SYDNEY, Australia, May 20, 2006 - Swinburne University of Technology has completed a technology upgrade with Cisco Systems® to increase network performance and information security to support the rollout of Internet Protocol (IP) communications to the university's 4,000 students and staff.

The fully converged Cisco® network is supported by a 10-gigabit-per-second (Gbps) backbone and is providing a significant boost to bandwidth and transfer speeds across Swinburne University's six campuses. The upgrade has also led to increased staff and student productivity, the provision of rich, multimedia learning applications, seamless intercampus communications, and a pipeline of exciting, high-bandwidth research projects, including those conducted internationally.

The upgrade builds on a previous network upgrade in 2000, after which Swinburne rolled out wireless connectivity to all campuses and began its switch to IP communications. With full migration to IP communications now complete, the aging private branch exchange (PBX) infrastructure has been retired, eliminating the costs of operating two separate phone and data systems.

Richard Constantine, chief information officer for the university, said: "We have realised our vision of a completely transparent and highly effective network. The fact that a student or staff member can plug in to any port on any campus and know that the Cisco network will provide identical quality of service (QoS) across voice, data and video services is incredibly reassuring in a university environment."

As part of the upgrade, 2,500 Cisco Unified IP Phone 7960G handsets have been added to the 1,500 phones deployed in 2000. The Cisco IP phones have been installed across the university's five metropolitan Melbourne campuses, in all lecture theatres and laboratories, and in its international campus in Kuching, Malaysia. Using the network, students can access a variety of resources directly from the phones, such as lab times, research material, course schedules and a service desk.

IP videoconferencing, via highly secure Cisco virtual private network (VPN) software, is an option Swinburne is exploring to help dissolve communication barriers between its Australian and Malaysian campuses. Cisco Unified CallManager software, the call-processing component at the core of the network, supports video-based communications in the same manner as standard telephony.

The network is designed to deliver speeds of 100 megabits per second to the desktop via 18,000 Power over Ethernet (PoE) ports. PoE enables IP phones and wireless access points to be powered over the local-area network (LAN) cabling, eliminating the need for a local power source and therefore reducing operational costs. Sixteen flagship Cisco Catalyst® 6500 Series Switches form the core network backbone, while Cisco Catalyst 3750 and 4500 Series Switches provide the edge switching components and interconnect the campuses.

Another important part of the upgrade was improvements to the Cisco Self-Defending Network architecture to help protect the network at all access points from hackers, viruses, worms and outages - both internally and externally. The comprehensive security solution deployed at Swinburne integrates traditional perimeter security with Identity-Based Networking access, host-intrusion protection components and other key security features inherent in the Catalyst 3750 and 4500 edge switching equipment.

The recent upgrade was deployed by the system integrator NetStar, a Cisco Gold Certified Partner. Ross Fowler, managing director of Australia and New Zealand for Cisco, said; "Swinburne is one of the leading higher education facilities in Australia. The fact that Swinburne has moved to deploy an IP-based network platform will only add to its reputation as a leader in its field by reducing costs, increasing productivity and servicing the needs of students and staff in Australia and in Malaysia."

About Swinburne University of Technology

Swinburne University of Technology is one of only a few universities offering a full range of education opportunities from pre-apprenticeships to TAFE, to undergraduate and postgraduate programs across six campuses in Melbourne. The University was a pioneer of the Industry-Based Learning program, a key feature of many of its undergraduate programs, which places students directly in paid employment as an integral part of the course structure. Swinburne has a strong research and technology base and emphasis on practical education.