Page 111 - Lakeland Catholic Technology Plan

The Wide Area Network, as designed, and in process of implementation is of a good overall design. DSL technologies were used wherever possible, which give very high bandwidth, with very little ongoing cost. The District did not lock them- selves into any particular technology, choosing rather to use the best available for each site. This is obvious in their use of Wireless radio in Cold Lake, and DSL in Bonnyville. This said, there are some improvements that can be made (see WAN Diagrams).
Each site’s WAN connection is mentioned in this document in the site description, however those that could see some improvement are mentioned here.
One of the first sites that is an obvious candidate for a WAN connection change, is the Notre Dame Elementary. Like the other sites in Bonnyville, they have a DSL connection to the Central Office. This is good design for most sites, using an unserviced pair of wires, renting them from TELUS, and installing some good DSL modems. However, at second glance, we noticed that this school is on the same property as the Central Office. This leads to some potential improvements. Obviously wireless radio could be installed here, at similar initial cost to the DSL, but no ongoing costs. That said, we would recommend that a fibre optic cable be installed in the ground. This has an initial investment cost, but there is no ongoing cost, and the fibre would be hundreds or thousands of times faster than the DSL. Critics may suggest that the school is “only an Elementary School, and doesn’t require that kind of bandwidth. we would suggest that the fibre is a cheaper and better long-term solution. Do we really know what kind of bandwidth will be needed in the future?
A tough problem faced by the District in the WAN connectivity issue is how to get from Bonnyville to Cold Lake. This was obviously wrestled back and forth quite frequently, and in the end it was decided to go with a 256Kb connection to DSI in Cold Lake. This one we at a loss to adequately improve. Other than a potential AGNPac connection between Bonnyville and Cold Lake, which we believe was researched, and wasn’t available, the only other realistic option is wireless radio. There is a distance factor and a topography factor which comes into play. However, we believe with the number of towers already existing between the sites, and the ability to put a repeater station somewhere in between, could make this feasible. It is definitely worth the research to try it out, as it would have no ongoing costs, and would have at least six times more bandwidth, and potentially 40 times more bandwidth. The current 256Kb connection is very costly, estimated at $1500 - $1800 per month! Worst case scenario wireless, including three 120 foot towers, and all the radios, etc., would be $76,000. (one time capital cost) (At this rate it would take about 4 years to realize the cost savings, but the bandwidth available would be tremendous. However, best case scenario, being able to use some exist- ing towers, could bring the initial cost down to only $12,000.
The third site that really threw me for a loop was DSI in Cold Lake. DSI is the con- nection point from the Central Office to Cold Lake, and the central site for all the wireless connected schools in Cold Lake, and they provide the Internet uplink. DSI is a private business, with no firewall or other blocking done between them- selves and the school system, effectively allowing potentially any traffic to come into the schools without warning, or need. In addition, as they are not a school site, school staff do not have access to the building 24 hours per day, nor do they have much control over how everything is connected. we would recommend
that the 256Kb line be moved to Assumption School, and have Assumption act as the wireless hub for the Cold Lake schools. In addition, as discussed in the next section of this paper, a firewall device installed between Assumption (and the rest of the District schools) and DSI is a must.
Now, that said, the wireless connected schools, Assumption, Mackenzie, and St. Dominic’s are still a problem. Each school is still using a 56K modem connected to WinGate to get all of their Internet access, and WAN connectivity, as the wireless till does not work. Without going into all of the details, the vendor has clearly dropped the ball. We would make this a priority for the technical department to get up to speed on how these units work, and make them function. Wireless has been used very successfully in many other places, there is no reason why it can’t be successful here.
The current District Internet feed is via a Satellite system through Express-Vu. This is a very stable technology, however, it does not allow for growth. This system gives maximum throughput of 400 Kb/second, and it cannot be upgraded. As we interviewed the technical staff, they were all unaware that it was only 400 Kb, and mistakenly though it was at least 2000 Kb/s. The District will need to consider other technologies as their Internet demand increases. However, other Internet feed options are significantly more expensive. That said, there may be some cost savings, as an alternate Internet technology would eliminate the need to connect to DSI, thus saving costs there.
Finally, and this has as much to do with the WAN, as it does the LAN, the TCP/IP addressing needs to be cleaned up. In a nutshell, for a computer to access net- work resources, it must have a unique Internet address, this is known as a TCP/IP address. The TCP/IP address is made up of four components. The first is the ac- tual address which identifies the computer, the second, is a subnet mask, which helps the computer understand which network it is connected to. The third, the default gateway, tells the computer where to go if it needs to access resources that aren’t local. (i.e. other schools, or on the Internet) and the fourth is the DNS addresses. (DNS is discussed later, so we won’t go into details here.) The first three parts are absolutely essential to provide complete connectivity between all sites. Without all three parts, computers inside the schools can only access other computers in the same school. They cannot access resources outside. (With ex- ception to web proxy, also discussed elsewhere.)
110