The Brown University network

Abstract

Brown University recently completed the installation of a $1.3 million, broadband communications network which ties together 130 buildings. The network backbone consists of two 300 MHz mid-split CATV systems and is run completely underground. More than 1100 terminals, computer ports and other devices in the first sixty internally wired buildings are operating on the network. The network is meeting the need for reliable communication for data and television using commercially available components and systems. Selection and design criteria, a cost analysis of different stages of implementation, initial applications and performance of the network will be described. Like many other educational, industrial and business organizations, Brown has been confronted with an ever increasing demand for computing and information services. As early as 1977, various university planning groups began to assess our future data communication requirements and to discuss possible ways of satisfying them by means of a local network. But even the most far-reaching of these early studies failed to accurately predict the growth in computing we are now experiencing, the range of devices and services which would have to be accommodated, and the cost and problems associated with continuing to rely upon the local telephone company to meet our data communication needs.