The purpose of this document is to define a common set of standards that will guide the
staffs of UCSB campus departments and their contractors in the installation,
maintenance, and upgrading of communications wiring. A commonly defined set of standards
is necessary considering the key role that communications networks will have in the future
of the University of California, and in all universities and colleges. The standards
proposed herein apply to all forms of electronic communications, including voice, data,
and video.
On the UCSB campus, standards for wiring and communications have developed as a result of
external agents (the telephone company), the administrative departments (Communications
Services and the Computer Center), and by initiatives of individual departments with
research and instructional interests in communications (Electrical Engineering, Geography,
etc.). Each of these agencies developed standards appropriate to the resources and goals
of their organizations. For a number of years, the organizations operated independently
with minimal need for inter-connections. The development of campus-wide interests in
computing, shared applications, data storage, CPU cycles, and communications caused the
issue of inter-connectivity to rise in interest and necessity.
In recent years, the need for data communications in all departments has given impetus to
specialists within departments who could design and build communications networks to meet
their needs. Continued experience coupled with the development of lower cost national
standards and equipment, and a low-cost pool of student labor, has resulted in multiple
agencies on campus having the tools or resources necessary to provide communications
wiring.
Over the last two years, Communications Services has worked with several of these agencies
to share experience, tools, and space in order to meet campus needs for departmental
network communications. College-wide implementation of networks occurs in the College of
Engineering and the College of Letters and Science, and the expertise within these groups
is often available to smaller departments to meet their needs.
The combination of multiple wiring configurations and many varied network providers has
made necessary the development of common standards. As the campus looks towards a common
communications network to meet its programmatic needs in the present and future, the
agencies responsible for wiring and local networking recognize the need to build a wired
and networked environment that serves all campus users in common. It is particularly
important to recognize that as departments expand or shrink, and are physically re-located
on the campus, assurance must be provided that the same communications utility will be
available wherever they are located.
The informal and formal agreements reached by multiple campus groups in providing networks
for individual departments must now be replaced by binding standards that ensure that the
campus resources are used efficiently and work towards meeting the campus goals and
objectives. Concurrent with departmental movement towards campus standards, national
committees have completed work on such documents as the EIA/TIA-568 Commercial Building
Telecommunications Wiring Standard, which can be used as the basis for a campus standard.
In June of 1997, a campus sub-committee reviewed this standards document and made
recommendations for multiple changes. During the subsequent years, many of these changes
were implemented in the new construction and major renovations contracts issued by the
campus. Due to heavy workload of staff, and the need to specify and evaluate the hardware
required under the 1997 recommendations, the formal revision of the standards document
reflecting these recommendations did not take place until early 2000.
This document will be circulated on campus to people responsible for departmental
networking, funding of campus communications, and those responsible for the definition and
accomplishment of the campus long-range communications network goals and objectives. This
document is intended to serve as a basis for discussions which will lead to the
implementation of formal standards.
The Campus Standards, having been adopted by the appropriate campus committees and
officers, now serves as the primary specification for new building design and construction
and major renovation projects. Communications Services implements only these wiring
standards and all departments and units are encouraged to implement during internal wiring
replacement and expansion projects.
The proposed standards recognize the "installed base" of existing network wiring
on campus and seek to establish a migration path to the new campus standards as
re-modeling and expansion projects take place in campus facilities. The standards presume
the need for flexibility in implementation, and that inter-connectivity and compatibility
is more important than absolute conformance.
Any standard is time-limited in that it will assuredly be modified or replaced as
technology, needs, funding, and goals change. We anticipate, however, that the wiring
standards contained within this document will continue to be valid for a period of at
least five (5) years through 1998. Moreover, the complete infrastructure proposed herein
is designed to be upgraded and replaceable incrementally as individual departments take
the lead in exploring new technologies that will eventually require new standards.
DCC
