Monash Gippsland Education Precinct
Presentation by: Neil Clarke
Sahar Oujil
Royce Gonsalves
Information Technology Services
Monash University
Neil.Clarke@its.monash.edu.au
Sahar.Oujil@its.monash.edu.au
Royce.Gonsalves@its.monash.edu.au
www.monash.edu.au
www.monash.edu.au
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www.monash.edu.au
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Introduction
Gippsland Education Precinct being built in Monash University’s
Gippsland campus in Churchill.
Due to open in February 2004
$12 million initiative of the Victorian Government
$1.5 million allocated for Information Technology
Brings together major education providers in the region.
Monash University, Gippsland TAFE (Gipps TAFE), Kurnai College
and Gippsland Group Training.
Post secondary educational centre for 750 senior secondary school,
a shared facility for the senior secondary students and TAFE and
university students.
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Introduction Cont’d
Programs include VCE, Vocational Education Training (VET), TAFE
courses, apprenticeships and university subjects.
Use of broadband technology to enhance outcomes in education.
GEP to fulfil the national broadband vision of a collaborative venture
between commonwealth, state and territory govts and higher
education sector.
The new Australian Research and Education Network (AREN) to
provide a collaborative framework for sharing bandwidth between
campuses. GEP to benefit from this.
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Introduction Cont’d
Victorian Educational and Research Network (VERN) a project
driven by the Victorian Universities and the CSIRO will complement
and accelerate the fulfilment of the goals set out for AREN
Research Precincts, Schools of Rural Health, and other entities to
be embraced into the shared broadband bandwidth architecture of
VERN.
GEP will become part of the VERN shared architecture as it rolls
out to Regional Victoria.
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Conceptual AREN Backbone
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AREN viewed as hierarchical nested rings
South East Mainland Sector
Brisbane
Source: HEBAC Report
Canberra
Sydney
Melbourne
Churchill
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AREN & VERN Princes Backbone – Melbourne to Churchill Leg
Canberra
Brisbane
Source: Neil Clarke’s document on VERN
VERN Metro Loop
VERN Clayton Precinct Loop
Geelong
VERN Dandenong Precinct Loop
VERN Melbourne
Local Loop
AREN Princes backbone via
Vic Track fibre
VERN Churchill-Morewell
Precinct Loop – Gipps TAFE &
Kurnai College Maryvale
VERN Churchill Precinct
Loop includes GEP &
www.monash.edu.au
Kurnai College
VERN Berwick Precinct Loop
VERN Warragul Precinct
Loop Gipps Group Training
VERN Moe Precinct Loop
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Future AREN backbone to Sydney
Major Concerns
Low educational and employment outcomes of youth in the
Gippsland region.
High levels of youth disengagement and low level of transition from
school to tertiary education, training and employment.
Drift of secondary students to institutions outside the region.
Elite students seek education outside the region because their
needs cannot be met locally.
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Key Objectives for Precinct
Develop a unique facility linking year 11 and 12 students with Gipps
TAFE, Gippsland Group Training and Monash University to cater for a
variety of interests and abilities.
Provide opportunities for innovative learning.
Provide a range of easily accessible pathways with enhanced career
planning.
Provide an online environment that will enhance and extend new
educational opportunities.
Implement a high bandwidth advanced Information and Communication
Technology (ICT) hub to assist with teaching and learning.
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Key Objectives for Precinct Cont’d
Provide accelerated programs for high achievers and elite students.
Provide support to indigenous students, allowing a successful
transition from “Koorie Open Door Education” (KODE) and other
schools.
Create opportunities for high achievers and elite students to take
university subjects.
Develop high profile staff development programs.
Provide special vocational programs for school leavers.
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Existing IT Infrastructure
Kurnai College and Gippsland Group Training operate from multiple
sites.
Kurnai has campuses in Churchill, Maryvale and Morwell
Up to 130 networked computers at each site.
Wide area low bandwidth radio links between sites.
Student/staff records & admin/financials on DE&T provided server.
Email via Edumail system provided by DE&T
512 kbps Internet connection through an approved ISP.
One of 4 approved ISPs provides appropriate age based filtering for
the under-aged students. No filters for staff.
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Existing IT Infrastructure Cont’d
Gippsland Group Training operates from Warragul and Morwell.
Connection from each site to ISP via ADSL.
