About the Networks and Communications Program

1 The Networks & Communications Program

The Networks & Communications Program (NetComms) of the Division of Information (DoI) is responsible for delivering the University’s networking and telecommunications applications and services to research, teaching and learning, administration and outreach functions and users of the University. The service objective is for secure, reliable, needs-driven services, independent of location. There are few if any aspects of University business which are not critically dependent on networking and telecommunications and the service level expectations from the University Community are exceptionally high.

The services delivered by the NetComms Program include:

• Campus area network access for data, computational, transactional, voice, video and media-converged applications and services. (Acton & 19 remote campuses);

• The ANU Voice Service, based in IP telephony with 11,000 services at 5 sites;

• The ANU Wireless Service;

• Internet and inter-institutional access (via AARNet3);

• IP address management, DNS management and Internet Domain Name management;

• Multipoint video conferencing access;

• Carrier fixed voice interconnections services;

• Mobile telephony closed user group services for the ANU mobile fleet.

• A satellite-based TV rebroadcast service, including Video-over-IP Multicasting;

• Network security services;

• The Emergency Voice Service for Acton campus;

• Remote network access service (via a centralised VPN system);

• Telephony Help Desk and telephone moves, adds and changes;

• Traffic usage accounting and billing for incoming Internet traffic and outgoing telephony traffic;

• The ANU telephone directory service;

• Facilities management of the ANU Computer Room, Disaster recovery site, the APAC National Facility, Core Network Nodes and all University communications rooms.

Service performance is based on:

Network availabilities for Backbone, Distribution, Edge, Wireless and Voice (measured by network uptime – number of outages and time to restore).
Voice service satisfaction (measured by feedback to AskANU).
Network security incident management (measured by time to block attack and restore service throughput).
Key client satisfaction (measured by discussions with and feedback from senior IT Managers).
Service accounting accuracy and the minimisation of the cost of services.

In providing these services, NetComms runs the Integrated Communications Network (ICN). The ICN is made up of:

• ICN Backbone – 7 core switch/routers with 1 and 10 Gbps interfaces; meshed, high availability topology.

• ICN Distribution Layer – 25 Distribution Nodes; dual homed 1Gbps uplinks.

• ICN Edge Layer – 26,500 Ethernet ports at 100 Mbps or 1 Gbps, 350 Layer 2 switch stacks, 75 local broadcast domains, 150 buildings with structured Category 5 or 6 cabling, and of the order of 40,000 comms wall outlets.

• Intra-campus cabling networks of optical fibre and copper cable plant.

• ICN WAN links – 7 IP-over-Ethernet optical fibre links (at 100 Mbps or 1 Gbps), an STM-1 microwave radio link and a number of unlicensed point-to-point links, and Carrier provided MPLS, ADSL, ISDN and satellite links.

• Remote Campus Networks – MSO, SSO, NARU, ATRF, Fenner Hall, The Canberra Hospital, Calvary Hospital, ANU House, Kioloa Campus, Warramunga, NICTA and the Medical School’s remote campuses at SE NSW hospitals.

• The ANU Voice Systems – 11,000 end points at 5 sites.

• The ANU Wireless – 7 authentication and access gateways and 70+ access points.

• Video Conferencing Bridge (40 port) and multi-media management server.

• A satellite TV infrastructure and video-over-IP content Multicasting.

• Redundant 1 Gbps interconnections to AARNet3 and the Internet.

• Redundant 60 channel (6 x PRA) interconnections into the ISDN for telephony services.

Management of the ICN includes its operation and its asset management. ICN asset management responsibilities include asset maintenance, life extension of the existing asset base, centred on capacity, performance and functional upgrades within the existing asset base, and development projects to maintain the evolving service objectives and needs requirements.

2 Indicative NetComms Cost of Service

The asset value of the ICN is $21.5M. The NetComms total Asset Class budget ranges from $2.2M to $3M pa for operations and asset management, excluding “epoch” technology shifts. The most recent epoch shift was the move to IP telephony at $5.5M and the next one will be the next generation Backbone network, estimated at $6M. However, the present migration to the next generation edge switch is being funded within the rolling NetComms Asset Class budget.

