The research facility at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering in Carnegie Mellon University has a large number (more than 2000) of computers available for faculty and graduate student use. Personal computing employs Sun workstations running Solaris or Linux; PCs running Linux or Windows XP, Vista and 7; and Macs running OSX. All have access to AFS (Andrew File System) as well as to DFS (Windows Distributed File System). Remote access is via SSH and Remote Desktop Protocol.
The Carnegie Mellon Internet is a fully-interconnected, multimedia, multi-protocol infrastructure spanning hundreds of separate VLANS (virtual LANS). These segments are attached to a fully redundant, ring shaped backbone, enabling access between all systems on the campus, including the Supercomputer facilities operated by the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center. Content is delivered via 10Gbs (gigabit/second), 1Gbs (gigabit/second) or 100Mbs wired Ethernet or via Wireless Access Points to all locations on campus. Network communications is primarily via TCP/IP, though other protocols are employed for various research projects. Parts of the network are restricted to campus only use, allowing for enhanced security and/or privacy.
Carnegie Mellon is a primary node of the Defense Research Internet (providing national and international network connections), the NSFnet, SURAnet, and PREPnet. In addition to production networks, there are also a number of experimental network test-beds, including the NSF sponsored Very high speed Backbone Network Service (vBNS) and the DARPA sponsored Dartnet/CARIN.
