Abstract

Telecommunication and Network Services
The mission of the Telecommunication and Network Services ( TNS ) department is to effectively deliver quality communication services to our customers and fulfill our stewardship role for institutional communication resources. TNS is one of five departments within Information Technology Services (ITS), and is responsible for providing a wide range of voice, video and network services and the communications infrastructure necessary to support these services. TNS primary purpose is to provide these services in a reliable way with a level of quality that meets or exceeds our customer's expectations.
TNS is organized into 5 functional work groups providing the following services and functions. The TNS Action PLan for 2005 identifies key projects, objectives and strategies. The thrust of the service to date has been to provide coverage in common areas (libraries, student gathering areas, conference spaces) and some classrooms and labs primarily to support faculty and students. The goal is to offer a broad-based service that augments the wired network service with as short an installation period as possible. Service delivery continues as the broader-based plan is established and put in place. Each of the universities participating in the proposed regional optical network has responsibility for a segment of the ring. The University of lowa would be responsible for the segment between Des Moines and Chicago. This segment of the ring will be the primary traffic route for commodity internet and internet2 traffic for the University of lowa and lowa state University. the segment will carry backup traffic for all regional players. TNS is in the request for proposal process to acquire a Facilities Management System to manage TNS services, infrastructure and billing. The project team is currently reviewing vendor proposals and preparing for on-site demonstrations. Implementation is scheduled to begin summer 2005 with final production migration in the spring of 2006.