Campus Backbone Network

To facilitate speedy information exchange and resources sharing, University Campus Network was first established in late 1992. It including departmental and data centre network is now built on a Software-defined Network (SDN) in a spine-and-leaf architecture. The whole campus, including classrooms, student hostels, teaching blocks, academic and administrative buildings, are connected to the Campus Backbone via multiple high-speed links up to 100Gbps.

Available to

Staff & students

Service Charge and Application

Free; no application required

Service Availability

24 X 7; except maintenance period

 

Via Hong Kong Academic and Research Network (HARNET) and Hong Kong Internet Exchange (HKIX), the campus network closely links to many Research & Education Networks and Cloud Services, such as: 

The high-speed connections with global R&E networks and Cloud Services allow lectures, seminars, and conferences to be remotely recorded and even online broadcasted, regardless locations and distance. More importantly, advanced research projects can be conducted smoothly in virtue of computing power and networking capacity. Check out Feature: Connection to International Research & Education Networks.

 

  1. Departmental Network
    We assist departments to plan and set up their Local Area Network (LAN). With 10GE inter-building links introduced, departments/units on main campus can also request for 10GE connections.
  2. ResNet (Residence / Hostel Network)
    We assist College/Postgraduate/Department Student Hostel Management to plan for their network connectivity. Multiple high-speed links to Campus Backbone or Broadband Service are the standard provision in student hostels.
  3. ClassNet (Classroom Network)
    All classrooms are equipped with Gigabit Ethernet ports connected to Campus Backbone with Virtual Private Network (VPN) technology to assure the security.
  4. WiFi Service and Hotspot Partnership Programme
    Wireless LAN supports Wi-Fi 5 and 6 over campus and remote offices. It allows Wi-Fi connections at different hotspots out of CUHK campus or even overseas educational institutions.
  5. Remote Departmental Network
    This includes Prince of Wales Hospital, Children Hospital, Lek Yuen Health Centre, Eye Hospital, School of Continuing and Professional Studies, School of Law and MBA Programme are connected to the Campus Network through Metro Ethernet link, and remote routers.
  6. CUHK Virtual Private Network (VPN)
    It allows campus network connections over a non-CUHK network (e.g. home broadband service) to access CUHK restricted sites.

Check out a summary of Ways for CUHK Staff & Students to Connect Campus Network and the Internet.

 

Virtual Private Network (VPN) technology has been adopted to secure the access to Campus Backbone Network.
To further enhance campus network security, the following incoming connection requests originated from off campus have been blocked. Eligible users should enable a CUHK VPN  when accessing campus computers over these protocols.

  • RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol)
  • SMB (Server Message Block)

The ITSC has been connected to the regional IPv6 networks which allow our websites to be listed with a longer six-byte number. It is different from the IPv4 networks which only support four-byte IP addresses. Check out Feature: IPv6 Development in CUHK