Experiences from the Sub-project – Basic Campus Network CN-03/2012

Dr. Kazi Muheymin-Us SakibAssociate Professor and Director

IIT, University of Dhaka

and

Alternate Sub Project ManagerBasic Campus Network Sub-Project CN-03/2012

Basic Campus Network Sub-Project CN-03/2012• Name of the University : University of Dhaka• Location/Address : Dhaka – 1000, Bangladesh• Implementation Period : January 2013 to July 2013 (6 Months) • Commencement : 1st January 2013• Completion : 31st July 2013• Sub-project Manager : Professor Dr. Md. Mahbubul Alam Joarder• Alternate Sub-project Manager :

• Associate Prof. Dr. Kazi Muheymin-Us-Sakib • Associate Prof. Dr. Md. Shariful Islam

Sub-Project CN-03/2012 – in Chronology• Award of sub-project – 15th November 2012

• Bid doc approval (NOA) – 30th September 2013

• Bid advertisement – 24th November 2013

• Pre-Bid meeting – 9th December 2013

• Bid opening – 9th January 2014

• TEC meeting – 16, 21, and 30th January 2014

• Contract Award – 20th February 2014

• Estimated Delivery – August 2014

• Technical Committee meeting – 25th November 2014

• Inauguration ceremony – 30th December 2014

Dhaka University : Past Scenario

• Dhaka University is the largest and premier university of Bangladesh• Having

• More than 30,000 students• More than 5000 staffs and researchers

• The network used to be• 60 MBps internet connectivity and 10 MBps internal connectivity• Failure prone – having 87.02% availability• No redundant connections• Legacy devices in the NOC without fault-tolerance• Not expandable

Set Goals of this Project

To address the mentioned shortfalls, this project aimed to develop a network, which –•should be up and running 24/7/365 for providing seamless services•ensures secure and reliable operation•accomplishes guaranteed Quality of Service (QoS).•implements an efficient Network Management and Monitoring system •provides high speed Internet connectivity via wired and wireless medium

Specific Objectives

• Increase network availability – redundant infrastructure and uninterrupted power supply

• Congestion free traffic flow – to accumulate the distributed heavy traffic load, network traffic distribution points should be optical

• Effective operational management – state of the art, high-speed and redundant core router, firewall and distribution switch

• Quality of Service (QoS) – bandwidth manager, web cache/filters

Specific Objectives

• Building up an optical fiber backbone to achieve satisfactory level of reliability for the campus wide network – optical redundant high-speed connectivity between PoPs

• Building applications around the network:• Digital Connectivity and Accessibility to the Educational Resources from

Departments/Halls/other entities• Enhanced communication• Establish Multidisciplinary Collaboration • Customized application for individual Departments/Institutes

Implemented/Actual Network Topology

Reister Building IIT

Curzon Hall Social Science Shamsunahar Hall

Access Switch

Distribution Switch

Core Switch

Cable Layout in Campus

Multimode

Single and Multi Mode Cable

Single mode

Logical Fiber Layout (Implemented)

Implemented Optical Fiber Backbone

Experiences/Challenges

• The project related thinking only• Defining project scope• Estimating the time• Managing the project• Maintaining the quality of work• Ready-ness of the environment

Project Related Thingking Only while Writing up• While we write a project (for the first time of it’s kind) –

• We tend to confined ourselves on that project only• We ignore the Implementation environment such as

• Logistics that we have• Electricity and electrification• Future demand• Data Center• Humidifier/Air Conditionar• etc

Defining Project Scope

• At the beginning the intention is to create something world best.• However, there are lot of hindrances that encircle your scope like –

• Allocated money• Prioritized demand• Time frame• etc

• Then what is the most optimized solution?

Estimating the Time

• Without proper experiences it is really impossible to identify –• Activities and Activity Man-hour relationship• Constraints• Dependency

• Dynamic adjustment is required

Managing the project

• Project management is a different art may not be the rocket science• You may need – a project manager (beside the SPM and ASPM) and

an accountant• EE(Double E) should be considered from the early stage

• Efficiency – at least a plan to reduce wastage• Effectiveness – at least a defined measure of impact

• All the government Universities follow hierarchy based management• So somehow needs to give ownership to all, otherwise will be difficult to

manage

Quality of Work

• Should define a benchmark for the project• Should have some inbuilt Quality Checkpoints to check the quality

while the project in progress• Measuring the quality at the end of the project is a wrong idea

• Defined testing/checking mechanism should be there• Should have a way to identify End User satisfaction

Readiness of the Environment

• We can implement a world class project, • however

• Do we have ready Human Resources to run the project• Is there any strategic plan of the entity, by which the project is alligned• Any existing operational plan• Defined roles

Experience sharing

• Planning is the key• Project management plan• Project contingency plan• Project sustainability plan• Replacing the existing legacy network is a major challenge to plan

• Team with effective and knowledgeable members

However, Opportunities that we have now• Improved connectivity among universities• Better resource sharing by the researchers in the universities• Advanced communication network for both faculties and students

that facilitates better learning and obtaining knowledge• Globalization challenge is addressed• Most importantly, we have a strong, robust backbone now, on top of

that we can now implement a lots of services

Thank You