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Minutes of July 10, 2008 ITAC-NI Meeting:


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    Link to ACTION ITEMS from meeting

    AGENDA:

    1. Approve prior minutes
    2. Update on Network Edge Protection roll out in CNS Wall-Plate networks (15 minutes)
    3. CNS Wall-Plate update (15 minutes)
    4. Wireless project updates (15 minutes)
    5. Discussion on Minimum Standards for Networking across campus (15 minutes)

    CALL TO ORDER:

    This meeting was scheduled in CSE E507 at 1:00 pm on Thursday, July 10th and was made available via videoconference with live-streaming and recording for future playback. Unlike our usual practice, prior announcement was NOT made via the Net-Managers-L list. The meeting was called to order by ITAC-NI chairman, Dan Miller, Network Coordinator of CNS Network Services.

    ATTENDEES: Eighteen people attended this meeting locally. There was one attendee via Polycom videoconference but there are no records of how many may have listened into the stream via a web browser using the web interface.

    Thirteen members (or their proxy) were present: Charles Benjamin, Clint Collins, Dan Cromer, Erik Deumens, Tim Fitzpatrick, Craig Gorme, Shawn Lander, Steve Lasley, Chris Leopold, Tom Livoti, Allan West (proxy for CLAS), Dan Miller, and Handsford (Ty) Tyler.

    One member was absent (with prior apologies): Stephen Kostewicz.

    Six visitors were present as well: Avi Baumstein, Dennis Brown (via Polycom), Jeff Capehart, Todd Hester, John Madey and Dave Pokorney.


    Viewing the recording

    You may view the recording via the web at http://128.227.156.84:7734. Currently, you will need to click on the "Top-level folder" link, then the "watch" link next to the "ITAC-NI Meeting_10Jul08_12.45" item. This will likely be moved into the ITAC-NI folder shortly. Cross-platform access may not be available; on the Windows platform you will have to install the Codian codec.

    Audio archive

    An archive of audio from the meeting is available.

    1) Approve prior minutes

    No corrections or additions were offered and the minutes were approved without further comment.

    2) Update on Network Edge Protection roll out in CNS Wall-Plate networks

    2-1) User guidelines

    Todd Hester distributed a handout which included the User Guidelines for Wall-Plate Networks. Dan Miller explained that this document was provided via the Net-Managers-L on June 30th to help local administrators with the changes which the Network Edge Protection roll out will introduce. It covers the major issues which users may experience.

    2-2) Rollout changes

    Dan Cromer asked if there had been any changes since our previous discussions on the matter. Tim Fitzpatrick said that the only thing which has changed is the roll out.

    Dan Miller explained that they originally hoped for a quick and easy roll out. After looking at the details further, however, they realized that there really is a significant amount of change involved--in particular, code upgrades to many of the network devices. All the PoE switches have to be brought up to the current code level to make sure the VoIP phones continue to work even if the data port on the phone triggers a security event. There were some other code-update triggers which needed to be addressed as well.

    From past experience with the pilot project they knew they didn't want to risk problems across large sections of campus at once. Consequently, they decided to take a conservative approach and do a phased roll out. They want to begin with a small group of buildings, make sure things go successfully, and then perhaps speed up from there. They began with a scan for multiple MAC addresses per port and then tried to initially stay away from locations which had high numbers.

    One experience which suggested caution was an issue within Weimer Hall where a number of devices came up with duplicate MAC addresses. They were not sure of the source of that, but haven't seen such behavior anywhere else. Consequently they decided that port security was working as it should, but are still working with the local admin to try and figure that out. There were also reports of some hubs which had been missed and CNS is awaiting contact from the local admin to resolve that; they are going to begin where they expect the fewest problems. Geographical location was an additional consideration in planning roll out locations.

    2-3) Rollout schedule

    Dan Miller said that roll out was ready to begin this Sunday with Rinker and Psychology.

