March 7, 2003--The University of Warwick, working in conjunction with pan-European carrier Telindus, has selected Extreme Networks as the preferred supplier for a 10-Gigabit Ethernet backbone for its campus network.
The framework agreement is valued at around £1.8 million, with implementation planned for 2003 in time to go live for the next academic year.
Mary Visser, assistant director of IT services, University of Warwick, said, "Technology has become the focus of Warwick's 'e-strategy' in the past 18 months. Students want the ability to have fast network access at any time and from anywhere. Library material should be simple and quick to view and this new backbone will give our students the best network facilities available."
Telindus will install Extreme Networks' Black Diamond switches containing 10-Gigabit Ethernet blades at the core and a selection of Summit switches at the edge of the campus network. The new backbone will allow the university to provide students and staff with high-speed access to university and Internet services at any point in time. Every one of the 6,000 points around the campus will have a network connection of 100 Mbits/sec to the edge, which will run Gigabit Ethernet to the core to enable the transmission of library files, e-learning material, or multimedia content, and for the provision of future voice and video streaming applications.
Paul Phillips, UK & Eire Academia Sector Manager at Extreme Networks, said, "As the first educational institution in the UK to implement a 10-Gigabit Ethernet backbone, this is a really exciting project for us. It is a logical move for such a forward thinking institution, which is increasingly needing to deploy and guarantee bandwidth-intensive applications while facing growing demands from its user communities. 10-Gigabit Ethernet with robust quality of service will become the new benchmark for the network core, and as the first UK university to adopt this standard, the University of Warwick is leading this technology revolution."