The CityU Remote Access infrastructure provides remote access to CityU resources via the Internet for CityU staff and students. Virtual Private Network (VPN), acting as a “secure tunnel”, is the primary component widely used among different remote access facilities.
The VPN infrastructure has gone through several technology upgrades since its first deployment dated back to 2003. And recently, there are several significant enhancements.
To meet the increasing demand of faculty and staff who are working remotely and to support blended learning which involves a mix of face-to-face and online teaching/learning, a solid VPN connection is vital to all remote stakeholders, who are using a variety of equipment (including labtops and mobile devices) to access CityU’s resources.
In view of the demand growth, the capacity of the VPN infrastructure has been increased by more than four times.
CityU has set up a new VPN platform (Integrated VPN – ivpn) to consolidate several VPN services, e.g., client-to-site (C2S) and site-to-site (S2S) into one common VPN platform and gradually migrating users to the new VPN platform,
To facilitate users using the VPN services anytime/anywhere, the VPN service is accessible via many platforms, including Microsoft, Mac, and even mobile devices, e.g., Android/Apple phones, iPad, etc.
To provide stable VPN service to staff/students staying in Mainland, the Computing Services Centre (CSC) has worked with Cloud providers in Mainland to offer a stable VPN connectivity from Mainland to the university. This improves online experience for staff/students residing in China. Staff and students can conduct e-learning, research, and online examinations smoothly.
The diagram below illustrates a high-level design of the NAT Gateway, Virtual Private Circuit (VPC) and the CityU VPN Gateway.
IT.ServiceDesk@cityu.edu.hk