    The following week they plan to handle Building 105, the Baughman Center and several buildings out in east campus: Building 1604, Building 1605 and Building 1626. The plan is to add new buildings each and every week unless they run into unexpected problems. As confidence grows they intend to do larger and larger groups of building each week based on available man-power.

    2-4) Field test of MAC address filter capacity

    They also plan a field test at the Performing Arts Center of their MAC address filter capacity. This is to address an issue discovered with Marvell NICs which during boot-up display a single MAC address that is common across all hardware versions of that NIC. The results of that test will give us more confidence on that particular problem as well.

    2-5) Exemptions for machines with VMs?

    Allan West mentioned that a number of admins may have machines which run a number of VMs. He asked if exceptions could be requested for such cases and Dan Miller responded that such requests could be made and should not be a problem. They certainly will assume that those advanced enough to be running multiple VMs would likely be careful not to loop-up the network.

    2-6) Broadcast storm control

    The fall-back feature which is being used to prevent the worst kinds of loops--those which could affect a core router--is the storm control for broadcast traffic. They originally tried to provide storm control for unicast and multicast as well, but since applications like Ghost can utilize multicast at very high packet rates, it didn't seem feasible to keep trying to tune those numbers. Broadcast storm control should provide the ultimate loop protection they are looking for. So even where they turn off MAC address limits for specific exceptions, some loop protection will remain.

    3) CNS Wall-Plate update

    3-1) First-year status report

    3-1-1) 6,000 data ports and 1,500 VoIP phones added

    Todd Hester gave a quick status report on progress with the Wall-Plate project. The first year of the centrally-funded portion of the Wall-Plate project has just been completed. The original goal was to handle 6,000 ports based on a 30,000 campus port estimate (1/5th per year for five years). We met that goal this year putting us at 18,108 ports currently in the Wall-Plate program. VoIP deployment continued in parallel adding 1,514 phones over the past year and bringing our totals to 3,014 VoIP phones.

    3-1-2) Twenty-one buildings added

    Twenty-one building have been added: Smathers, Weimer, Performing Arts, Floyd, Frazier, Dickinson, McGuire, Powell, O'Connell, Psychology, Newins Ziegler, Criser, Reitz Union, Career Resource, Fine Arts A, Fine Arts B, Fine Arts C, Fine Arts D, Music and two new constructions including Nanoscale Research and Pugh Hall.

    3-2) Expected second-year plan of work

    3-2-1) 7,500 data ports and 5,000 VoIP phones should be added

    For the coming year we are going to up the target and hope to add 7,500 ports. This is based on more recent surveys which estimate that campus includes more like 35,000 ports. This increasing in deployment rate will be necessary to maintain the planned 5-year refresh cycle. We are also targeting 5,000 VoIP phones for the coming year; that is an aggressive goal which they believe they can obtain.

    3-2-2) Twenty-four buildings/areas should be added

    At the end of this fiscal year they should have 25,608 data ports and 8, 014 VoIP phones on Wall-Plate. The buildings scheduled so far for this year include: SW Rec Center, Student Rec Center, McCarty A, McCarty B, Particle Science, Williamson, Turlington, Rolfs, IFAS Millhopper Compound Area (12 buildings), Norman, Academic Advising, Stadium, Grinter, Material Engineering, Florida Gym, Physics, Carleton, Dauer, Yon, Entomology/Nematology, Bartram/Carr, as well as three new construction projects including the Steinbrenner Band Building, the Southwest Parking Garage and Law Advocacy.

    3-3) Project is on target

    Todd summed up by saying he believes the project is going well overall, having hit their target for the first year.

    3-4) Details of special VoIP phone pricing

    Charles Benjamin asked how long the special Coleman-UF pricing arrangement for Cisco VoIP phones would last. Tim Fitzpatrick responded that the contract is for 18 months with an additional 18 months via mutual agreement by both parties. Tim is confident that this deal will go the full three years. The 18 month checkpoint is this December. We had a quota of delivering a certain volume of business over those first 18 months and we have exceeded that. When Tim Livott mentioned that he hopes AT&T will match the 64% discount which Coleman is providing, Tim Fitzpatrick explained that the deal is with Cisco, but that Coleman has exclusive rights for the first 18 month period. We have negotiated with AT&T to include them as a reseller if and only if they confirm the same pricing discount. Tim said that this move is intended to keep Coleman "honest"; while they have been honoring the prices they have been a bit flakey on delivery.