Student/staff records & admin/financials on a Win 2000 server
TAFE boasts a much larger network with links to remote campuses.
Main campus in Yallourn also referred to as Newborough.
2M connection to the Internet.
Has trained IT staff.
Funding for new Precinct network allocated to TAFE.
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Existing IT Infrastructure Cont’d
Monash has 7 campuses in Victoria
Main campus in Clayton.
Link to Gippsland via dual 34M redundant ATM connections
Link to other campuses via 155M and 622M ATM
Multiple Hospital sites in Melbourne & country Victoria
About 20,000 IP addresses seen
State of the art ATM and Ethernet network
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Future IT Infrastructure
ICT Working Party formed to debate the requirements and come up
with an appropriate network solution.
Project Manager appointed to manage the design, tender process,
selection of preferred vendor and network implementation.
Wish list for the ideal new network
Audit existing TAFE and schools network, WAN connections &
applications currently in use.
Questionnaire circulated dealing with:
What new applications and services should the new network provide ?
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Future IT Infrastructure Cont’d
Email services
Authenticated access to Internet with appropriate filtering.
Administration facilities
Student services, ie portal services, WebCT, time tabling etc.
Transmission of large image and data files
Delivery of Distance Learning courses over the network
Online library services
Dialup access for staff and students
Transmission of video and voice over IP
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Future IT Infrastructure Cont’d
Audio and video broadcast of lectures
Content streaming from external organisations – Museum,
State Library, Art Gallery etc.
Protect individual institutions through separate firewalls
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Transitioning to New IT Infrastructure
Overwhelming response for an enterprise network architecture.
Integrate data, voice and video
Flexibility to adapt to future technologies
Scalable, resilient and secure
Provide a high bandwidth core
Allow more schools to connect in the future
Provide all of the requested services
Allow future needed applications
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Standard Operating Environment (SOE)
Standard Operating Environment (SOE) for staff and students.
Mix of school & TAFE students.
Mix of staff, teachers, managers, lecturers.
Challenge for the IT management to define and implement a SOE for
desktop PCs and laptops for accessing a wide variety of applications
for a disparate mix of user base.
Further complicated by the need to define one type for students and
another for staff.
Student environment has to cater for both schools and TAFE.
Filtered Internet services for under-age students.
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WAN Links to TAFE and School Campuses
Owned Fibre Infrastructure
High capital cost, hence constructed to link only nearby
campuses:
Fibre link to Kurnai Secondary College in Churchill.
Fibre link to Gippsland TAFE campus in Morwell
Combination of owned and leased fibre services
Low capital, but high ongoing recurrent cost.
Creates flexibility to upgrade to higher bandwidth.
Ability to expand network to more sites.
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WAN Links to TAFE and School Campuses Cont’d
Recommended combination of owned and leased fibre services.
Owned fibre links from Precinct to Kurnai College campus in
Churchill.
Owned fibre link from Precinct to Gipps TAFE’s Mid Valley
campus in Morwell and Kurnai College Maryvale campus.
Fibres leased from Vic Track to link Gipps TAFE’s campus in
Morwell to the main TAFE hub in Yallourn.
Fibres leased from Vic Track to link Gippsland Group Training
site in Warragul.
Monash could lease GEP fibre to link Churchill campus via Morwell
on to Vic track to reach Berwick and Clayton.
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Proposed WAN Fibre Layout
Stage 2 Lawena
School campus
Gipps Group
Training in
Warragul
Vic track Fibre
Kurnai Maryvale
campus
TAFE Mid Valley
Campus in Morwell
Gipps TAFE main
hub in Yallourn
Vic track Fibre
Warragul
Vic track fibre
Constructed fibre
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Constructed
fibre
Traralgon
Kurnai College in
Churchill
Gippsland Education Precinct in
Monash's Churchill campus
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Internet Access for Precinct
Schools and TAFE view Internet access via AARNet using
Monash’s network.
Monash could breach Telecommunications Act, by transporting
third party data without a carrier licence.
AARNet primarily a Universities network; providing access to the
Precinct, and thus to schools is a AARNet policy issue.
Potential overloading of Monash network with the added traffic from
schools and TAFE could be an issue.
Unfiltered data from AARNet to the school students would also be
an issue.
