OVERVIEW

Faculty, students and staff rely on voice, data and video services to communicate and work on a daily basis. Network connectivity is a core component to any IT service and provides the underlying infrastructure for all voice, data and video.

Supporting the growing demand for ubiquitous Wi-Fi services on campus is paramount. In Fall 2021, over 100,000 unique devices connect to the Wi-Fi network each day. In order to improve this service, there must be continued investment in building a robust infrastructure.

Equally important is the need to continue improving the network connectivity to the world and to our research networks, resulting in faster access to applications and increased productivity.

ALIGNMENT

• With the University — Competitive Resources: UIT works with colleges and divisions to assess their network infrastructure and emerging needs to continuously improve network services, contributing to a mission-critical resource base.
• With the University — Student Success: UIT strives to ensure the students’ need for a ubiquitous and reliable Wi-Fi network is consistently met.
• With the UH System — Principles 1 and 9: UIT works with other UHS campuses through the Technology Review program, sharing best practices for design and implementation of wired and Wi-Fi networks. This supports two UHS Principles: the whole is greater than the sum of the parts, and UHS maximizes the benefit to faculty/staff of being within a system ( Appendix A ).
• With the State — Reliable & Secure Services: UH wired and Wi-Fi networks address the critical Connectivity part of this TX-DIR strategic goal.

CURRENT STATE

• Completed a 5-year roadmap to replace Meru Wi-Fi infrastructure with HPE Aruba Networks infrastructure, providing higher reliability and increasing performance by 40%.
• We continue increasing our outdoor Wi-Fi implementations. Some completed in 2021 include the TDECU Stadium, UH Sugar Land and parking lot 8A.  
• During the last 2 years, we continued supporting the UH Campus expansion by implementing network services in new buildings such as the Quads, Elgin Garage, University Gateway Garage, UH Katy and UH Sugar Land Technology.
• Sunset the legacy Cisco distribution network infrastructure and upgraded it to 10Gb HPE routers. Upgraded the access network infrastructure supporting Wi-Fi to Gigabit switches.

PATH TO SUCCESS

• Retire aging access network switches supporting security cameras and wired connectivity in academic spaces. Of about 3,500 access switches, 8% are due for upgrade.
• Upgrade network management systems and Wi-Fi monitoring tools to maintain vendor support.
• Reengineer our Wi-Fi network to continue supporting network growth brought by expansion and capital projects (e.g., College of Medicine, Law Center, Core Buildings upgrade and The HUB).

FY2022 INITIATIVES

• Implement the next-generation WLAN Architecture.
• Continue upgrading the inter- and intra-building fiber connectivity across campus buildings to improve performance reliability.
• Through UH System-level collaborations, create UHS Guidelines and Design Standards for IT Facilities in new and legacy buildings, and a program for annual inspections and remediation.
• Reengineer the Security Cameras infrastructure (network and servers) from a distributed architecture to a centralized one.