    3-4) Porting of existing phones with move to VoIP

    Jeff Capehart asked for and received confirmation that most of the VoIP phones were on the 273- exchange. He pointed out that this only allowed for ~10,000 phones. Todd Hester replied that the 392- and 846- groups are still available; they are doing porting of numbers for people who wish to retain their old 392- or 846- numbers.

    3-5) Updating the posted schedule

    Dan Cromer pointed out that the currently posted Wall-Plate schedule had a February date. He asked if this was going to be updated and Todd Hester replied that he had been hoping to get that updated prior to today's meeting and that this would be done very soon.

    3-6) Engineering departments moved to year three

    Tim Fitzpatrick pointed out that there are not many Engineering buildings listed in year two. When Engineering was approached according to the original schedule last April-May, CNS was hoping that the college could help coordinate their various departments. That process became protracted and CNS had to look at shifting most Engineering buildings into year three. There will be a follow-up meeting with Engineering next month. Shawn Landers mentioned that things had begun to look pretty good at the last chairs meeting, so Shawn and Tim decided to discuss the matter after the meeting.

    Tim said it is very possible that they might confirm the majority of year three work within the next month and a large portion of that might indeed include Engineering departments.

    3-6) Customer focus group planned for feedback

    Tim also related that John Madey has invited about ten of their major customers to join them in a focus group planned for the end of this month. The intent is to debrief on customer satisfaction with Wall-Plate and VoIP. CNS is interested in determining if the products currently in place are doing what people need them to do. They will also be talking about Wall-Plate processes and requesting feedback on any tuning of that which may be needed. Tim is hoping for a good turnout and some useful feedback.

    4) Wireless project updates

    4-1) Wireless is a fast moving technology

    Dan Miller began by saying that wireless is a fast moving aspect of network technology and he expects that we will revisit this topic in the near future with more detail. At this time Dan wanted to provide the committee an update on where CNS was heading with their various wireless projects.

    4-2) WiSM for wireless management

    4-2-1) The WiSM project is underway

    This project is a push for wireless management to provide new features and better mobility for wireless devices. CNS is deploying all new Wall-Plate buildings into the WiSM infrastructure. They are defining the project to go through campus and get the rest of our campus APs onto the WiSM infrastructure as well.

    4-2-2) Tie-ins to Bluesocket upgrade/replacement project

    There is a very close tie-in between the WiSM project and the Bluesocket upgrade/replacement project. In that latter project CNS looked at several vendors, including Bluesocket, Cisco NAC and Bradford NAC--which is also resold by Aruba.

    The Bluesocket solution is lagging very far behind; they have lost their strategic agreement with the company which was providing their NAC functionality. While they were promising a new one, it seemed clear that they were not a viable player.

    Bradford seemed very viable, especially after they came back with two price cuts on their offer. In the end, however, it was decided that their solution was not appropriate for an enterprise of this size. One of the main deciding factors there was that their NAC solution required users to download either an executable or a .zip file which contained an executable in order to run the posture assessment. We predicted that this would not go over well with the UF user community.

    4-2-3) Cisco NAC chosen to replace Bluesocket

    Consequently CNS went with the safe choice, which was Cisco NAC; this is the same product that the HSC has chosen as well. In their first deployment over the next couple of months (hopefully prior to the Fall Term), they will provide a replacement for centralized Bluesocket authentication on our new WiSM-based access points. That new authentication method was a key component which they needed to settle quickly and they have done so. The Purchase Order went out via last year's money and deployment should begin soon. The equipment is already in the lab burning in.