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AREN viewed as hierarchical nested rings
South East Mainland Sector
Brisbane
Source: HEBAC Report
Canberra
Sydney
Melbourne
Churchill
www.monash.edu.au
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AREN & VERN Princes Backbone – Melbourne to Churchill Leg
Canberra
Brisbane
Source: Neil Clarke’s document on VERN
VERN Metro Loop
VERN Clayton Precinct Loop
Geelong
VERN Dandenong Precinct Loop
VERN Melbourne
Local Loop
AREN Princes backbone via
Vic Track fibre
VERN Churchill-Morewell
Precinct Loop – Gipps TAFE &
Kurnai College Maryvale
VERN Churchill Precinct
Loop includes GEP &
www.monash.edu.au
Kurnai College
VERN Berwick Precinct Loop
VERN Warragul Precinct
Loop Gipps Group Training
VERN Moe Precinct Loop
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Future AREN backbone to Sydney
Future Internet Access Scenarios
Victorian Educational and Research Network (VERN) established
via an alliance of Victorian universities and CSIRO.
VERN will replace the Victorian universities’ wide area networks by
deploying high capacity telecommunications infrastructure providing
appropriate bandwidth between the individual sites of each
university and CSIRO.
As VERN rolls out to regional Victoria, the upgraded capacity could
allow GEP to access AARNet/AREN after appropriate policy
change.
GEP could also use the VERN infrastructure to connect to a POP in
central Melbourne for connection to an ISP.
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IT Support for GEP based PCs and services
Roughly 150 PCs for students and staff.
Up to 40 laptops for staff
Initially no local IT staff to support IT services
All admin and student applications to be run from the TAFE’s Yallourn
hub.
Internet access via TAFE
TAFE’s 2M internet to be upgraded to 8M
TAFE to provide Internet filtering for students
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Proposed Network Layout
Stage 2 Lawena
School Campus
Servers & applications
run from Yallourn campus
Kurnai College
Maryvale
Campus
Gipps Group
Training in
Warragul
Warragul
Vic track Fibre
Gipps TAFE
main hub in
Yallourn
Traralgon
Cisco 4500 switch
Kurnai College
in Churchill
Vic track fibre
www.monash.edu.au
Vic track Fibre
Constructed
multicore fibre
8 Mbit/s Internet
shared access
INTERNT
TAFE Mid Valley
Campus,Morwell
Constructed fibre
Gippsland Education
Precinct in Monash's
Churchill Campus
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Gippsland Precinct Logical Network
Precinct Local LANs
Servers in
Newborough
Internet
Gipps TAFE Network
Staff VLANs
Existing Cisco 6500 switch
in Gipps TAFE Yallourn
Campus
Student VLAN
Central Site
Cisco 4500
switch in GEP
Monash Network
www.monash.edu.au
8 Mbit/s
shared
Kurnai Network
Maryvale
Core Precinct VLAN
Cisco 3550
switch/router
Cisco 3550
switch/router
Cisco 3550
switch/router
Gippsland Group
Training Network
Kurnai Network
Churchill
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Challenges
Budget vs. reliability – High bandwidth core with resilience, but
resilience is not possible in stage one implementation.
Lecture theatre facilities – Schools and TAFEs had the difficult task
of agreeing on what might be the best fit-out for audio-visuals in
lecture theatres.
Voice communications – should the Precinct run its own PABX? The
decision was to use the existing University PABX.
Building cabling issues – ICT committee recommended saturation
cabling, but the architect was concerned that the budget could
permit only far fewer.
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Challenges Cont’d
Telecommunications Act and carrier issues - Choosing the owned
fibre infrastructure option for the Precinct requires a carrier licence.
The option of having the Precinct as part of Monash WAN was
discarded as it could put Monash in breach of the Act.
Therefore it would be preferable for AARNet (a licensed carrier) to
own and/or operate the local fibre links.
Precinct students – Could Precinct students have the same rights as
Monash and TAFE students ?
Without these rights, Precinct students cannot have full access to
existing facilities such as the Monash Library and TAFE online.
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Challenges Cont’d
There was a need to establish a clear and concise policy position, at a
strategic level, to define a Precinct student.
Funding for the network design and implementation – There were
questions on who among the four partners had control over the
distribution of the funds. OTTE nominated Gippsland TAFE to resolve
this issue.
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Q&A
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