The Asset Class budget includes:

· ~$1M for operations and maintenance, which includes Tier 3 & 4 support agreements for the Avaya system, the Cisco core and Enterasys distribution layer, edge layer fault replacement equipment, day-to-day materials, copper and fibre cable faults/breakage repairs, telephony support, and facilities management of the Computer Room and network node rooms;

· between $750k to $1M for asset life extension projects, which typically includes module expansion, telephone migration to IP, Core capacity upgrades within chassis design, wireless expansion and research projects, and

· between $500k and $1M for development projects, which includes, for example, the next generation switch upgrade projects and the associated fibre loop deployment and the UPS’ing of every comms cabinet.

To cover some of the cost of service NetComms applies an internal Service Charge for ICN utility by the University Community and other non-ANU entities operating from within Acton campus, which generates $2M pa from ICN user areas ($1.6M from ANU business units, $260k from Halls and the remainder from non-ANU entities).

The NetComms Program, which is a separate budget entity to the NetComms Asset Class budget, covers salaries and the staff management budget. There are currently has 13 FTEs (including 1 casual) and the Program budget for 2007 will be $1.8M.

3 NetComms Structure

The NetComms organisational structure has two focal points. One, a service focus; the other, a project focus.

The service focus is to ensure that all Netcomms services are delivered to agreed and/or target service levels. The key role in this is the ICN Service function. The project focus ensures that all NetComms projects are delivered on time, within budget and meet the specified requirements. The key role in this is the Project Management Services function.

The ICN is a converged network and, as such, must be (and is) centrally managed from a single management point. Consequently, all NetComms staff are multi-skilled and multi-tasked across all aspects of the ICN and the NetComms services. Within this structure there are key functional responsibilities vested with identified systems managers.

As well, an important strategic positioning of NetComms is that the operations and asset management of the ICN are not separated into discrete work areas with separate staff members. This means that all NetComms staff are responsible for operations, fault response, maintenance and project management activities. An ongoing consequence of this is the effective management of work priorities of every staff member. However, such complexity is far outweighed by the benefits from complete knowledge of the ICN within a single team. Therefore, the interaction between the two focal points of service delivery and project management determine the success of the Program.

Additionally, and vitally for both the sustainability of the Program and the ICN, the Advanced Communications Research function is a key component of the Program. The ANU’s strategic vision can only be effected from the right evolution of the information infrastructure. In particular, the right network infrastructure has to be in place ahead of required deployments of the other elements of the information infrastructure, and in an environment of rapidly changing service expectations. The Advanced Communications research function needs to stay sufficiently at the leading edge of technology and applications so that informed strategies are developed and technologies deployed.

The NetComms organisational structure to deliver the services, operate the ICN and manage the ICN assets is as follows:

structure

4 Area Accountabilities

4.1 ICN Service

Responsible officer – Kylie Paintain

Accountability:

to monitor that NetComms services are meeting target and/or agreed service levels and report on monthly outcomes;
to monitor ICN network status and system availabilities and report on monthly outcomes;
to initiate fault response and manage fault restoration, including allocating response tasks to NetComms staff, coordinating fault restoration activities, liaising with key customers and stakeholders;
to oversight investigations on service and network performance anomalies or degradations;
to maintain the NetComms knowledge base component of the DoI knowledge base;
to allocate within the Program any NetComms jobs logged via AskANU and ensure response times and restore times are met by NetComms staff;
to maintain a daily liaison with the AskANU help desk for ICN and NetComms service issues;
to maintain an up-to-date, relevant, informative NetComms web presence.

4.2 University Hostmaster

Responsible officer – Kylie Paintain

Accountability:

to manage the ANU’s DNS service, including currency of the authoritative database, resolving naming resolutions and ensuring name servers and secondary name servers maintain availability targets ;
to maintain the ANU’s Domain Name licences;
to maintain the ANU’s IP address allocations;
to allocate approved domain names and host names.

4.3 Project Management Services

Responsible officer – Theo Karner

Accountability:

to oversight the NetComms projects program for asset life extension and development projects, including maintaining up-to-date project plans and project management documentation for each major project, undertaking risk management assessments across the projects program, identifying resource requirements and optimising resource allocations across all major projects, and ensuring the overall projects program is meeting project milestones, and that projects are within budget, scope and specifications;
to assist in tendering, contract negotiations and contracts administration;
to prepare routine project reports for NetComms and relevant stakeholders;
to assist in asset management planning.

