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Ethernet Port Upgrade Service Information

Overview

Ethernet ports, also called RJ45 ports are the standard mode of connecting to the network at NYU. By default, these ports are connected to NYU-NET and offer 1 Gbps connectivity. Most modern devices can support 10 Gbps but are bottlenecked by the existing network speeds. The HSRN deploys high performance 10 Gbps switches in parallel alongside the NYU-NET backbone and can upgrade ports at no cost by moving the cables to our network devices.

Ethernet Port Upgrades allow up to 10X speed gains with very minimal cost and complexity in most of our locations. This section goes over deployment considerations for this service.

Service Offerings

The following are supported in all our locations:

  • 10 Gbps (4.5 TB per hour) Ethernet directly to workstations, NAS, servers, instruments
  • 1 / 2.5 / 5 Gbps Ethernet directly to workstations, NAS, server instruments for compatibility
  • Power over Ethernet (PoE) up to 71.3W

Benefits of Ethernet Port Upgrades

Upgrading from an NYU-NET port to a HSRN port increases bandwidth by up to 10X, with minimal cost or additional complexity required. Some commodity systems are able to make use of the speeds immediately. In most cases, a 10 Gbps network card will need to be procured, however this is relatively low cost and available on most electronics retailers.

NYU-NET offers 10 Gbps in rare instances, which may lead to confusion on the benefits of HSRN in these cases. NYU-NET has much less backbone capacity than HSRN, and thus while theoretically possible to get full 10 Gbps speeds, it is very unlikely in practice as the backbone is shared amongst all other users. Computers on HSRN will be able to consistently use the full 10 Gbps speeds and also benefit from much lower latencies.

Power over Ethernet (PoE)

The HSRN is also able to provide Power over Ethernet, supporting PoE, PoE+, and PoE++ (Type 3 and 4) specifications. This can provide up to 71.3W and can power devices such as IP cameras, thin clients, controllers, IoT devices, laptops, etc which have PoE capabilities or the necessary adapters.

Computer Requirements

PCs targeted for Ethernet Port Upgrades have basic requirements, such as an SSD and relatively recent CPU. Older hardware will typically not be performant enough to reach this speed. Computers that reach 10 Gbps typically have more than 4 cores. Some network cards will only be able to reach 1 Gbps, or 2.5 Gbps, etc. While these can connect to HSRN, they will not be able to use the full 10 Gbps that is possible. It is advisable to upgrade these network cards to 10 Gbps network cards, of which our recommendations are below.

Laptops and smaller devices may be able to connect at 10 Gbps using specific adapters.

For ALL devices, it will be necessary to have a Cat6A network cable. Older cables may be unable to transmit at the desired data rate.

Desktops and Workstations

Desktops and workstations targeted for HSRN connectivity will generally use a PCIe Network Interface Card (NIC) for connectivity. In rare cases the motherboard has a RJ45 port built in, but these typically do not support 10 Gbps. Most modern operating systems (Windows 7/8/10/11) as well as the vast majority of Linux distributions support 10 Gbps NICs out of the box without any drivers.

10Gbps RJ45 Network cards are typically PCIe Gen 3.0 x4. Consult your motherboard user manual or placards to determine whether it can support this card. Resources to install Network Interface Cards can be found online here (FS) and here (Youtube).

Apple desktops may come with a 10 Gbps capability already installed. Please check your equipment specifications. If your Apple hardware does not have 10 Gbps capability natively, it is NOT possible to install a PCIe card typically, and you will need to use an external adapter (See next section on Laptops).

Laptops

Laptops targeted for HSRN connectivity should use a USB to 10 Gbps external adapter. These can be USB-C, Thunderbolt, etc. Simply plug in the external adapter, ensure that the adapter is recognized by your system, and you can begin using the HSRN. Note that the adapter itself may be hot while in use.

Hardware Procurement Recommendations

Below are our recommendations of equipment:

PCIe Network Cards for Desktops and Servers

USB Adapters for Laptops

Cables (Required)