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High-Speed Network Connections

Next Generation Network (NGN)

ITS supports UC San Diego's production network provides basic support for high-speed networking, such as 10G (10 gigabits per second), and has the flexibility to support special needs. Higher-speed service may be available where required. 40G and multiple-10G connections can also be arranged, at higher cost, for special needs. Learn more ...

The NGN supports connections for UCSD production network traffic to CENIC (Corporation for Educational Networking in California) HPR (High Performance Research), which includes other UC campuses, universities, Internet2 members, and to CENIC DC (Digital California), which includes other Calif. schools and our commodity Internet services.

UCSD NGN also supports several connections for UCSD experimental research use:
  • CENIC L2 — layer two services for specialized research use
  • UCSD/SDSC/CalIT2 support several other research connections on campus, including a direct connection to ESNET for specialized uses

UCSD's Research Network Extensions

In addition, UCSD is home to the NSF-supported research network extension Prism@UCSD, a science DMZ providing 40G or greater cross-campus connections to big data projects. 

UCSD High-Performance Research Partners

In addition to our Internet connectivity, UCSD connects directly at high speed to many nearby research institutions. You can download a PDF of the current connections to external partners.

For Workloads in the Cloud

Azure ExpressRoute: Azure ExpressRoute offers a private, dedicated connection between your on-premises network and Azure, bypassing the public internet. It is ideal for high-performance, low-latency, and mission-critical workloads.

AWS Direct Connect: AWS Direct Connect makes it easy to establish a dedicated connection from an on-premises network to one or more VPCs. AWS Direct Connect can reduce network costs, increase bandwidth throughput, and provide a more consistent network experience than internet-based connections.

Google Cloud Interconnect: Google Cloud Interconnect is a suite of connectivity services that allows organizations to establish direct connections between their on-premises data centers and Google Cloud's global network infrastructure. This service is essential for businesses looking to leverage the power of cloud computing while maintaining their existing on-premises investments.

Troubleshooting

perfSONAR

Research-IT has deployed perfSONAR devices at strategic points across the campus network.  These devices are designed to measure network performance and help troubleshoot any issues. They are also part of a “mesh” network which consists of thousands of other perfSONAR devices; this allows us to identify any network bottlenecks worldwide. If you think you are having network latency with a collaborator in a particular region of the world, reach out to us and we can assist.

Self Serve Troubleshooting Tools

What's slowing my connection?

  • Check your area: campus network connections are rarely impacted (connect to ITS' UCSD Network Weathermap and log in with your Active Directory username/password to see current conditions).
  • Your wall jack, provided by the NGN (Next Generation Network) program at UCSD, defaults to a 1Gbps standard, which matches most current Ethernet adapters (NICs).
  • In many cases, tuning your kernel or TCP/IP stack will improve your performance more than a network upgrade.

Have you identified a bottleneck?

If your bottleneck is your subnet or building network, and/or if you’re planning on purchasing 10Gbps or greater NICs, you have several options to improve your connection. Both require purchase of a network switch and may have cabling or other one-time costs:

This NGN-maintained connection will be yours alone until it reaches the building edge, where it will share a 10Gbps path across campus. (Regular campus backbone traffic rarely exceeds 1Gbps.) There is no special configuration required to use these connections.

This NSF-supported connectivity allows 40Gbps connections that are yours alone all the way to the Prism@UCSD switch, where 120Gbps in connectivity provides access to SDSC.  Note that Prism@UCSD is not supported by IT Services production network staff.

IPv6 is available on both types of connection where needed.

Need Assistanace?

Contact research-it@ucsd.edu for expert help with diagnosing network issues and finding the best solution.