4.4 Network Management

ICN Network Manager – Darren Coleman

Accountability

to ensure the ICN operates to optimum performance to meet target and agreed service levels and network availabilities;
to investigate and resolve network performance anomalies and degradations;
to provide Tier 2 and Tier 3 support, diagnostics, advice and fault resolution for all ICN sub-systems, networks network applications and equipment;
to undertake network capacity planning, upgrade designs, reconfigurations and network asset management to ensure NetComms services meet and exceed the University Community user requirements;
to project manage and be part of project and tender evaluation teams undertaking ICN asset life extension and development projects;
to determine network configurations, nominate network equipment configurations, specify requirements for network connecting devices connecting to the ICN and
to determine network access and security policies for the ICN;
to undertake strategic evaluations of evolving and new technologies suitable for deployment into the ICN and to recommend life cycle upgrade strategies;
to provide a service and technical interface with AARNet, other ISPs and ICON.

ICN Network Team: Roy Meuronen, Matt Noakes

to assist the ICN Network Manager in operational, network anomaly identification, network performance degradation resolution, fault restoration, capacity planning and asset management tasks;
to project manage and be part of project and tender evaluation teams undertaking ICN asset life extension and development projects;
to manage Tier 3 and Tier 4 service providers to the ICN.

4.5 Voice services

Responsible officer – Wes Dinsmore

Accountability:

to ensure the effective and efficient operation of the Corporate and Student Voice Services to meet target and agreed service levels and voice system availabilities;
to manage the Carrier account interface and to ensure Carrier services meet contracted service levels;
to ensure AskANU call centre and ANU switchboard telephony applications and services meet target service levels;
to ensure voice mail and messaging applications and services meet target service levels;
to ensure the accuracy of the telephony billing service and telephone directory;
to effectively manage the ANU’s telephony, video conferencing and SIP numbering plans;
to project manage and be part of project and tender evaluation teams undertaking ICN asset life extension and development projects

4.6 Infrastructure Management

ICN Infrastructure Manager – Craig Shoard

Accountability

to ensure effective asset management of the ICN physical infrastructure to meet the target system availabilities for each physical infrastructure element of the ICN, including:

· ICN Optical Fibre cables

· ICON Optical Fibre links allocated to the ANU

· Structured UTP cabling

· Wireless LAN

· Microwave Radio links & DR links

· ICN WAN links and remote campus network infrastructure

· Media transceivers

· Communications cabinets, cable management systems and other plant

· Access patching.

to ensure effective systems management of the ICN physical infrastructure, including fault response, patching, and moves, adds and changes to ICN systems;
to project manage and be part of project and tender evaluation teams undertaking ICN asset life extension and development projects;
to oversight ICN infrastructure service contracts, including for cabling, microwave radio maintenance, and cabling pit, plant and conduit repairs;
to oversight ICON work orders for ANU links;
to maintain the ANU’s cabling specification and approved list of cabling contractors.

ICN Technical Support Team: Gareth Walker, Greg DeMamiel, Dave Hardwicke

to provide Tier 1 and Tier 2 support for all ICN systems and equipment on a 24 x 7 basis;
to manage service provider contractors on specific jobs;
to undertake moves, adds and changes to ICN systems, and equipment;
to be part of project and tender evaluation teams undertaking ICN asset life extension and development projects.

4.7 Facilities Management

Responsible officer – Geoff Barlow

Accountability:

to provide specialist services, including room layout management, room environmental management, electrical load management, UPS provisioning, physical access and security, and emergency generator management for, as appropriate, the central computer room, APAC National Facility, backup computer rooms, ICN nodes and dedicated ICN spaces;
to provide advice on computer room and ICN node room capacity planning and life cycle replacement;
to provide performance monitoring and fault response to UPS systems and ICN facility plant;
to manage facilities service contracts, including UPS, diesel genset, air conditioning;
to maintain leading-edge knowledge of computer room and communications facilities systems, technologies and deployments;
to undertake annual, formal network and server layer security audits;
to project manage and be part of project and tender evaluation teams undertaking ICN asset life extension and development projects.

