Vision for Network Modernization at UW–Madison
The Network Modernization Program will transform UW–Madison’s current networking infrastructure into a future-ready, high-performance foundation. This transformation is essential to meet the growing demand in a data-driven world. Our future-state network will be built on advanced architectural principles—while empowering the people who use it.
Why now?
UW–Madison’s current network architecture is facing new challenges that impact both our technical capabilities and our ability to support the university’s evolving mission. These challenges are not just technical—they affect how we all work, collaborate and serve our students, faculty and staff.
Key issues include:
Technology limitations are holding us back
- We are reaching the limits of our current network’s capacity, such as MAC address and Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) constraints.
- Legacy protocols and aging infrastructure are increasingly difficult to support.
Institutional change demands a modern network
- As UW–Madison evolves—through digital transformation, hybrid learning, expanded research and administrative modernization—our network must evolve too.
- A modern, flexible, and secure network is foundational to supporting these institutional priorities.
What’s the risk of not changing?
If UW–Madison does not modernize its network, the university risks increased service disruptions, falling behind in research and digital learning, and rising costs to maintain outdated infrastructure and services. Continued reliance on legacy systems limits our ability to scale, secure, and innovate—ultimately impacting the campus community’s ability to teach, learn, and collaborate effectively.
Our architectural principles
Our future-state network will be built on advanced architectural principles, including:
- Enterprise Network Fabrics: Enabling dynamic, scalable, and policy-driven connectivity across campus.
- Data Center Fabrics: Supporting high-throughput, low-latency, and resilient data center operations.
- Security Policy Management: Enhancing threat detection, response, and compliance through unified controls.
- High Availability and Redundancy: Ensuring uninterrupted access to critical services and applications.
- Scalability and Flexibility: Accommodating future growth in users, devices, and data without compromising performance.
Our program and projects will focus on moving these things forward.
Learn more about our program and projects
The Data Center Fabric project aims to develop a plan to meet Wisconsin RISE Initiative and other campus needs, creating the unfettered application access, and Virtual Machine (VM) mobility infrastructure that UW–Madison requires. It will enhance network segmentation to enhance security, network performance, and improve fault tolerance – meaning if one data center goes down, the rest will remain protected, connected and available. As a result, researchers can count on highly available and reliable infrastructure to ensure their important research remains unconstrained and uninterrupted by technology.
Accomplishments, work and timeline
Accomplishments
- Project initiation
- Project kick-off completed
- Project goals, scope, and high-level requirements established
- Research & design
- Completed EVPN/VXLAN fabric education and technology research
- Reviewed industry best practices and reference architectures
- Engaged with the University of Iowa to gather peer insights and lessons learned
- Lab & planning
- Build the Digital Twin lab environment
- Completed initial testing and validation activities
- Developed the Proof of Concept (PoC) test plan
- Defined PoC success criteria and evaluation objectives
- Provided Cisco with the target topology and design requirements
- Conducted PoC planning and design review sessions with Cisco
Work in progress
- Cisco is building and configuring the PoC environment
- Preparing for formal PoC testing
- Refining test scenarios and documentation
- Coordinating PoC activities with Cisco
Upcoming work
- Execute the Proof of Concept and validate functionality, scalability, resiliency, and automation capabilities
- Review and document PoC findings
- Completed Data Center Network Fabric Design Document with architecture recommendations
- Develop implementation plan outlining recommended deployment approach
- Finalize the project whitepaper and recommendations for leadership review
Timeline
- PoC Environment Setup – Sep. 2026
- PoC Testing – Sep. 2026
- PoC Results Review – Oct. 2026
- Final Design & Recommendations – Oct/Nov 2026
- Implementation Plan – Oct/Nov 2026
- Project Closeout & Final Whitepaper – Nov. 2026
This pre-design project with UW–Madison Facilities Planning and Management (FP&M) will formally audit a selected group of network telecommunication rooms in 16 buildings against campus (Division 27) standards regarding space, power, cooling (HVAC), and backup power. The 16 buildings are a representative sample of the nearly 1000 data network closets in over 180 buildings providing campus network service.
The project will develop technical and budget information to ultimately ensure UW networks have ample physical facilities to meet growing network demands for wired network connections, security cameras, and higher capacity wireless network devices serving over 90,000 users daily.
Project deliverables
- Architectural / Engineering report identifying space, power, cooling and backup power deficiencies per telecom room with remediation options and budgetary costs
Accomplishments, work and timeline
Accomplishments
- Updated Division 27 (communications) specifications
- Identified 16 buildings to provide a representative sample of all campus TRs to develop a formal capital project plan and budget request
Work in progress
- Architectural / engineering bid solicitation for consultant to perform an evaluation and develop a report on findings, remediation options and budgetary costs
Upcoming work
- Project Architectural / Engineering firm kickoff
Timeline
- Substantial completion: Fall 2026
- Project Completion: Spring 2027
UW requires reliable, scalable and robust firewall services to help protect network infrastructure and maintain data privacy and integrity for research, academic and administrative purposes. Currently, firewalls are “hyper-virtualized” and tightly coupled in the campus network routing infrastructure and logically appear in front of every School / College / Division (S/C/D) local area network (LAN).
