11 June 2003 Beijing--China's Campus Network of Western Universities Project, a key State education network program initiated by the Ministry of Education, has selected Nortel Networks to supply switching equipment to upgrade campus networking infrastructure at 24 universities in Western China.
This upgrade will be a significant part of the Project, which in total will facilitate linking the function buildings, office buildings, libraries and dormitories of 152 universities in 12 western provinces with a campus backbone network.
It will also provide educational applications like Web-based learning, Internet surfing, network security management, and e-library services. The Project is expected to be finished by the end of 2003.
Nortel will provide the Project with its Passport 8600 Multiservice Switches, Passport 1424T routers, and Passport 1600 routers in Shaanxi, Gansu, Sichuan and Guizhou provinces, as well as in Chongqing Municipal City and the Xinjiang Autonomous Region. The equipment will enable reliable, high-speed connections within campus LANs.
The network will ultimately connect campus networks to the China Education and Research Network (CERNET), the nation's most important research computer network powered by the Ministry of Education.
"Our campus network needs solid networking and management infrastructures that cost-effectively support a breadth of needs, including scalable performance, optional switch and networking redundancy, application-optimized networking, and simplified management," said Sun Dayao, director of the Campus Network Center of Chang An University, one of the most prominent universities in China's Western region.
"We're very pleased to supply this exciting campus network project with our industry-leading networking solution, which has tremendous significance in developing China's western regions," said Robert Mao, president and chief executive officer for Nortel Networks in Greater China.
"This win is confirmation of our "One network, A world of choice" global enterprise vision, and demonstrates Nortel's advantages in the education market."
The Passport 8600 Multiservice Switch delivers wire-speed switching and routing over copper and optical media. It supports a high-performance Layer 2 and Layer 3 switching architecture that delivers 50 to 128 Gbit/s scalable bandwidth and supports Fast Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet, Packet-over-SONET and ATM interfaces.
It also includes Nortel's Open IP Environment module, which enhances interoperability and performance across the network. Available now in either a 6- or 10-slot chassis, Passport 8600 is used in campus and building backbone networks, and in service provider metro applications requiring higher performance, routing or MAN (Metropolitan Area Network) connectivity.
Passport 1424T is a performance-based, fixed port Layer 3 solution that delivers the enhanced network performance, simplicity and flexibility required for today's bandwidth-hungry services. Simple to install and maintain, Passport 1424T combines network core routing features with wiring closet efficiency. Twenty-four 10/100 Ethernet ports and 2 GBIC slots combine to provide connectivity for workgroups, servers, and switches in a 1U high solution.
The Passport 1600 series � including Passport 1648T, Passport 1612G and Passport 1624G � supports multiple routing protocols and a proven Quality of Service feature set for traffic prioritisation. All three devices provide wire-speed hardware routing, and share common hardware and software bases for ease of use and management. The Passport 1600 portfolio provides performance, resilience and security.
More information about Nortel Networks can be found on the Web at www.nortelnetworks.com