IT infrastructure in IIT Delhi

IIT Delhi has a state-of-the-art network in place, with its Fast Ethernet LAN in a Gigabit Ethernet backbone. It has more than 6,000 nodes and all the hostels are networked, with every student’s room having a network node.

The campus LAN is a switched and routed network with a fibre optic backbone and Cat 5E UTP cabling. The LAN consists of more than 1,400 switched network access points, which are configured into 35 Virtual LANs to cover each department, centre, central facilities and administration.

The premier technology institute has a unique mix of server-based computing and a desktop environment. “Individuals in the departments have traditionally preferred desktops due to the lack of centralised IT deployment/upgrade policies. Laboratories, with the need to connect PCs to equipment, have not required centralised services for file and print services. That is why we have such an IT set-up,” informs Subrat Kar, associate professor, department of electrical engineering, IIT, New Delhi. As far as the Storage Area Network (SAN) is concerned, the institute has a fibre channel interface with a Sun storage machine.

Apart from this, three routers have been configured in a hot-standby mode to interconnect these Virtual LANs, to create a DMZ (Demilitarised Zone) LAN, and a non-routed administration LAN. The old institute bridged LAN consisting of more than 15 Thick Ethernet Backbone segments has been also connected to the new LAN through one of the switched network access points. The campus LAN is connected to the Internet through a PIX firewall, a DMZ LAN, an external router, and a 2 Mbps radio link from VSNL. The firewall protects the campus LAN from unauthorised users, does Network Address Translation (NAT) from private/internal IP network numbers (10.0.0.0/8, Class A Network) to legal IP numbers (202.141.68.0/22, Class C Networks). It also provides a controlled access to the IIT Delhi WWW, Mail and DNS Services as virtual resources on the DMZ LAN. In anticipation of an increase in Internet and cross-country traffic, an MoU has been signed with Ernet for an additional 2 Mpbs terrestrial link, which will become operational soon.