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Education IT

Australian college invests in high performance network

By James Smith | 5 September 2008

Mercedes College deploys 10gb a second connectivity in new fibre network.

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• EDUCATION IT

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• FEATURE

Mercedes College in Springfield, South Australia, is a Catholic co-educational school with 1250 students. Through its progressive and internationally focused approach, it has grown steadily since opening in 1954. The latest phase of expansion at the College campus is the addition of a new wing that sets the standard in educational facilities.

Information technology is central to the design of the new building, allowing a flexible approach that delivers learning resources wherever students need them. To achieve this, a high performance network infrastructure has been installed throughout the classroom and administrative areas. As well as data and Voice-over-IP connections, the new infrastructure supports analogue video, audio and CCTV.

The choice of physical layer connectivity was vital in meeting the network performance requirements. The College wanted speed and reliability that would support high bandwidth educational systems - including powerful new systems that will be developed in the future. It already had 1Gb/s Category 5e SYSTIMAX PowerSUM cabling in its existing buildings. For the new wing, it wanted 10 Gb/s connectivity that fully conformed to Category 6A/Class EA cabling standards.

After considering the alternatives, the College decided on CommScope’s SYSTIMAX GigaSPEED X10D copper solution for horizontal network connections. This gives 10 Gb/s performance from end-to-end over a 100-metre, four-connector channel.

In addition to 10G transmission speeds, the new network will also support PoE (Power-over-Ethernet). The installation at Mercedes College is one of the first such 10G, PoE systems in any Australian educational establishment.

“With the features and performance of the new network, we feel confident about migrating to new educational systems as these come online in the future,” said Albert Sabadin, IT Systems Manager at Mercedes College. “We also know that CommScope is backing its SYSTIMAX technologies with the ongoing investment needed to meet any future challenges.”

To meet transmission requirements in the network backbone, the College chose CommScope’s SYSTIMAX InstaPATCH Plus high density fibre solution. This is factory terminated, factory tested and modular, so installers can connect system components very quickly. Up to 96 fibers can be ready for service in the time it takes to make a single fibre connection with traditional systems.

The InstaPATCH Plus Solution, using laser optimised fibre, meets all the College’s speed and capacity requirements for the present and future. It does this without the high cost electronics associated with single-mode fibre, and it also offers the option of using very high speed parallel transmission techniques.

To realise the full potential of its advanced network connectivity, the College needed an equally advanced system for managing connections.

“We wanted a feeling of purposeful efficiency for the new wing,” said Albert Sabadin. “And this had to be more than skin deep – behind the scenes, the network infrastructure had to be fast, reliable and easily managed. The VisiPatch 360 Solution fits well with this concept.”

Using reverse connectors to route cords towards the back of the panel, the VisiPatch 360 system avoids the ‘patch chord spaghetti’ that plagues conventional panels. The clean layout and easily visible labelling makes moves, adds and changes much easier, saving time and avoiding errors.

In addition, the VisiPatch 360 System is compact and aesthetically pleasing. In a state-ofthe- art educational facility, like the new wing at Mercedes College, both these factors are a priority.

Installation of the new network was completed by CommScope BusinessPartner, BJM Data Cabling, based in Kent Town, South Australia. The BJM team connected 400 outlets via 20,000 meters of GigaSPEED X10D cabling carried in overhead trays. It also installed 150 meters of InstaPATCH Plus fiber in the backbone, linking the telecommunications room in the new wing with the central campus distributor.

The new infrastructure is covered by the same 20-year warranty and application assurances as the College’s existing SYSTIMAX PowerSUM cabling. CommScope guarantees that the whole installation, from end-to-end, will perform to specifications and support network applications that conform to international standards.