Building an Environment for Research and Discovery with the ICCN

The Intercampus Communications Network (ICCN) at the University of Illinois is a high-speed data network that connects all three University campuses -- Urbana, Chicago, and Springfield -- in a high-availability, redundant, and cost-efficient manner, and offers the University system access to bandwidth orders of magnitude greater than before for only a marginal cost increase.

The ICCN also acts as the Internet service provider for the Urbana and Springfield campuses and offers the University system and select constituents access to bandwidth orders of magnitude greater than before.

By using this bandwidth in concert with the shared Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC) infrastructure called OmniPoP, the ICCN affords the University the necessary capacity to connect the three campuses to each other and to research networks and peer universities at much higher speeds than was possible before.

The ICCN fiber also connects to existing fiber rings in Chicago that are co-owned by the CIC, which includes all Big Ten universities and the University of Chicago. The CIC fiber rings connect with all the major telecommunications carriers and all the major research networks' Points of Presence (POPs).

Implementation

Implementation of the ICCN was completed in summer 2007.

By using this bandwidth in concert with the shared Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC) infrastructure, the ICCN affords the University the necessary capacity to connect the three campuses to each other and to research networks and peer universities at much higher speeds than was possible before.

The ICCN fiber also connects to existing fiber rings in Chicago that are co-owned by the CIC, which includes all Big Ten universities, the University of Chicago, and the University of Illinois at Chicago. The CIC fiber rings connect with all the major telecommunications carriers and all the major research networks' Points of Presence (POPs).

The University of Illinois Board of Trustees approved the creation of an expandable, high-availability communications network known as the Intercampus Communications Network (ICCN) in March 2005.

Questions

If you have questions regarding the ICCN, please contact Tracy Smith (tracys [at] uiuc [dot] edu), operations manager for the ICCN.