The Firewall Architecture Design Discovery Project will collaboratively evaluate firewall architecture design options and identify a future design direction for campus deployment with a specific vendor. The outcome of this project will inform a future solution implementation project.
Project deliverables
- Whitepaper describing different firewall architecture design options considered for select vendor(s) and a recommended solution for implementation
Timeline
- Phase 1: Initiating and Planning – COMPLETE
- Establish charter
- Initiate project
- Define Firewall Design Group membership
- Phase 2: Discovery & discussion – COMPLETE
- Assemble Firewall Design Group (FDG)
- Peer interviews
- Problem and requirements discovery
- Phase 3: Solution Design – COMPLETE
- Develop recommendation
- Define Timeline/Roadmap
- Iterate solution
- Phase 4: Whitepaper of results – IN PROGRESS – August 2026
- Finalize recommendation
- Author whitepaper
- Present results
Current network segmentation has scaling and flexibility limitations and is not ready for Smart Access (zero trust) requirements. As a result, the team will evaluate more modern and flexible alternative network separation (segmentation) options to improve network segmentation scalability, reliability, flexibility, and programmability.
The team is discussing business and technical requirements needs, as well as issues, with campus.
The UW campus network currently has wired and wireless (WiFi) hardware in service that has reached its end-of life (EOL) when the manufacturer stops providing hardware and software support, updates, and discontinues manufacture and sale of that product. EOL hardware is more susceptible to unplanned failures resulting in network outages and vulnerable to cybersecurity attacks and breaches.
By replacing aging network hardware, faculty, staff and students will enjoy a more reliable, scalable and secure network service.
Project deliverables
- Replace a wide range of network devices nearing or exceeding manufacturers’ End of Service Life timelines to ensure ongoing security updates and serviceability.
Accomplishments and work
Accomplishments
- Upgrade ~1300 aging wireless access points (Aruba AP-2xx/3xx)
- Aruba AP-2xx Wireless Access Point Replacement, complete UW-Housing facility upgrades
Work in progress
- Replace aging Cisco 3750, 3850, 4500x switches – nearing completion
- Replace aging Cisco 3650access/3850radial switches – In Progress
- Upgrade aging wireless access points (Aruba AP-3xx) – In Progress
UW–Madison requires a scalable network with ample capacity to support research connections and large data movements with collaborators and labs across the world, for academic connections to our learning management system – Canvas, and for administrative connectivity to systems like Workday in the cloud.
This project will upgrade UW’s network capacity for on and off-campus research, academic, and administrative purposes to 400 Gbps to ensure our network scales to meet initial and future capacity demands. The project will also replace aging network equipment reaching the end of it’s useful life to maintain reliable network service for all users.
Project deliverables
- Replace aging BOREAS-Net off-campus research network hardware to support 400 Gbps connections
- Replace aging OneNeck off-campus research data center interconnect (DCI) network connectivity to campus to support 400 Gbps connections
- Replace aging campus “border routers” with 400 Gbps infrastructure
- Upgrade campus network to support 400 Gbps connectivity
Accomplishments, work and timeline
Accomplishments
- BOREAS-Net: Completed optical network design, RFP and equipment purchase
- OneNeck DCI: Completed network design, equipment purchase
- Border Routers: Configured, installed and placed into service new routers, migrated Research Backbone Network (RBN) onto new border routers
- BOREAS-NET: Receive training and stage network equipment
- OneNeck DCI: Install and migrate onto new optical network infrastructure
- BOREAS-NET: Install and migrate onto new optical network infrastructure
- Campus Network Upgrades: Upgrading Research Backbone Network and Distributed Data Center Network (DDN) to accommodate expected network traffic growth
- Integrate Campus 400 Gbps network with broader BOREAS-NET changes
Upcoming work
- Complete – July 2026
Benefits and value
While the technology is foundational, the true success of this program lies in its ability to empower people:
- Enhanced collaboration: Faculty, researchers, and students across Schools, Colleges, and Divisions (S/C/D) will benefit from faster, more reliable, and secure connectivity, enabling interdisciplinary collaboration and innovation.
- Improved user experience: A modernized network will reduce downtime, improve access to digital resources, and support seamless mobility across campus.
- Operational efficiency: IT teams will gain tools for proactive monitoring, automation, and streamlined management, allowing them to focus more on strategic initiatives and less on troubleshooting.
- Trust and transparency: An architecture that fosters a culture of shared responsibility and trust, with clear governance and communication between central IT and S/C/D partners.
- Digital equity: By ensuring consistent and high-quality network access across all campus locations, we support inclusive access to education and research opportunities.
Our commitment
This modernization is not just a technical upgrade—it is a strategic investment in the university’s mission. We are committed to:
- Engaging stakeholders across campus to ensure the network meets diverse needs.
- Minimizing disruption during implementation through transparent planning and communication.
- Building a resilient, secure, and future-proof network that supports UW–Madison’s leadership in education, research, and public service.