During the first two weeks of classes, several submitted reports to the help desk indicating that our wired residential network and our new WiFi wireless network are "slow". All IP data networks are shared resources; excessive expectations and utilization by some result in poor performance for others.
During the weekend of August 31, 2007, one student transferred 250 gigabytes (GB) of data over the wired network in 36 hours before being removed from the network. Moving this much data over a home connection would require more than six weeks assuming typical, arguable, sustained speeds associated with a basic DSL high speed internet plan. The same student then transferred 35GB of data across the wireless network over the subsequent 48 hour period. The 250 GB of data is equivalent to 500 full length VHS quality movies or more than 73,000 CD quality MP3s. If the transferred data were moved illegally, there is an additional problem. Access to all TU campus computing facilities by this student has been terminated pending review by the Dean of Students.
University policy:
The University Ethics Code and Policy for Computer Use is posted at
http://www.is.utulsa.edu/policies. The policy contains several provisions related to appropriate use and the consequences of monopolizing resources and degrading performance.
Wireless vs wired network access:
The new wireless network is a significant advancement at The University of Tulsa that is not available in the same ubiquitous fashion at most other universities. It provides convenience and mobility that is not available with a wired only network. However, it is impossible to effectively replace the capacity of a functional wired network with that of a wireless network. The burst rate at a wired port in the new residential apartments is nearly twenty times the rate available to a wireless user, even when there is no other wireless user competing for access in the same vicinity. Further, the performance of a wireless network degrades more quickly with multiple users. When available and reasonable, use a wired connection to help make sure that the wireless network is available for those best served by the mobility of a wireless connection.
Bandwidth Management:
Direct and unfettered access to the extraordinary wireless and wired networks that the University has is an important academic resource for all of our residents. Unfortunately, as indicated above, if a network is not managed, it is possible for a few abusive users to utilize nearly all of our bandwidth which, in turn, causes a degradation of the network resources available to the majority of our residents and to the campus as a whole. Over the last three weeks, two percent of our residential users have been responsible for almost fifty percent of the data passed across our Internet connection. For this reason and as one of our strategies for managing network resources, the University will soon institute a daily capacity cap for all residential and wireless users.
A user who exceeds the cap will see his/her network access to any computers on the residential or wireless network terminated until he/she reauthenticates with our normal network registration procedure. The user will then receive a message that he/she has exceeded the bandwidth cap instituted by the university and will notice a significant decrease in performance when accessing the Internet for a period of at least twenty four (24) hours. Access to filer (w:\ drive), shared space (s:\ drive), WebCT, and all other on campus resources will remain available with no limits. A user who has become limited and has an academic requirement for more generous access may request that his/her limit be temporarily removed by sending email to
help@utulsa.edu.
