Georgetown University

Chooses Fiber
for the Future

A state-of-the-art cabling solution brings Gigabit capacity to Georgetown students' desktops.

Beginning this fall, students at Georgetown University, the nation's oldest Catholic institution for higher learning, will have unprecedented access to information, thanks to the university's investment in a state-of-the-art fiber optic infrastructure. Previously, only a handful of major corporations and organizations have taken advantage of the new fiber optic technology, which is capable of high-performance computer, telecommunications, and video applications. The new system will connect students right from the desktops in their dorm rooms, and ultimately, from any administrative office or classroom on campus.

The new cabling solution will offer secure, stable, and lightning fast access to information within and outside of the university, as well as the ability to accommodate any application to come in the foreseeable future. The program will outfit all Georgetown residences first, followed by administrative offices and classrooms.

According to Rich Kogut, the installation's chief IT architect, the university's first priority was to complete the networks within the student residences, providing each and every student with optical fiber connectivity, right from their rooms. "A major objective for the project was to accommodate future upgrades, and support the more advanced interactive and multimedia applications that will be developed over the next 15 years," explains Kogut.

The choice of fiber, rather than traditional Ethernet cabling was made for several reasons, according to Kogut, including its ability to support future technologies, like advanced video and multimedia capabilities. "Fiber has sufficient bandwidth to do everything students need to do today, and in the foreseeable future," says Kogut, "the fiber we are installing will easily support gigabit applications later on without qualms about it functioning properly when we ramp up to higher speeds."

"Fiber has sufficient bandwidth to do everything students need to do today, and in the foreseeable future..."

Practical considerations also played a part in the decision. Fiber offered the team a more centralized approach, eliminating the need for placing active equipment in multiple wiring closets. That, says Kogut, translates into an important security benefit, "The ability to connect all the residence rooms to a single closet results in a system that is more stable, more secure, and easier to monitor," says Kogut. And, with dorm space at a high premium, the savings in space can mean the difference between having room for additional students or not. The project is a joint effort of Bell-Atlantic Network Integration (BANI), Siecor, Vivid Communications (a Siemon certified installer), and The Siemon Company. Bell Atlantic, the primary contractor on the project brought together all the necessary resources and key components to make this project a success. The university, which has standardized on Siemon products, will use Siemon faceplates and outlets throughout the installation. The flexibility of the Siemon system was also a primary consideration in the specification. "Siemon is an open architecture system," says Paul Skafte, of Vivid Communications, "it can be customized to integrate with other products, which was critical on this project."

Siemon's work area modules were integrated with MTRJ connectors and fiber optic cable, without concern for compatibility issues, says Skafte, "Siemon offers a very diverse product line, plus the ability to customize products if necessary," explains Skafte, "and the materials were all readily available."

All Georgetown residences are planned to be complete by this fall, when work will commence on classrooms and administrative offices. "We expect to use Siemon products with the MTRJ fiber technology as our standard cabling solution," says Kogut, "and we'll take it building by building until all the networks are complete, about three years from now."