Sacramento State will be receiving a $1.4 million upgrade to its phone and Internet connections beginning early this summer.

This project is funded by the California State University Chancellor’s Office. Starting with Sac State, each CSU campus will receive infrastructure upgrades to its phone systems, campus network, and network load capabilities. The support period of the equipment, such as network switch command boxes and cables linking each classroom, office, and computer is reaching its end life and the equipment needs to be replaced to keep up with demand.

The project is scheduled to begin on May 25 with a projected completion time scheduled for the end of June. According to the Information Resources and Technology department’s website, a a list has been provided of the buildings that will be down during the summer session upgrade.

Sac State was chosen to be the first of the 23 CSU campuses to receive the upgrade, said Michel Davidoff, director of the Cyber Infrastructure Services for the chancellor’s office.

“Sacramento was relying on some of the oldest equipment in the CSU system to provide network access for its students, faculty and staff. Since the access layer network equipment was reaching its end of vendor support it was important to replace it to ensure continued network reliability for the campus,” Davidoff said.

He said the school’s moderate size made it a good fit to serve as the pilot school for Infrastructure Technology Readiness Program. Davidoff said by Sac State being the first to upgrade, other institutions can study what kinks need to be worked out in preparation for their upgrade.

“By taking lessons learned during network upgrades on one campus, like Sacramento, and then applying them to other campuses, the entire system benefits. Sacramento is playing an important role in helping to improve the access layer refresh deployments for all of the other CSU campuses’ networks,” Davidoff said.

Vice president and Chief Information Officer of the Information Resources and Technology department Larry Gilbert said with the upgrade, systems that are constantly in use will operate more efficiently.

“We are replacing and upgrading most of the network switching equipment on campus. This is the equipment that allows lab computers, wireless laptop computers, printers, and other network attached devices to communicate effectively with both the Internet and the campus network,” Gilbert said.

The network switching command box is about the size of a single standalone server. The box bundles all of the connections in an office for the network and phone connections within that office. From that box, a single line runs to a central server that connects that office and the rest of the building to offices, classrooms, labs and to the campus network and the Internet.

The project will likely go unnoticed by the campus community, Gilbert said.

“Faculty, students and staff will not notice any obvious change in their use of the campus network. Network speeds will be improved and reliability will be enhanced, which translates into more dependable network services,” Gilbert said.

He explained each building on campus will remain open during its upgrade; the only systems affected during the upgrade will be phone and network, including Internet, access from that building. The Information Resources and Technology department will have access points for the network, including Internet access, for instructors in the Library the Academic Information Resource Center for all laptops.

For those without a laptop, the Information Resources and Technology department has the Academic Information Resource Center’s computer labs, rooms 3008 and 3013, as available alternative work spaces.

The reason for the upgrade is that the system is six years old, he said and it has reached its operating life expectancy.

“The new equipment allows the campus to expand its network bandwidth as demand grows. Currently, the system is approaching capacity,” Gilbert said. “The new system will also allow us to dramatically reduce long-term network costs.”

Davidoff said having support for the hardware is key to having a network run efficiently.

“The purpose of the upgrade is to make sure that the gear running in campus networks are supported by the vendor and meets the campus networking needs for the next four to six years. CSU communities rely heavily on the networks to educate and learn each day and so it is a priority for the system to ensure they stay reliable and robust,” Davidoff said.

Gilbert explained that at least three connections for Internet, phone and network services are in every office, lab and classroom. The upgrade will eliminate at least one to two of those connection points and have just one line that will feed all three of those systems.

There will be a change in how the phone system works. All campus phones will work on the system called Voice over Internet Protocol. Federal Communications Commission defines VoIP as “technology that allows you to make voice calls using a broadband Internet connection instead of a regular (or analog) phone line.”

Gilbert said with all of the lines running through just one connection, the cost of maintain the system we be greatly reduced.

“With the phones and computers on the same network, the cost of servicing the system will go down by 25 percent. This will in turn increase long term maintenance and reduce the cost of constant maintenance over time,” Gilbert said. “Without this, what should cost just $250 million, will cost $400 million to $500 million to maintain the network in its current state.”

Davidoff said the total upgrade for the whole CSU system should take three years at a total cost of $32 million. He said the venture is labor-intensive and requires multiple hands in the upgrade.

“This is a pretty big endeavor and the campuses have allocated one to two full time employees for the duration of the project. In addition, there will be between one and five AT&T service technicians working on the project at different points in the deployment,” Davidoff said.

The overall impact of the project will not be felt or seen by those who use it to teach and learn.

“Most likely the campus community will not notice anything as the network on a campus is kind of like the plumbing or electricity. When it works well, you don’t notice it,” Davidoff said. “You only notice it when it is not working properly.”