DNO works on the network

Among the various mouth-watering improvements to Berkeley College it has been revealed that there has been an upgrade of the network electronics. While other colleges are presently equipped with 10 Megabit (Mbit) hubs, the renovations provided an opportunity to install 100 Mbit switches and hubs- a configuration that provides a network that runs more than ten times faster than the previous one.

However, the benefits may not be immediately apparent to students. Joseph Paolillo, Director of Data Network Operations (DNO), explains that other universities, as well as Yale's own main data center, have experienced problems when computers capable of both 10 and 100 Mbit networks try talking to hubs and switches that also can work at either speed. The result of these errors in the speed negotiation process is a high rate of transmission errors which slows down the network. So, for this year, as well as perhaps next year, the ability of Berkeley's network to work at 100 Mbit has been deactivated.

“There are a lot of problems in terms of those [networks] negotiating properly,” Paolillo said. “We're going to probably run some tests, probably with CA's, just to get a feel for it.”

This is no great loss, though, since the upgrades are more an attempt to anticipate future demand than a solution to a current crisis. “The colleges are not even using their existing capacity,” Paolillo explains. “At the station level, it's not a big deal.” But since the renovation was a “unique opportunity” to upgrade the infrastructure," DNO took advantage of it. They put in what Paolillo termed “reasonable state of the art.” While network speeds can reach as high as 1 Gigabit, there was no sense that needs in the visible future would justify the cost. 100 Mbit, on the other hand, has a far lower marginal cost, and most computers are already equipped to work on such a network.

To DNO, the upgrade was driven by a sense that the future may require the network to handle bandwidth-intensive video. “We're fairly confident that the next killer application is going to be video and multicast video,” Paolillo said. Allowing people to watch movies on their computers, a logical outgrowth of the existing trend of watching video using Real Player and similar products, will push the network to its limits. In fact, the new equipment is optimized for handling multicast video, so that when the same movie is sent to multiple places it does not eat away at the available space on the network.

Eventually, it may be possible to transmit phone calls over the data network using what is known as Voice Over Internet Protocol. However, such technologies will not be as intensive as the video, and they are several years from having the functionality of the regular phone system. Eventually, though, they may outpace the feature set most people are accustomed to.

As each college is newly upgraded, the state of its current technology will be investigated and the best reasonable technology will be installed. Furthermore, Paolillo explains, “If we get into a situation with some of the colleges where performance demands are running ahead of college renovations, we'll do partial upgrades.”

The network, using the standard known as Ethernet, allows only one piece of data to be sent within a network at a time. So, while a network may be capable of 10 Mbit / sec, that bandwidth must actually be divided among the number of people using the network. Fortunately, since not everyone is incessantly transmitting or receiving data, the actual data rate is far better and easily beats the less-than-1-Mbit rate of modems. Still, video or similar applications can use up the available space.

The installation of switches, part of the renovation of Berkeley, sections off the network so that each connection out of the switch only sees traffic destined for people on that part of the network. It effectively reduces the number of people sharing the available bandwidth.

Another network upgrade involved making the connection from Berkeley to the school's backbone 100 Mbit, which improves access to email, Yale servers and the Internet. Presently, only the data network center and a few other high-traffic areas are connected at this speed. At the same time, all of the colleges have been moved onto a separate part of a backbone switch, better sectioning off network traffic and improving access speeds.

The new network equipment in Berkeley comes from Hewlett-Packard and Cisco. To Paolillo, “Cisco is pretty much the technology leader,” with Hewlett-Packard running a close second. The highly customizable hardware will allow the network to evolve as time goes on. “Both are very reliable and configurable,” Paolillo said. He declined to put a dollar value on the upgrades.

The intelligence of the network hardware is critical because, in addition to optimizing for multicast, setting available bandwith, routing, and other features, it provides a service known as DHCP roaming. This allows users to move about the campus with their laptops and still have instant connectivity.

DNO is investigating further expandion with roaming wireless technologies, which may eventually be provided in common rooms and dining halls. Paolillo explained that the difficulty involved in wiring, or the damage that might be done to older buildings-as well as the need for mobility- may eventually justify wireless access, though the technology is still in its infancy.

Double your pleasure, double your click

This Wednesday, Kevin Ryan , TC '85, President and CEO of Internet advertising and user tracking company DoubleClick, Inc., spoke to students as part of the Yale College Student Union's speaker series. The creator of the Dilbert Zone and former employee of Eurodisney told the crowd of his experiences on the Internet and the lessons he learned. Counterpoint was provided by Computer Science professor Bradley Kuszmal, who criticized the homogenization that Ryan's service has introduced.

The Herald had a chance to sit down with Ryan prior to the event and find out more about his experiences. He started by explaining that Yale had indeed helped him in his career “enormously.” Not only had the overall knowledge he'd acquired been helpful, but the experience of managing extracurricular groups helped prepare him for a world where technology employees are in high demand. In both situations, the only way to retain people is by maintaining a sense of fun, he said. “A lot of my job right now is managing. There is nothing better than experience managing what is essentially a nonprofit,” Ryan said. “It feels like some of the Yalies in my class who were most active in extracurriculars are the most successful.”

While expressing the sentiment that experience was valuable, he also said it was impossible to prepare directly for a career. “One thing the Internet shows is that you cannot project your career. It's remarkable to me that I did not use a computer at Yale. Five years ago, I did not know what the Internet is.” Now Ryan manages a company of 1,200 employees in 17 countries with $250 million in revenues.

He recommends getting experience with computers in addition to having other skills, an amicable personality and a good work ethic. “The Internet and technology combined are the surest bet for success in the long term,” he said. “It's a tidal wave.” Pointing to the fact that nobody he meets ever uses the Internet and then decides to stop using it, he claims “people are obsessed... it's the most exciting sector in the world.”

He certainly had a lot to say about advertising, which is what his company provides. DoubleClick, Inc. sells an ad management system to its member sites and collects advertisements for them. “I think advertising will clearly be a huge driver, if not the largest driver, of the Internet,” he said.

With his Economics B.A. and M.B.A. from INSEAD in France clearly in evidence, he explains how the economics of advertising will “find the right balance.” In the process, he feels, “a lot of companies will go out of business.” Although the amount paid per ad may decrease, he feels advertising revenue will still be key to supporting content on the Internet. He also points out that ads online are already far cheaper per respondent than direct mailing. His company recently acquired Abacus Direct, which pares down mailing lists for catalog companies.

But, to him, models like that of buy.com, which involve selling products below cost and then making money from advertising, will not likely succeed. He also thinks that recent efforts to provide free Internet access in exchange for displaying advertising do not yet have a ripe market.

As for products which attempt to block banner ads, he explains, “It's naive of them.” Although people may say there are too many ads, they are also unwilling to pay. “I think they want the trade-off [of advertising],” he said. DoubleClick's system can serve any type of ad, but banner ads have proven most popular.

To Ryan, every company is a data company, responsible for managing information. Wal-Mart makes its money from knowing what will make people buy more, and in the same way DoubleClick can target ads to make sure that they get to the most likely people to buy. DoubleClick's user tracking allows it to follow individuals across all of the sites it services. He claims that this will benefit them by letting DoubleClick determine the ads that are most relevant to them. Still, there is an option on their site to opt out of this recording.