    4-2-4) WiSM promises new capabilities

    There will be some locations where CNS will be able to provide wireless service deep inside other people's networks via tunneling enabled by the WiSM product. Prior to this we had to have VLAN access to get back to a Bluesocket authentication device. So, for those departments that are planning to go Wall-Plate sometime in the future, but are not there yet, we can now entertain the prospect of installing some wireless in advance of Wall-Plate. End units do have to pay the full cost for that deployment, however.

    4-3) WAP upgrade project

    CNS has a project which is defined to upgrade our older APs with left-over newer ones. There are several different ages of APs and Dan wanted to mention this as a separate life-cycle project.

    4-3-1) The Cisco Aironet 1252 Access Point has been selected as the new standard

    As discussed previously, CNS has settled on the standard of the Cisco 1252 access point which offers 802.11n capability. Though CNS is very excited about that product, it does come with its own challenges and there are a separate set of projects related to that decision.

    4-4) WAP deployment project

    One AP-related project involves quickly going over the details of deployment to make sure they are doing that in a consistent fashion--reviewing the different antennas that are available and the various other installation options. At this point they believe they will remove the requirement for AP enclosures from their standard. There have been no real problems with theft and most APs are out of sight. They may make exceptions in some cases, but it just seemed that the enclosures were more trouble and cost than they were worth.

    4-5) WAP performance and site survey project

    After the deployment project is complete CNS will begin working on a performance and site survey component of 1252s asking such questions as what is different about them and should we be deploying them in a denser mode? It seems like the standard industry-wide is for smaller and smaller cells to provide better capabilities. However, there is a cost impact there too which we have to carefully analyze to make sure we can maintain that going forward.

    4-5-1) Cost will be an issue with an effect on densities

    The price increase of the 1252s just going from the previous generation of 1242s caused a little bit of a hit. The antennas are more expensive and the APs are more expensive. So far we have managed to keep up the current deployment densities. The plan at this point is to say that it should be better than it was before. We will look at whether we can afford further improvements going forward.

    4-5-2) How is wireless funded?

    Erik Deumens asked if funding for wireless was separate from the Wall-Plate. Dan Miller responded that there is some overlap. The Wall-Plate project is currently standardized on funding one AP per wiring closet. Beyond that there is a certain basic coverage which every building should have; in many cases that involves more than one AP. The funding for those "extra" APs comes out of the centrally-funded budget for our core network rather than from the central funding for the Wall-Plate. That was largely a shift in our life-cycle replacement posture where we had been saying that we would try and go around and focus on the oldest APs first; now we are saying that our first priority is Wall-Plate to make sure all Wall-Plate installs are built at the appropriate density at no cost to the user.

    Tim Fitzpatrick reiterated that wireless was originally funded out of one-time money with the target being outdoor and common spaces. Wall-Plate originally offered a basic level of wireless within buildings for a nominal fee of something like $20/month/AP. Centrally funded Wall-Plate continues to offer basic wireless coverage within buildings at no charge to units. Sometimes this basic coverage needs to be supplemented and in those cases they tap the other wireless budget. The budget which Dan Miller has now is an attempt to put on a recurring basis the replacement of all those APs which were put out there five-to-six years ago with one-time money. That is a difficult thing to accomplish.

    Dan Miller said that they were catching up as best they can. They still have a good number of 350 model APs out there and that is something they will be looking at in the lifecycle upgrade plan--what they called a multi-year strategy for wireless technologies.

    4-5-3) What is being used for site surveys?

    Charles Benjamin asked what product CNS was using for their site surveys. Dan Miller responded that he believed they were doing that manually at this point, but in the performance and site survey project they will be looking at maximizing the usefulness of the Airwave Management Platform (AMP). CNS picked that over the Cisco product a few years back because the Cisco software was a little buggy and at that point they weren't 100% sure they were going to stay with Cisco APs going forward. That product shows a lot of promise and we need to test it out and make sure it works well. Currently it is a manual process; you take a couple of APs out there and have a person walk around positioning them and measuring the results--better than a best guess. Dan is sure the wireless engineers could provide a better answer for Charles, but that is the best answer Dan could offer at this time.

