Mar 19th, 2008 |
The InteropNet has a lot of moving parts, but, like everyone else we
have some core components that we build around every year.
Racks (or the “PEDS”, as we call them). These are our wiring closets. They
house all the equipment, environmental monitoring, UPS and power
distribution. All on remote control.
Access Ether: This is our Out of Band access network. It is one big flat
Layer 2 broadcast domain that will get us to every device on the network.
We keep it a L2 because the last thing you want to do it trouble shot your
AE network just to fix a problem on the main network. Once everything is
connected we rarely have to leave the NOC to configure things.
Backbone: This is our fibre and copper infrastructure (or ‘Physical’).
It takes a team of electricians about 4 days to get all this installed
before move-in starts.
The NOC: The heart of our network (and, given our snack consumption, also
the stomach). From here we manage and maintain our Monitoring, Protocol
Analysis, Help Desk, and Trouble Shooting.
Wireless and VoIP: These both have their own special needs for things
like QoS, PoE or physical infrastructure. So we have dedicated teams to
manage and maintain each of these.
Well, that’s it, simply described. We make it look easy don’t we?
