Bandwidth triples, Internet speeds up

By Gina Belmonte

With the increase in bandwidth initiated this quarter, students in professor James Lai's classes can now benefit from the relevant YouTube clips he uses in the classroom.

'»¿"Before, it would take literally twenty minutes to load five minutes of clip," the ethnic studies professor said. "Now I just click it and it will load simultaneously. It makes a huge difference."

The university increased its Internet bandwidth threefold from 145 megabits per second to 500. The switch took place Dec. 17, during winter break.

The plan to increase bandwidth originated between late winter and early spring of last year, said Ron Danielson, vice provost for information services and chief information officer.

After months of researching providers, assessing needs and negotiating costs, the university settled with Verizon as the sole Internet provider. Before, the school received 45 mps from AT&T and 100 mps from Verizon.

Because of these changes, the university will save a few thousand dollars, Danielson said. He refused to give specific amounts because such numbers are protected under a university contract.

"Faster Internet became a must during the fall when it became painfully obvious that demand far exceeded the capacity available," said Danielson.

The Department of Information Technology received mass amounts of complaints from faculty and students last fall about the quality of streaming video, particularly Web sites like YouTube, said Carl Fussell, director of IT.

This quarter, the complaints have subsided. For the most part, students and professors have noticed an increase in streaming speed.

Sally Lehrman, a communication professor, said she used to load video clips in advance, and even then it wouldn't always help. But now she has no worries.

"'»¿I have had no problem so far. I think it's great since it's so essential to classroom teaching," she said.

Besides faster uploading of videos, Francis Jang, a computer engineering major, said he noticed speedier downloading of attachments from e-mails or the Internet in general.

The consensus among students is that the Internet has gotten faster since last quarter, said Jang, who is also a community facilitator in the Unity Residential Learning Community.

Regular browsing and Internet searches have remained the same for the most part. The only way you'd be able to judge the bandwidth increase is viewing mostly videos or streaming music,'»¿ said Jang.

Sophomore Sharks fan Jake Frediani said he also appreciates the improvement. '»¿"It was hard to see my hockey highlights," he said. "It's still a little hard to stream my Sharks games, but I could deal with the way it is right now."

There is still some fine tuning to be done with the bandwidth allocation in terms of prioritizing categories of Internet use, said Fussell.

Video conferencing, voice over Internet Protocol telephony and YouTube video clips (as opposed to other video sites, which may be used for more entertainment purposes) will have their traffic prioritized, said Danielson in a campuswide e-mail.

The prioritization of categories is expected to be completed in a matter of one to two weeks, said Fussell.

The new deal also includes an alternate physical route for the connection from the university to Verizon in the event that the connectors are dug up and damaged by construction projects, which would knock out access.

Contact Gina Belmonte at (408) 554-4546 or gbelmonte@scu.edu.