    Tom Livoti mentioned that HealthNet uses Air Magnet. Dan Miller responded that CNS also has and uses Air Magnet. Tom added that it includes a spectrum analyzer which is useful for locating sources of interference such as microwave ovens, Bluetooth devices or cordless phones.

    4-5-4) Adding 802.11a

    Dan Miller mentioned that they had been considering whether or not to turn on the "a" radios which operate in the 5 GHz range. They had been shying away from 802.11a saying that we don't really have the funding necessary to create the dense AP deployment necessary to make good use of that. [The higher frequencies used do not penetrate as well through walls and other obstructions.] Now that we are looking at deploying higher densities CNS is reconsidering turning that on. They are looking at the PoE implications of doing that and may have to go to a slightly more expensive switch, but they are not shying away from the use of power injectors in deploying "a" radios going forward in the 1252 model.

    Erik wondered if having 802.11a active in some locations and not others might be a problem and cause some user confusion. Dan Miller said that consistency is an issue, but they felt they needed to get on-board with the higher-speed technology because more devices are shipping now with multi-radio capable NICs. They will be focusing on the higher density areas of campus first, but Dan suspects that most "a" radio capable devices will also have "b" radio capability built-in.

    4-6) VoFi (Voice over WiFi)

    Voice over WiFi has proved a very interesting subject and CNS has some customers who really want this feature. John Madey noted that this is usually for special-use applications such as in libraries or for local administrators to be able to walk around and maintain telephone access over the WiFi network as opposed to using their cell phone. Dan Miller said there are certainly some challenges to overcome with regards to reliability and in setting user expectations.

    4-6-1) VoFi deployment project

    CNS has a current project where they are standardizing how they would deploy VoFi in the field. They are limiting such deployment to buildings that are 100% WiSM capable--meaning that they have better mobility between the APs. One of the standards with the WiSM project is the decision to not mix WiSM and non-WiSM APs within a building; to do that would negate the benefits of the centralized wireless management platform. So, we have these very expensive (discounted to $595) VoFi phones, the Cisco 7921. Some customers want them and CNS intends to engage those customers and deploy these where it makes sense.

    4-6-2) Density is an issue

    Tom Livoti mentioned that there is a density issue as well; the current APs will handle only about six VoFi phones. Dan Miller added that a busy data population would affect VoFi reliability as well.

    4-6-3) Why not just use cell phones

    Erik Deumens asked why people would want VoFi rather than simply using cell phones. Dan Miller responded that there were a number of rationales. For one you are saving cell phone minutes. Also cell phone coverage might be weak or irregular in certain areas. Having a single phone number is likely the biggest attraction, however; these can be tied to your desktop phone for example.

    Tom Livoti mentioned that the physical therapists at the Orthopedic Institute use VoFi because it allows them to answer their desk phones when out with patients. The other workaround is to use a regular cordless phone and attach an Analog Telephone Adapter (ATA) to it. Dan Miller mentioned that cordless phones were not necessarily the best choice as they hold the potential for interference with the rest of your wireless infrastructure--so that is not such a forward-looking answer either.

    4-7) Thus CNS has a number of projects related to our wireless network

    Dan Miller summarized that CNS is in the middle of various projects looking to see if what we are doing currently make sense as well as looking at future improvements. The end results might include any number of other enhancements, including such things as dual-mode cell phones which have VoFi capability in-built.

    4-8) Wireless at the HSC

    4-8-1) All APs at HSC now on WiSM

    Tom Livoti reported that they have converted all their APs to WiSM. They have had to expand the number of controllers for that recently due to overload. The documentation talks about needing to balance those, as an overload can in some instances cause the device to spontaneously reboot. Tom said there are many little caveats that one doesn't find until digging deeply into the matter, but reported that things are a lot easier overall now though. When they lose power or for some reason an AP doesn't respond, they receive notification right away and know where the problem is.

