Map of the new data links from Oxford to the Emory Clifton Campus.

Can you imagine a day without internet! That’s exactly what happened to Oxford College during Commencement 2017 day. Our one and only network connection to the world was cut somewhere in Porterdale, GA. No one was prepared for such an event – parents, students, faculty, staff all felt disconnected from the world.

Although the Oxford IT world was in great panic, our experts worked together to find a solution; however, with the only connection cut, there was no backup plan that would work.

Fortunately, it only took a day for our vendors to patch the cut.

A serious change needed to be made, and I am pleased to report that as a result of this experience, Oxford College IT, in cooperation with LITS and with support from Dean Hicks of Oxford College, added a second Internet service provider (ISP) network (AT&T) as a backup in the event the primary ISP provider (Charter) goes down.

Network Fiber Cut Simulation Test

During summer 2018, Oxford College IT (OCIT) and LITS completed a successful simulated test of the newly established AT&T standby fiber connection from Oxford to Emory. The purpose was to test the failover process from the primary to the secondary network fiber. The test was a success as none of our users were affected and they continued with normal business operations.

This first test was intentionally scheduled during the summer when faculty and students were not on campus, thus the network demand was not at its optimum. For a true simulation, OCIT and LITS are planning to repeat this test on Wednesday, October 10, 2018 from 12 noon to 1:00 pm when all faculty, students and staff are on campus.