Rocky Mountain Biological Lab

Networks and Services

RMBL

• A research field station established in 1928• Scientists from around the world migrate

there during the summer• Provides logistical support and infrastructure

to field scientists and students• Longest continuously studied alpine

environment in the world• Supports more than 75 scientists/researchers

and over 150 students annually

Infrastructure

• Two core data networks supporting students, researchers and staff

• Remote weather station network that continuously monitors climate in the West Elk mountains and down to Almont

Core Network

• Internet connection is a DS3 (44.736Mb/s) connection to Internet Colorado using point to point radio links

• 15 usable public IP addresses for external devices

• Core network consists of 4 wired Cisco 3560 switches

Core Topology

Wireless Network

• Initially installed during the 2012 season • 24 wireless access points (WAP) with 2 new

WAP’s on order• Originally designed as a Mesh network• Provides coverage to 35 buildings and most

areas outside• Gigantic improvement over the legacy

networks that were installed piecemeal over the past 15 years

802.11n client access point Internet Colorado’s Hardware:802.11a wireless backhaul

Wireless Topology

Weather Stations• 5 permanent stations and 6 portable stations• Each station logs up to 3 years of data in a CSV format• Central server polls each station every 15 minutes and

downloads their logs via public frequency radio network (2.4Ghz)

• Each station measures:– Temperature– Humidity– Barometric Pressure– Precipitation– Snow Depth– Wind Speed/Direction– Radiation

Snodgrass Site Selection

Judd Falls and Snodgrass

Network Management

• SpiceWorks Network Management SuiteNetworking Features:•Remote Monitoring (Alerts if an interface goes offline)•Bandwidth Usage Reports•SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol)•Monitoring or managing a group of hosts or devices on a computer network

SpiceWorks

IT Issues• Spanning tree protocol doesn’t work well with Mesh networks

– Mesh network created broadcast storms that would take down the core network every three days

• Upgraded wireless network in 2012 to give coverage to areas that weren’t previously covered (kept the old T1 1.544 Mb/s internet connection– Saw a significant increase in complaints due to slow internet connection speed

(nothing about better network connectivity)• Upgraded the internet connection in 2013

– Saw a significant increase in complaints due to connectivity problems and internet connection speed

– Consistently using the speed buffer built into our connection (ISP provides a 5Mb/s buffer bandwidth during peak hours)

• Implemented content filtering to prevent excessive use of video streaming/downloads by student during peak times– Saw a significant increase in complaints by staff and researchers due to their

inability to access sites they saw as critical• Public spectrum wireless network limits the configuration options