    4-8-2) Setting user expectations for wireless

    They have used VoIP wireless, but they want to control user expectations regarding wireless. They have always said it is a "best effort" network. There are too many variables for users to depend on wireless for critical connectivity. With the advent of 802.11n and MIMO they are alleging 600MB though Tom believes it may actually prove to be less than half that. HealthNet has two of those APs which they are going to begin experimenting with over the next few weeks.

    4-8-3) WCS used for wireless management

    HealthNet uses Cisco's Wireless Control System (WCS) as their management tool; that includes a nice tool for assessing the wireless VoIP readiness of your network. They have played with that a bit, but every time it tells them they don't have adequate coverage for wireless VoIP. You can also create "heatmaps" with that tool in order to provide some idea of the network coverage area attributed to various APs. They are yet to move to version 5.0 of WCS because it currently seems to break more things than it fixes. HealthNet is also working with security with the use of Cisco NAC access.

    4-8-4) Use of NAC at the HSC

    Avi Baumstein talked a bit about their planned use of Wireless Authentication and Network Access Control at HSC. He reported that they are using Cisco NAC, have turned that on with two new SSIDs, and are moving off the old MAC address authentication SSIDs. One of the new SSIDs (hnet-public) is for open wireless using a web portal with GatorLink authentication. It can do end-point posture assessment via either a web-based agent or with a downloadable installable agent. The second new SSID (hnet-secure) uses 802.1x. This is for wireless access by managed laptops with the idea of controlling a little better who is using that network. It provides single sign-on for those using machines joined to UFAD. This arose out of the desire of the IT community to be able to do things like apply GPOs to managed laptops over wireless.

    The NAC agent only runs on Windows machines, so only those machines are being posture assessed. After logon, one is presented an "Accept" button that launches the NAC web agent. Currently they are checking to see that Windows Automatic Update is turned on and that the machine has the current patch set from Microsoft and has anti-virus installed with current patches. There is also another role with disallows Windows 95/98/ME.

    Dan Miller asked about what is done for machines which do not pass the posture assessment. Avi responded that at the moment they only receive a warning. Eventually the idea will be that the client will be redirected to an area which provides tutorials along with instructions and tools needed to become compliant. There are some technical details remaining before that plan can actually be implemented. Although automatic remediation is one capability of the NAC product, they really don't want to go there.

    They are also set up for temporary Gatorlink accounts. People logging onto the wireless network with such accounts have somewhat more restricted access. Eventually those accounts will just get basic Internet access, once all the details are in place. They are moving toward a VLAN solution where multiple VLANS are available throughout the network, each one providing a different level of access.

    4-9) Wireless at DHNet

    Charles Benjamin said that there haven't been any recent changes in wireless at DHNet. The bottom line is that they really don't have much wireless implemented. They provide Ethernet to every pillow, but they do have wireless in the common areas. Individuals are not allowed to operate their own wireless APs or routers with the exception of Diamond Village. They do use 802.1x and the solution they have found for that is Ignition AutoConnect from idEngines. This provides what is essentially a wizard that walks the client through configuring the supplicant. Ben mentioned that this has fixed all their Vista issues. It also scans for P2P. The supplicant is supplied via CD and is also available on a website.

    4-10) CNS will be taking a similar path with NAC as HSC is doing

    Dan Miller said that CNS feels confident moving ahead with deploying NAC as an authentication agent for WiSM; even so, they are going to proceed carefully. After that they have to make some network changes in order to replace the Bluesocket authentication devices for wired ports. That is a slightly different beast from wireless, but they do have some plans there. A bit further down-the-road they will be consulting with Kathy Bergsma's team on the actual NAC functionality. Her group will be leading that effort in much the same way that Avi and his group are leading the NAC deployment within HSC.

    5) Discussion on Minimum Standards for Networking across campus

    5-1) How can we provide more seamless access to students, staff and faculty?

