
Conduit + face plates + desks etc R 10 000-00
Contractor R 5 000-00
Total R 60 000-00
Total for remote terminal room R 231 780-00
Summary of costs
----------------
40 residences, fully wired R 6 221 000-00
40 residences, partially wired R 3 301 000-00
Expandable "remote" terminal laboratory R 231 780-00
Low cost "remote" terminal laboratory R 131 780-00
The bulk of the costs are because of the structural alterations that
will need to be made within the individual residences, and because of
the relatively large distances that need to be covered using fibre.