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Education IT, Technology

New Zealand varsity upgrades backbone

By James Smith | 25 September 2008

With 22,000 students and 2000 staff on four major sites, Victoria University in Wellington, New Zealand, needs top grade communications. Efficient access to knowledge resources, administrative systems and educational applications all depend on reliable, high speed data connections throughout the campus.

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At the heart of the University’s communication network is a fibre optic ring that links the eight main communications rooms serving its seven different academic faculties. This backbone connection originally relied on multimode fibre links, but has recently been upgraded. It now uses advanced, single-mode fibre optics that deliver higher bandwidth and faster communication.

To meet the high standards it sets for speed and reliability in its network physical layer, the University chose CommScope’s SYSTIMAX TeraSPEED Solution. This ‘zero water peak’ solution delivers 50 per cent more bandwidth than other single-mode fibre by eliminating the peak in signal attenuation caused by the water content in the fibre.

“We knew from previous experience that the SYSTIMAX product portfolio could give us the reliability we wanted for our campus ring,” said Des Riley, Network Support Coordinator, Victoria University Information Systems. “Added to this, TeraSPEED fibre also provides a level of performance that will meet the University’s needs for many years to come. Demand for bandwidth in the network backbone is growing relentlessly as staff and students make more use of on-line systems - so we must have the best available infrastructure solutions.”

To give the network extra resilience, extensive redundancy has been built into its infrastructure. Its ring topology is supplemented by back-haul connections, and some links also by-pass some telecommunications rooms so loss of a room will not disable the whole ring.

In the University’s installation, TeraSPEED fibre is complemented by compact, low loss SYSTIMAX LC duplex connectors. LC connectors had already proved their advantages in the network’s Gigabit Interface Converters and in SYSTIMAX LazrSPEED multimode fibre connections between cabinets in the main computer room.

The new fibre ring was developed in conjunction with CommScope distributor, Anixter NZ and CommScope BusinessPartner, Extreme Communications. Victoria University, Extreme Communications and Anixter worked collaboratively together to ensure the project was completed on time and within budget. Des Riley was consulted at every stage from initial planning to final implementation and handover.

Installation of the new fibre ring presented some interesting challenges for Wellington-based Extreme Communications. Its team of installers had to complete their work without disrupting the existing fibre network or services on the campus site. These services rely on pathways that pass through the buildings and service alleys on the campus, as well as some underground conduits that reticulate around Wellington’s busy public suburban roads.

In addition, the cabling enters many different facilities across the campus, ranging from historic brick buildings to multi-storey, modern structures. These are ranged across the steep hillsides that are a feature of New Zealand’s capital city. To connect all the facilities, the installers hauled 2,500 meters of 24-core, armored TeraSPEED cable through existing underground ducts between buildings, and lay cables through trays and in-ceiling pathways within the buildings.

The team used SYSTIMAX 600G2 low-profile fibere-optic combination shelves to splice and terminate outside plant cables in the buildings. The pre-terminated, colour-coded cassettes provided an easy means to manage and match fibers broken-out from the trunk cable to connections in patch panels. Fusion splicing onto the cassette tails ensures consistently good, low-loss circuits.

The new fibre ring was integrated into the main Victoria University data centre. The Extreme Communications team rebuilt the data center two years ago. This installation included a mix of 24- and 48-port Category 6 SYSTIMAX PATCHMAX panels. The data centre is linked, via the campus ring, to an extensive SYSTIMAX GigaSPEED XL copper cabling infrastructure connecting over 15,000 information outlets in the faculty buildings.

All the SYSTIMAX connections are guaranteed to meet specifications from end-to-end by the SYSTIMAX 20-year Extended Warranty and Application Assurances. This not only guarantees system components, it also assures that the connections will support current and future networking applications that meet international standards.

Commenting on the Victoria University installation, Reginald Evans, Regional Sales Director, SEAP, CommScope Enterprise Solutions said: “A high performance, highly reliable network infrastructure is one of the foundations for today’s best academic institutions. It ensures efficient information flow, giving students fast access to the resources they need.

“A University can be considered as a knowledge business, so it has to make best use of knowledge resources. And, like any business, it has to be efficiently run, which also depends on the reliable, high-speed communications that CommScope can facilitate.”