4.8 Advanced Communications Research

Responsible officer – Andrew Howard

Accountability:

to undertake coordinated research (across the DoI) into converged and unified communications applications for research and teaching & learning activities of the University;
to undertake leading edge network research, development and design of campus area networking to meet the evolving requirements of, and major technology change-overs to, the ICN;
to provide strategic advice on the evolution and development of the University’s Information infrastructure;
to project manage and be part of project and tender evaluation teams undertaking ICN asset life extension and development projects.

Research Support Team: Theo Karner, Darren Coleman, Roy Meuronen, Gaby Hoffmann, Ben Carbery

as required, to undertake research projects and activities under the direction of the Research Manager;
as required, to assist in the deployment of new applications from the test environment into the ICN production environment.

4.9 Information Infrastructure Security

Network Security Manager – Gaby Hoffmann

Accountability:

to provide intrusion detection and protection management of the ICN, including to all campuses, at AARNet and other external interconnect points, and at internal subnet interconnect points.
to manage network security incidents for a consistent and coordinated University-wide response.
ensure Authorised User and network connecting devices maintain compliance with University Access, Security and Acceptable Use Policies, AARNet Access Policy and relevant external regulatory and legislative obligations.
to manage the ICN’s firewalling strategy, including the coordination between network layer security policy and individual business area information security policy settings.
to ensure University anti-virus and operating system security patching strategies are continuously implemented and updated across the University Community.
to work with senior IT managers in all business areas and the DoI Network Manager to plan, develop and maintain a secure University-wide Information infrastructure.
to assist with user education and security web site maintenance.
to maintain specialist and technical knowledge across the IT security sector and ensure appropriate processes and strategies are being implemented within the University.
to maintain Internet traffic management systems for accounting and billing functions.

Network Security Specialist: Ben Carbery

to provide support to the Network Security Manager;
to project manage and be part of project and tender evaluation teams undertaking ICN asset life extension and development projects.

5 Operations Objectives for 2007

The NetComms Operations objectives for 2007 is, essentially, to meet target service levels for each of the services from, and systems making up, the ICN. Activities include network operation, network performance monitoring, service change requests, fault response, planned outages, day-to-day preventative maintenance, management of Tier 3 & 4 service contracts, outsourced services, such as building cabling, Carrier, ICON and AARNet account management and support.

5.1 Service Availability targets:

1. Backbone Network = 99.999% (5min-15sec outage)

2. Corporate Voice Service = 99.999% (5min-15sec outage)

3. Student Voice Service = 99.99% (52min-33sec outage)

4. Distribution Layer = 99.99% (52min-33sec outage)

5. Edge Layer = 0.5 switch failure per 1,000 switches per year

6. Edge switch fault restore time = 4 hours (service affecting hours)

7. IP phones = 5 failure per 1,000 handsets per year

8. analogue phones = 5 failure per 1,000 handsets per year

9. distributed Voice Gateway = 99.95% (4hr-22min-48sec outage)

10. Voice Gateway fault restore time = 4 hours (service affecting hours)

11. Wireless Access Controller = 99.95% (4hr-22min-48sec outage)

12. wireless Access Points = 99.95% (4hr-22min-48sec outage)

13. wireless AP fault restore time = 4 hours (service affecting hours)

14. Internet & AARNet On Net Access = 99.99% (52min-33sec outage)

15. Carrier & ICON Interconnect = 99.90% (8hr-45min-36sec outage)

16. telephony and Internet accounting = within 1% of Carrier/ISP billing

17. Service issues escalated to Head, NetComms = nil

Service Availability = (Planned Uptime less Unplanned Downtime) divided by Planned Uptime, expressed as a percentage. Measured monthly.

Planned Uptime = [Hours for the month less (total time for planned outages)].

Unplanned Downtime = total downtime for the month that does not take place within any window of a planned outage for the month.

Service Affecting Hours = normal business hours, unless service is critical, then = 24x7.

