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intro
'''Communications Network Services (CNS)''' is a division of the Office of the Vice President for Information Technology, which provides ISP services including telephone and Internet to the university. Unlike most departments, CNS operates as an auxillary service, and therefore recieves funding through cost-recovery rather than university budgets. Individual departments and students must pay a ''per-port'' charge for each IP or phone device attached to the network.
'''NI&S''', previously known as '''Communications Network Services''' ('''CNS'''), and briefly as '''Advanced Network Infrastructure and Services''' ('''ANIS''') is the ISP of [[Virginia Tech]], and part of the [[Division of IT]]. Around 2015, they went through a significant rebranding effort, because of the poor reputation earned by CNS as being "unhelpful, tyrannical network overlords", in the words of a former student. Today, they attempt to exist by their ''Brand Promise'', "Let's explore what's possible together", and ''Brand Character'', "Approachable, Plain Spoken, Collaborative", in order to prevent the need for further rebranding.
== Network Topology ==
In Blacksburg, CNS has redundant fiber uplinks to Ashburn, Virginia, McLean, Virginia, and Atlanta, Georgia. The [[Mid-Atlantic Broadband Communities Corporation]] provides the OC-192 (10 Gigabit) connections to Ashburn and McLean from the [[Andrews Information Services Systems Building]], and the OC-192 (10 Gigabit) connection to Atlanta from [[Hillcrest Hall]]. In summer 2015, the OC-192 connection to Ashburn will be upgraded to OC-768 (100 Gigabit).<ref>[https://www.vtnews.vt.edu/articles/2015/04/042115-it-gigabits.html]</ref>
For cost-savings reasons, the university's connectivity is primarily provided through an aggregation network shared by several other universities in Virginia, the [[Mid-Atlantic Research and Education Exchange]] (MREX). MREX, also known as the [[Mid-Atlantic Terascale Partnership]] (MATP)<ref>[https://beta.peeringdb.com/net/4326 PeeringDB: Mid-Atlantic Terascale Partnership - MATP]</ref>, is operated by Virginia Tech and provides connectivity for the [[Mid-Atlantic Research Infrastructure Alliance]] (MARIA), an alliance of the universities that receive connectivity through MREX.<ref>[http://www.marialliance.net/about-us About Maria - Mid-Atlantic Research Infrastructure Alliance]</ref>