On Campus Network Enhancements

Campus networking experts are constantly enhancing our on campus networks to improve speed and capacity needed by faculty, staff, students, and accommodate high end research needs. They are also working to enhance connections to other research and education networks to accommodate academic collaboration and improve high speed data transfer throughout the country and around the globe.

On campus enhancements often include:

Projects

ITS is consistently working on projects to maintain and enhance the network.

Current Projects

Distribution Layer Switch Upgrade
The systematic replacement of university building Distribution Layer Switches has begun in Summer 2022. A very preliminary schedule is posted on Distribution Layer Upgrade Building Status page. Scheduling will be finalized with unit leadership.

Core Network Upgrade Project
This project will increase network speeds by as much as 100 times, along with other added benefits. It will improve the resiliency of the core network to meet the network needs of the campus of tomorrow that requires more capacity and reliability.

perfSONAR Expansion Project
This project includes a fully instrumented perfSONAR deployment across the network, targeted meshes for schools/colleges, meshes for Dearborn and Flint, and multi-institutional meshes for specific research projects.

Recently Completed Projects

WiFi Upgrade Project
In June 2022, the University of Michigan successfully completed the WiFi upgrade project on its Ann Arbor and Dearborn campuses. The University of Michigan became the first university in the nation to offer WiFi 6E to our community. The project upgraded the wireless connectivity in academic, research, administrative, residence hall, and existing outdoor locations so it continues to meet the campus community’s growing demand for fast and secure connections. This upgrade not only gives our community the flexibility to work anywhere on campus with a wireless connection, but also allows the university to reduce the number of wired ports and reduce its electronic waste and carbon footprint. 

Past Network Grants

The 100 Gigabit (Gb) Innovation Project enhanced the core network capacity and increase speed between core network components and external research networks.

The University of Michigan Science DMZ was designed to optimize network performance for research applications by removing obstacles that traditional networks place on data transfer and other functions.