PERTH, Australia -- 6 December 2001 -- Cisco Systems, the worldwide leader in networking for the Internet, has been selected by Curtin University of Technology in Western Australia to supply equipment for the deployment of 10 Gigabit Ethernet per second computer networking technology.
The deployment is one of the first of its kind in the Asia Pacific and will be carried out by Curtin University of Technology, in conjunction with leading systems integrator, Dimension Data Australia. The technology roll-out will extend to 10,000 nodes across four of the University's campuses. This will provide a very high speed, Internet Protocol-based video and data infrastructure to more than 29,000 students and almost 2,800 full-time equivalent staff.
10 Gigabit Ethernet is based on Ethernet, the most widely deployed networking technology in the world. It will allow network managers at Curtin to scale their Ethernet network from 10 Mbps, 100 Mbps, or 1000 Mbps to 10,000 Mbps, providing unprecedented network performance and flexibility.
"Curtin University of Technology is demonstrating a commitment to IP networking technology that will put it ahead of many other users in the Asia Pacific region," said Mr Terry Walsh, Cisco Managing Director, Australia & New Zealand.
Mr Andrew MacDonald, Manager of Network Services at Curtin, said upgrading the Cisco network to 10 Gigabit Ethernet technology would allow the University to achieve cost efficiencies by implementing video over IP as well as data and security services, all based on Cisco's networking technology.
Using the new IP network, students and staff will be able to communicate more efficiently between facilities. For example, they will be able to share teaching resources online and view lectures via video, all over Internet Protocol.
Mr MacDonald said another major application for 10 Gigabit Ethernet networking at Curtin would be IP-based Storage Area Networking.
"We have been evaluating Cisco Storage Router products because of the ever-increasing usage of IP at our campuses. The upgraded infrastructure will allow us to use Storage Area Networking more efficiently," he said.
As Western Australia's largest university, Curtin's Western Australian campuses are located in the Perth metropolitan area and the regional areas of Kalgoorlie, Northam and Esperance. The Northam campus is about 100 kilometres east of Perth, Kalgoorlie is almost 600 kilometres east of Perth, and Esperance is about 720 kilometres south-east.
The new network will consist of Cisco Catalyst® 6500 series and 3500 series switches. By supporting high-bandwidth connections over extended distances, Cisco's Catalyst 6500 10 Gigabit Ethernet line cards enable customers to implement new applications such as e-learning, including imaging and 3D modelling, and high bandwidth inter-POP (Point of Presence) connections.
Mr Gerard Florian, Dimension Data Australia's chief technology officer, said Dimension Data was delighted to continue working with market leader Cisco and such a visionary user as Curtin.
"The project we are implementing at Curtin demonstrates our ability to install and maintain complex leading edge networks over wide areas," Mr Florian said.
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