CRITICAL UPDATE: Inter-island Microwave

Greetings All,

I want to take a moment to update you on the status of the microwave and thank you all for your patience and perseverance and recognize the ITS staff – who have moved mountains today.

The alternate radio on the inter-island microwave is no longer working reliably. For most of the day STX services ran over the Internet. We have had some signs of life from the microwave in the last hour or so, at least at this minute it is running. It is not expected to continue

We are proceeding as if there will not be microwave service that we can rely upon until the microwave is replaced.

This is what is occurring:
• The networking staff will be working over the weekend to implement “quality of service “ for the vc rooms. This means they are reprogramming the networking equipment to give vc traffic priority.
• We have asked a Harris-Stratex technician to come on to campus TOMORROW to try and repair either of the radio paths. This is a long-shot but one we have to take. They may not be able to do anything…and if they can make repairs we cannot guarantee how long it will work.
• We have made arrangements with CHOICE to increase our Internet service on STT to 30 megs. We are trying to confirm that this in already in place. We are taking measures so that this new 15 megs will services the vc rooms and incoming traffic only. The increase will be for a period of only 3 months, which will allow the completion of the RFP process for 45 mbps that we have already initiated. This should provide much relief to the quality of the VC broadcasts.
• We are also increasing our bandwidth on STX to keep up with the demands.
• Harris-Stratex has agreed to schedule the install of the new microwave the first 2 weeks in April. They are putting timelines together for us as we speak.

What services will be effected:
• With the increase in Internet service, we should not have to eliminate service in the dorms. However we continue to keep this as an option to best serve our VC classrooms.
• All VC classes will be connected using the Internet. The content services are working, we will monitor picture quality with the new bandwidth. Audio will likely be reasonable enough to use. An option to connect via telephone is always there.
• St. Croix will not have four digit dial until further notice. User should be diligent about checking their voice mail via the 693-1599 extension.
• St. Croix users will need to access exchange via the web at exchange.uvi.edu.
• Blackboard and Banner are available on STX, however connections may be slow.
• We are asking for lots of help from the Provost and the Deans to work with faculty and students on doing the best we can with what we have to work with.

Please let me know if you have any questions. I will send out another update as we have information to share.

Tina M. Koopmans
Chief Information Officer