HKU Campus Network

1. Introduction
2. Coverage of the HKU campus network
3. Network Service WITHIN the HKU campus
4. Network Service OUTSIDE the HKU campus
5. Current Configurations of the HKU campus network
6. Bandwidth of Connections to HARNET and Internet
   

1. Introduction

The HKU Campus Network is made up of a high speed 10 Gigabit Ethernet resilient network backbone with over 29,000 network connection points on Gigabit Ethernet/Fast Ethernet segments to the desktop, Fast Ethernet wide area network (WAN) links, Metro-Ethernet and fixed-access WiFi connections to some remote student residential halls and remote offices, Virtual Private Network (VPN) for access from the Internet and dial-up access from home.

2. Coverage of the HKU Campus Network main campus  three remote campuses: the Faculty of Medicine premises at Sassoon Road and Queen Mary Hospital, and the Faculty of Dentistry premises at Prince Philip Dental Hospital. The Sassoon Road and Queen Mary Hospital campuses are connected by Gigabit Ethernet connection to the main campus. The Prince Philip Dental Hospital campus are each connected by public Fast Ethernet network connection. remote student residential halls and remote offices connected to the main campus through optical fibre cables or fixed-access WiFi connections. 3. Network Service WITHIN the HKU Campus Within the HKU campus, one can access the HKU Network via the following: HKU Intranet (including Classroom Network) ACEnet and WiFi extension Student Residential Hall Network (HallNet) For first-time users, do the following steps (you need to do these steps only once): For WiFi connection, refer to "Universities WiFi" configuration procedures at http://www.itservices.hku.hk/home/networks/wifi/Uwifi/.  The "Universities WiFi" configuration also enable you to access WiFi network in the JUCC institutions (HKU, CUHK, PolyU, CityU, HKUST, HKBU, LU and HKIEd).  For wired connection, register your network card address in the HKU Portal. (Other names for network card address are Ethernet card address, physical address, MAC address (media access control address.)  Configure your computer to obtain an IP address dynamically (via DHCP) 4. Network Service OUTSIDE the HKU Campus Outside the HKU campus, one can access the HKU Campus Network via: external Internet Service Providers (ISP) via HKUVPN Outside the HKU campus, one can acess the Internet via: external WiFi Networks for HKU Users Note: Access to the following Internet services from the HKU campus does not require logging in the HKUVPN. For running other network applications, please first login HKUVPN. E-mail (POP3/IMAP) WWW (http/https) Streaming media (Microsoft Media Player & Real Player) FTP (file transfer program) ICQ connection (default TCP ports : 6667/5190) MSN Messenger Connection (default TCP port: 1863) Yahoo Messenger Connection (default TCP port: 5050) VPN connection (default TCP port: 1723/UDP port:500) Skype connection (default TCP port: 80/443)

5. Current Configuration of the HKU Campus Network

1. Three high performance 10 Gigabit Ethernet Switches with integrated routing capability installed at two separate locations on the main campus to provide resilience
2. Over 120 Gigabit Ethernet edge switches installed in various buildings 
3. 1Gbps/100Mbps Fast Ethernet to desktop and ACEnet through Category 6/ Category 5 UTP cables
4. Over 1700 WiFi access points
5. Direct Fast Ethernet WAN connections (100Mbps) for Prince Philip Dental Hospital
6. Direct fiber connection between Queen Mary Hospital campus and Sassoon Road campus, and direct fiber connection between Queen Mary Hospital campus and Main Campus as well
7. CWDM Optical Network Connections (Dual 1Gbps) for the Sassoon Road campuses \
8. CWDM Optical Network, public Fast Ethernet WAN links, public Metro-Ethernet and fixed-WiFi links for connection of remote campuses and offices
9. Virtual Private Network (VPN) gateway service for HKU Intranet connection from ACEnet, WiFi, HallNet and Internet
   

6. Bandwidth of Connections to HARNET and Internet

The University's campus network is connected to the Internet via HARNET (Hong Kong Academic and Research Network) managed by the Joint Universities Computer Centre (JUCC) and also directly connected to other national or regional networks. 

The bandwidth of HARNET internet service are as follows:

1. 1.75Gbps to global internet
2. 2Gbps to local HK internet via HKIX
3. 155Mbps to China via CERNET
4. 100Mbps to Taiwan via TANET
5. 70Mbps to Trans-Eurasia Information Network, TEIN