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IP Telephony System Eases Transistion and Updates Technology at Research Facility
The Institute for Genomic Research, Rockville, Maryland
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Project Name:
Location:
EDI Services:
EDI Contact:
The Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR)
Rockville, Maryland
Technology and Security programming and budgeting
Data/Voice Cabling infrastructure design
Data network design and procurement
IP Telephony system design and procurement
Data Center planning and design
Security planning and design
Don Kinser or Jan Stuchlik
(770) 956-7000
dkinser@ediltd.com or jstuchlik@ediltd.com
SITUATION:
The Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR) was founded in 1992 by renowned scientist J. Craig Venter. The Institute, which is located on 17 acres outside Washington, D.C., primarily conducts the structural, functional and comparative analysis of genomes and gene products from a wide variety of organisms. In 1995, TIGR was the first to fully document the genome of a living organism, and the Institute has sequenced the genomes of more than 50 organisms since then.
By early 2001 TIGR had outgrown its existing campus of four buildings and had decided to add a new 120,000 sq. ft. four-story building, thus doubling the size of the Institute’s campus facilities and adding much needed additional lab space. With such a large addition to the campus, TIGR needed to expand and upgrade its technology infrastructure throughout the entire facility.
One of the key areas of concern was the need to consolidate two smaller existing data centers into a more robust 4,000 sq. ft. data center in the new building. Like many organizations TIGR’s data center needs had grown incrementally over a number of years and they found themselves in a situation where continued incremental growth of the existing data centers was no longer acceptable.
EDI SOLUTION:
TIGR hired EDI to help them address their facility technology infrastructure needs. First, during the programming phase, EDI reviewed the Institute’s current system, completed a financial cost analysis and made recommendations on ways in which the system could best be upgraded.
EDI then designed an expanded and upgraded data network to serve both the existing campus facilities and the new laboratory building.
Based on EDI’s needs and cost analysis, TIGR chose to implement a new IP Telephony system for the campus. EDI helped TIGR procure the new system by writing a comprehensive “Request for Proposal”, pre-qualifying vendors, administering the bid process, and analyzing the bids to assist TIGR in the final vendor selection. Some of the challenges that EDI helped TIGR overcome were:
- Network and telephone system reliability –the phones need to work even if a server is down or there is a power outage. To provide that level of reliability, the network infrastructure must be as reliable as a traditional phone system. EDI’s design includes a dual core network, a physically redundant fiber ring, and redundant switch and IP Telephony components.
- Power for telephone sets – all phones are powered over the Ethernet wires from the telecom closets.The telecom closets are backed up by a UPS and a generator.
- Voice traffic priority – when a network experiences high traffic, it is possible for information to be delayed. This is acceptable for e-mails and file downloads, but not for voice which needs a real-time connection. To solve this problem, the network assigns higher priority to voice packets, so they are transmitted instantly even during peak network usage. This is known as a Quality of Service (QoS) enabled network.
- Network user authentication
- Network intrusion detection
- Network management
To support the new network and IP telephony system, the existing buildings needed a new fiber-optic backbone. EDI helped TIGR to procure a modern high capacity fiber-optic backbone by producing drawings and specifications, pre-qualifying bidders, and administering the bid process.
EDI has worked with the construction team (the architect and the general contractor) to provide construction documents for the building rough-in so that all the pathways (cable trays and conduits) were installed by the electrical contractor before the data/voice cabling and security system contractors installed their systems.
EDI met with TIGR and guided a programming process to determine the needs of the new data center. Based on the meetings with TIGR and a survey of the existing data centers, EDI created a programming document that summarized the requirements. EDI provided a layout of the data center, power, cooling, and redundancy requirements to the design team, as well as recommendations on the raised floor, data center furniture and cabinets, lighting, grounding, and fire protection. The 4000 sq. ft. data center was designed by the architect and the MEP engineers per EDI’s recommendations. One of the greatest values that EDI brings to its customers is our experience in both the IT and construction industries. By speaking both languages, IT and construction, we reduce the chances for miscommunication of requirements.