5.2 Operations Projects for 2007

In addition, there are a number of NetComms Program projects (ie, outside the NetComms Asset Class funding) which will be undertaken. Major projects and activities include:

a. Security Audit of Operations

A major task for Q2, 2007 will be the completion of a network layer and a server layer security audit. It will cover network Layers 1, 2 & 3, enterprise servers & storage and specific applications managed by NetComms and SDS (for example, telephony application, voice support applications, voice-mail, e-mail, directory services, DNS, LDAP, authentication, etc).

The audit methodology will be based on:

IT security standards:

AS/NZS ISO/IEC 17799:2001,
AS/NZS 7799.2:2003

The Operationally Critical Threat, Asset, and Vulnerability Evaluation (OCTAVE)Methodology for undertaking the audit;
A risk management process:

PSM, Part B - Guidelines on Managing Security Risk,
Australian Standard AS/NZS 4360:2004 ‘Risk Management’,
HB 436:2004 ‘Risk Management Guidelines’, and
HB 231:2004 ‘Information Security Risk Management Guidelines’.

Project manager: Geoff Barlow

Performance Monitoring and Reporting

Project manager: Theo Karner

The objectives to be achieved by Q3, 2007 for an ICN performance monitoring service are:

to have a real-time, coordinated network performance monitoring platform for the ICN which will provide sufficient information on the status of the major network elements and communications applications, and allow operational decisions to be made based on the information provided.
to alarm network performance anomalies, service degradations, and system and major equipment faults and to flag any alarms to the relevant NetComms staff on a 24 x 7 x 365 basis for response and restoration processes within target service levels.
to provide periodic performance reporting at various levels of granularity for the different stakeholders (including customers using the ICN and Tier 3 & 4 service providers supporting the ICN) and compared against target and/or agreed service levels for different elements of the ICN.
to enable an audit trail of network performance anomalies, service degradations, and system and major equipment faults to assist both in real-time service restorations and any historical formal performance audits.
to provide input into the asset life cycle management of major elements of the ICN.

Next Generation Backbone – preliminary design

Project owners: Darren Coleman & Andrew Howard

Other Projects

As required, specific small Operational projects (not part of the NetComms Asset Class budget) will be completed in 2007, including, but not limited to:

NetComms Operational Projects	Project Managers
(list as at December 2006)
APAC Layer 2 Networking	Andrew Howard
Regional Medical Network	Craig Shoard
Access & Security Policy to the Edge	Darren Coleman
NetComms Web site redevelopment	Kylie Paintain
Baseband Media Replacement	Roy Meuronen
Eduroam	Roy Meuronen
Traffic Shaping	Roy Meuronen
Avaya API implementation	Theo Karner
AskANU Call Centre optimisation	Wes Dinsmore
G.722 & 1Gbps IP phone evaluation	Wes Dinsmore
Messaging for Halls & Colleges	Wes Dinsmore
Mobile Voice Market Test	Wes Dinsmore

5.3 Training and Development Focus for 2007

The main areas for formal training include:

Engineering based project management short course (IE Aust 2 day course)
Supervisor training
Cisco certified courses – advanced routing protocols, firewalling and VPN
Avaya refresher
Enterasys refresher – N-series and NetSight
Contract negotiation short course (IE Aust 2 day course)

In addition, the main development tool will be the knowledge transfer via the next generation switch roll out project.

6 Asset Management Objectives for 2007

6.1 ICN Life Extension & Development

As well as continuing the Switch rollout, major funded projects focus will be on Wireless enhancement, Core upgrade, IP video & SIP, and IDP implementation.

Wireless enhancement will include a major review of wireless to the IC and will include more sophisticated traffic management, detailed RF spectrum planning and campus corridors of contiguous wireless coverage. The IP video and SIP will address the convergence of collaboration technologies and mobility options.

6.2 2007 Total draft Asset Class Budget – O&M + Project

		2007 Budget
	Total NetComms Asset Class	$3,375,000

Contacting Networks & Communications
Address:	Computer and Communications Suite, Level 2, Leonard Huxley Building, [Bld 56] Mills Road, The Australian National University 0200 ACT
Telephone:	(02) 6125 9666 (08:30 - 17:00) (02) 6125 2249 (after hours)
Fax:	(02) 6125 6666
Email:	netcomms.enquiries@anu.edu.au
Website:	http://netcomms.anu.edu.au