MKO ComNet Working Group Meeting Minutes

Joint Astronomy Center, Hilo

March 20, 1997

Present:

Minutes

  1. Infrastructure Upgrades

    2. Hawaiian Tel's contractor has completed the installation of both the fiber optic and the copper trunk cables at the summit. The fibers are left unterminated at the handholes outside of each telescope. Now it is up to the individual facilities to work out details with Hawaiian Tel on how to bring the fibers into the observatory. The contract for the architectural design of the summit utility room renovation is finalized. Once the design is done, bids will be invited for the construction work. While the utility room will not be ready for new termination equipment until this fall, Hawaiian Tel might be able to provide limited services using the new fibers with existing equipment at Hale Pohaku. Individual facilities should contact Hawaiian Tel if they have immediate needs for new service.

  2. Configurations and Selection of Network Equipment Vendor for the New DS-3s

    3. This item was not in the original agenda. The report on infrastructure upgrades triggered a lot of discussion on how to utilize the newly available bandwidth. CFHT, JAC and Keck have been talking to various vendors on configurations and equipment, while Subaru has already purchased most of their equipment. Subaru is working with some vendors to benchmark new ATM products that are of interest to the working group. Ryusuke Ogasawara has agreed to keep the group informed on progress. It was agreed that we should try to go with a single vendor in order to be able to establish some reasonable maintenance contract and better pricing. Also since ATM is new to most of us, it was agreed that we should try to share our findings and thoughts. For this purpose, the existing mailing list - mkonet @ ifa . hawaii . edu - can be used.

  3. Mainland Link

    4. Pui Hin Rhoads has contacted the campus network office to inquire about the frequent downtimes of the new mainland link since it became operational. According to campus, the downtimes are partly due to Sprint and partly due to the fact that re-wiring and reorganization of power supplies needs to be done on campus. Alan Whinery of the UH networking office has agreed to contact Sprint for better support. The work on campus is currently scheduled for March 28. Pui Hin Rhoads is now on the maintenance list of the Sprint Link and will be able to report problems to Sprint directly on weekends when nobody can be reached on campus.

  4. Future of the FDDI

    5. The MKO FDDI network currently serves three purposes:

    1. Interconnection of the summit observatories

    2. Connecting the summit observatories to Hale Pohaku

    3. Internet Access for both the observatories and base facilities

    Although the FDDI is doing a good job, interest was expressed in having MKOCN provide ATM as an alternate method of connection. This is particularly interesting for facilities that are already looking into using ATM for in-house applications. Pui Hin Rhoads will begin to look into the possibility of an ATM network connecting the observatories and Hale Pohaku.

  5. Next meeting

    6. Thursday May 22, 10:00 am at Subaru.
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Last updated December 7, 2001 by Miranda Hawarden-Ogata