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Network Design Allows Connectivity Across Campus
Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island
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Project Name:
Location:
EDI Services:
EDI Contact:
Brown University
Providence, Rhode Island
Infrastructure and Network Design
Jim Harrison, Lead Project Manager
jharrison@ediltd.com
(770)956-7000
www.ediltd.com
David Larkin, On-Site Project Manager
dlarkin@ediltd.com
(770)956-7000
www.ediltd.com
SITUATION:
Founded in 1764, Brown University is the seventh oldest higher-educational institution in the United States. With some of its campus buildings listed on the National Historic Registry and some built as recently as 2000, Brown has certainly grown and changed over time, both physically and technologically. Proactive planning on the part of the university’s Computing & Information Resources (CIS) staff led the school to seek an engineering company that could provide designs and consultation on the implementation of new technology across the campus. After an extensive search process, EDI was selected to provide analysis, planning, design, and project management for the network upgrade that would take the 239-year-old university to a new level of data networking capability.
EDI SOLUTION:
EDI began by conducting a complete campus survey of infrastructure and system networks to establish a baseline for the project. Brown is unique in that it has more than 170 buildings on campus – many of which were once homes, but now serve as classrooms or academic offices. To take advantage of existing infrastructure in this widely dispersed arrangement, EDI worked closely with the university to combine their knowledge of the campus’ infrastructure with EDI’s understanding of design – in turn developing a set of best principles to create the new infrastructure. From this, EDI provided the design for a network that included fiber optic cabling so bandwidth could be evenly distributed across the campus. Sixteen distribution locations were established so all campus communication could be aggregated through redundant switches. In addition, each switch has redundant backbone cabling, or dual feed, to both prevent bottlenecks when a high volume of network traffic is traveling through a particular location, and to eliminate a single source of failure in the event that one of the core switch locations or backbone cables is disrupted. Prior to implementation, EDI used network modeling to test the design and identify areas of possible bottlenecks.
EDI also created specifications and qualification criteria to help Brown evaluate and select the vendors needed to implement the network design. To ensure the project was delivered on time and within budget, EDI provided an on-site staff member to manage the entire process of development and implementation.
With this new design, students, faculty and staff have the ability to access information on the network anytime and anywhere. EDI’s design also provides a solid foundation for Brown’s entire network to move into the future – it was specifically designed for longevity and flexibility as new technologies are developed and introduced over time.
EDI serves as the lead company on the project and has partnered with Tricomm Network Solutions, Texel Corporation and M2000/IS. While phase I was completed in late 2002, the four-phased project is expected to reach substantial completion by August 2003.
