PS/BI Seismic Retrofit
As you all know, the project to refurbish the PS and BI buildings, to meet seismic safety standards, will begin soon. While the project may not have direct effects on most of you, there are some subtle (and not so subtle) ripple effects...
The refurbishing of the PS building will require the shut-down of the NEC PBX system in the basement of PS. That pending shut-down was one of the major decision factors in moving to a VoIP phone system.
But along with the demise of the PBX in PS, the over-haul of the PS building will cause a related problem with copper-cable connections between several campus buildings. The PS building serves as a hub for copper communications cables running to PA, PS, BI, AH, CH, SH buildings, and the FS complex. Those buildings do not have copper cable running directly back to the PL building.
When the copper-cable connections into PS are demolished, most of the buildings listed above will not have pathways for special communications and control circuits. Telephone service for those buildings will switch over to VoIP, which uses the data-network (fiber-optic connections) between buildings.
But the special circuits in PA, PS, BI, AH, CH, SH, and the FS complex will need alternative pathways back to PL-024. Special circuits include things like Centrex lines directly from Verizon, payphones, dry-pair controls, non-dial tone alarms, T-1's, frame-relay, RS-232, etc.
Because most of the special circuits are not campus dial-tones, they cannot be converted into analog connections to the Cisco VoIP system. [Modems should continue to function normally as analog connections into the Cisco system].
To support the special circuits to various buildings, TNS will be buying some fiber-optic multiplexers to run the special circuits over "spare" (not data network) fiber-optic pairs. Here's a URL to a company, from which we have requested a quote:
http://www.americantechsupply.com/fomultiplexers2.htm
TNS wants to be sure that all special circuits are accounted for, and that no services to end-users are interrupted. Please tell Darin Pain (x7449, dpain@csusb.edu) or David Neighbours (x7278, dneighbo@csusb.edu) if you know of any special circuits, so we can get the correct multiplexers to catch and cover all those little things, before they fall through the cracks.