    Dan Miller introduced this matter saying we are currently at the wide-open discussion stage and then asked for further comments on direction. Dan wasn't clear if our focus was to be on the clients, on the service providers or both.

    5-2) The development of UF-wide minimum network standards

    Ty stated that senior administration had initiated an ad hoc group to meet and that they were charged with creating a document that lists the minimum levels of network services which can be expected anywhere on campus. This recognizes that some areas of the university might provide higher levels of network service.

    Tim Fitzpatrick added that it was recognized at the highest levels that UF has multiple networks on campus and that they all have pretty high standards, but what they deliver is not identical. Occasionally, when some faculty and staff move from one area to another the network connectivity changes. It would be useful to know the differences and it might be useful to talk about best practices.

    What came out of that meeting is we who are in networking ought to begin thinking and talking about this. Dan Miller's charge today was to begin talking about it, but Tim did not have a clear action item in that regard. It's a matter of whether we are interested in identifying topics and methodologies which we might wish to discuss. Then we must ask ourselves if we are interested in documenting our similarities and differences for those selected topics.

    Tim's thought was that we shouldn't make a big deal out of this, but it never hurts to compare how different groups handle various aspects.

    5-3) High-end special cases precipitated this discussion

    Dave Pokorney, who also attended that meeting, stated something else he took away from that meeting. In all our various environments we are always going to come across somebody who is going to want something that is well above what is generally being offered. Consequently, we need to be in touch and in tune with researchers starting with their pre-proposal development stages through development, award and implementation. That is one of the key issues which sparked this topic.

    Tim agreed that the high-end special cases are what precipitated the meeting and the issue of minimum standards and common user experience across campus arose as a byproduct of that discussion.

    Ty responded that he guessed a lot of this really is a communication issue. We have people saying you can't do certain things at certain locations. Craig Gorme stated that it is important to have universal minimum standards across UF. This is something which HealthNet already has been trying to do across those locations for which they are responsible. If you walk into a building you should expect certain service levels and if you are not getting it somebody needs to step up and see what the issue is. These service levels could be applied to equipment that is up to five years old because of our refresh cycle and the fact that you always have to fall back to the least common denominator, but that should be the minimum level which people should expect.

    5-4) A minimal standards document should be available in order to set end-user expectations

    Craig stated that he believes we should be able to define a level of performance based on our five-year replacement cycles. Chris Leopold, however, questioned whether we yet have the consistency in place to do that. Ty responded that this standard would have to be applied to Wall-Plate installations; it couldn't be applied for all the "do it yourself" folks out there. Tim said that the idea of HealthNet and the CNS Wall-Plate having standards as service providers, however, certainly makes sense. Tim thinks it is useful for HealthNet and CNS to occasionally compare notes across our various standards to see if there is some best practice or something we can learn from each other.

    5-5) We might also consider developing a target document for long-term network planning

    Erik suggested as a compliment to this that we might consider preparing a document as well that wouldn't necessarily describe the current situation, but would provide a target for long-term evolutionary planning.

    5-6) List of topics to be developed

    Tim suggested that HealthNet and the CNS Wall-Plate each prepare a list of topics with several associated bullet items that they feel might be useful to document. Ty suggested that they proceed along those lines, but first agree on the topics. It was agreed that they would proceed accordingly to draw-up an outline of what topics should be addressed. Tim asked Todd Hester if he would be willing to be the point person on that for CNS and Todd agreed. Tim said that the topics of interest to CNS are the things they are deploying now with Wall-Plate such as switches, APs, PoE, certain types of telephone handsets, etc. CNS and HSC would thus compare notes and bring back something to the committee for next time.

    Action Items

    1. Subscribe Dan Miller, ITAC-NI chair, to all other ITAC committee lists for collaboration purposes (pending from previous meeting).
    2. Update our official membership list.

    Next Meeting

    The next regular meeting is tentatively scheduled for Thursday, August 14th.

last edited 11 September 2008 by Steve Lasley