Lancaster University Implements Foundry Bigiron RX Switches as Part of a £200 Million Rebuild Project
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31 May, 2007 - Foundry Networks, Inc., a performance and total solutions leader for end-to-end switching and routing, today announces that Lancaster University, one of the UK's top 25 Universities, has selected Foundry Networks' BigIron RX backbone switches as an important part of a £200 million investment programme.
As part of this project, the University upgraded its switch infrastructure to cope with the huge current and projected data demands on its network. The University's 15,000 students each have a 100 Mbps Internet connection to their room, creating large volumes of traffic and peaks in bandwidth demands. Lancaster University is recognised globally for its networking achievements and the £200 million rebuild project included the creation of InfoLab21, a centre for excellence into ICT research.
Professor Barry Forde, deputy director of computers, department of Information Systems, Lancaster University, said: "We required a high-performance solution that could handle the students' need for incredibly fast access to the Internet and Intranet. After rigorous evaluations, we found that the Foundry BigIron RX switches could manage the kinds of traffic we were experiencing really effectively. They also offered us superior scalability, with 10 Gigabit upgradeability, IPv6 compatibility and multi-cast support all at a competitive price."
Foundry Networks' IronView Network Manager (INM) software was also considered a major strength in the overall solution. INM allows rapid switch configuration for network administrators and simplified ongoing management via an easy-to-use industry standard interface.
The last word in voice and data traffic
In the last six months, four BigIron RX-4 switches have been installed in the University's School of Management, student resident's block, library and engineering department. Lancaster University plans to install two further BigIron RX switches and standardise on Foundry switch technology throughout its entire campus.
The University also capitalised on the VoIP capabilities of the RX switch by rolling-out VoIP across the campus, with 700 handsets already deployed. The University plans to use this new technology to offer students and staff a modern learning and working environment, including online lectures, resources and an IP based telephony system.
Forde, adds: "In the future we plan to film lectures and make audio and video viewing available over the network, directly to students' desktops and laptops. Traffic volumes are therefore climbing constantly and the new Foundry infrastructure fully supports these inevitable and ever-increasing bandwidth requirements."
Ken Cheng, vice president and general manager High-End and Service Provider Systems Business Unit, Foundry Networks, concludes: "We are delighted to be working with one of the world's premier academic centres specialising in networking research, and this project demonstrates our ability to provide solutions that perform seamlessly with converged, voice and video delivery."
