Fiber Optics help to re-energize 90-year-old classrooms

Upgrading 90-year-old classroom buildings at a historic Catholic high school in Washington, DC helps to prepare for the advanced, high-bandwidth multimedia applications of the future.

Founded in 1821, Gonzaga College High School is the oldest educational institution in the old Federal City of Washington. When the decision to renovate Ruesch and Cantwell Halls was made a few years ago, the management and technical staff of the school carefully considered the question of what type of network to install.

"We viewed this renovation as a major opportunity not only to upgrade our physical plant but also to prepare ourselves for the technological future," said Father Daniel Lahart, Vice President for Finance and Administration for the school. "We determined that copper would meet our current needs but that we probably would have to recable the building at a major expense in the next five years or so if we had gone that direction.

"Fortunately, the equipment cost and installation time for fiber optic networks have dropped to such a degree that the cost differential has become negligible. In addition, we saved a considerable amount of space because we only needed a single telecommunications closet for both adjacent buildings."

The first building to house Gonzaga was constructed in 1815 as a Jesuit House of Novices, but by the time it was finished, plans had changed and it became Washington Seminary. In the months that followed, the Jesuits were besieged by requests from Catholics and non-Catholics to allow their sons entrance for a good basic education so the school began lay classes in 1821.

On one occasion, President John Quincy Adams came to the commencement and examined the boys in Latin and Greek. While the school originally operated under the charter for Georgetown University, in 1858 it was successful in obtaining its own charter.

Located in the District of Columbia, Congress was the only legal authority to grant such a document and President James Buchanan signed into law the Act of Congress creating Gonzaga College, its new name.

In 1871 the school left the center of Washington and occupied a new building on Eye Street, N.W. that had been built in the 1860s as an orphanage and which still serves as a classroom building. Incidentally, while the school has been chartered as a college since its inception, it granted bachelors degrees only in its early years and has since devoted itself entirely to secondary education.

Today, Gonzaga serves the inner city of Washington from a location that is two blocks from the Metro and close to the main railway line at Union Station.

The two buildings involved in the renovation project were built in approximately 1909 and 1919. It`s interesting to note that when they were constructed, neither had running water or electricity. Each is three stories high and has about 30 classrooms and they sit on adjacent lots.

"When a school is as old and has as much tradition as Gonzaga, it`s easy to think long term," Father Lahart said. "The last major facelift on these buildings was over 50 years ago and our intention is for this renovation to last at least as long. Recognizing the importance of technology in education today, we paid a considerable amount of attention to how we were going to network the building to make sure we got it right.

"What we discovered was that the copper cabling that is used in most schools is capable of handling nearly all of today`s applications without difficulty, but doesn`t leave a great deal of room for future bandwidth increases. We worked with a leading local networking company, Fiber Optic Systems, and asked them for their thoughts of how we could cost effectively prepare ourselves for the digital future."

Ron Hamrah, President of Fiber Optic Systems (Hanover, Maryland), said that he took the issues faced by the school to heart.

"As the proud parent of a Gonzaga alumni, my interests in helping the school went far beyond business concerns," he said. "I wanted to be sure that they would have something they could live with for a long period of time because I know their renovation budget is limited. While category 5 copper cabling could have handled all of the their current applications, a lot of uncertainty still exists about its ability to handle future generations of networking technology.

"Fiber optic cabling, on the other hand, has virtually unlimited bandwidth, certainly enough to handle the technological advances that are expected in the next two or three decades at a minimum. Of course, the electronics will need to be upgraded but this is a far simpler matter than going in and recabling."

"Of course, when I sold the school on the advantages of fiber cabling I was aware of their budgetary limitations, having been through many fund raising drives since my son was enrolled there," Hamrah continued. "I knew that fiber systems based on traditional SC and ST connectors would be too expensive. But I was also aware that recent advances have substantially driven down the cost of fiber networking to the point where today it can often come in below copper cabling, especially when the savings generated by the longer link lengths of fiber are considered.

"The system that I recommended to Gonzaga is the Volition fiber networking system from 3M. The Volition system is based on a unique connector design that dramatically reduces equipment cost and installation time. In addition, 3M provides the complete solution, network electronics, cabling, connectors, etc. on a single source basis which eliminates the time and risk involved in constructing systems from several vendors offerings."

Volition Network Solutions from 3M is an end-to-end fiber optic networking solution. The full system includes all components required for a complete fiber optic structured cabling system.

Significant system innovations include 3M`s VF-45(tm) interconnect, transceiver receptacle and a new, highly flexible and durable fiber patch cord. Hardware, cable, installation tools and networking equipment complete the passive network from the backbone to the workstation.

Volition optical fiber from 3M uses a V-groove technology that replaces the costly ferrules used in traditional SC fiber optic connectors. The cost of the new fiber cabling is far lower than traditional fiber and typically only about 20% higher than copper.

Hamrah and his technical staff helped Gonzaga Network Administrator Joe Viola develop the networking architecture. Initially, they were thinking about using traditional copper switches and going through media converters to connect to the optical fiber cabling. Viola brought up the point that the school would like to minimize the amount of electronics to reduce maintenance and upgrade expenses.

For that reason, they decided to use Volition VOL-5000 fiber switches with gigabit links from the switch to the server and 100 Mbps service to the workstations. The design includes the use of 15 switches, one serving as the core and the other 14, in stacks of three, as edge switches.

Each stack of three edge switches has 152 100 Mbps fiber ports plus a gigabit uplink to the core. The switch`s modularity offers multiple interface configurations, offering exceptional flexibility. The modules that plug into the switch are available at speeds of 10Mbps, 100Mbps and 1000Mbps (gigabit). The connector interfaces available are VF-45, RJ-45 and SC. This ensures connectivity to existing infrastructure or hardware.

The ability of the 62.5 micron fiber used to handle 300 meter link lengths made it possible to use only one telecommunications closet for both buildings with home runs to all fiber drops. A minimum of five fiber drops are provided to each classroom with more in the science and computer labs. An additional drop is provided in each classroom at the overhead video projector for use with emerging technologies such as video, voice and data convergence.

"We are extremely pleased with the overall performance of the new network," Father Lahart concluded. "We now have a network that has the highest available bandwidth capacity and will enable us to move into the most advanced multimedia educational applications available for many years without any concern about recabling. Yet we ended up spending no more than we would have on traditional copper cabling and saved the space of two to three telecommunications closets.

"Right now we are conducting an audit that will help us determine our technological future and one thing is already clear. Rather than serving as a limiting factor, our networking system has become an enabling tool that will allow us to move as rapidly as we choose to take advantage of the exciting upcoming advances in educational technology."

For more information, contact 3M Communication Markets Division, 3M Austin Center, Building A130-2N-01, 6801 River Place Blvd, Austin, TX 78726-9000 Phone: 800 695 0447 Fax: 512 984 581. Visit the 3M Volition Network Solutions website at http://www.3M.com/volition. 3M, Volition and VF-45 are trademarks of 3M.