State university graduates to high-speed online library access - Technology Information

Communications News, July, 2000 by Steve McGrath

GigE increases traffic capacity and adds multimedia support without complexity.

Some say the Internet will mean death for libraries.

While online resources might minimize the need for bigger library buildings, they maximize the need for an industrial-strength library computing infrastructure. This is particularly true as Penn State University Libraries begins providing access to a growing number of databases and multimedia resources, such as audio files and video clips. These demands have prompted Penn State Libraries to install a Gigabit Ethernet network backbone to transmit the high volumes of traffic these applications demand without bottlenecks.

Gigabit Ethernet propels data across a network of computers at a rate of one billion bits, or one gigabit, per second, greatly increasing the capacity of local area networks (LANs)--allowing conventional networks based on the dominant networking topology, Ethernet, to run 10 to 100 times faster than they do currently. The Gigabit Ethernet furnishes users with higher speeds--normally associated with more complex technologies--affordably and simply.

"A lot of people don't understand how big Penn State is and what our library system is duty bound to provide students and educators," says Michael Bender, senior systems engineer for Penn State Libraries. "They depend heavily on our network for 24x7 access to enormous amounts of online materials. We need the best."

The network supports traffic from 1,400 local workstations, 160 student-accessible databases and more than 20 servers located in seven campus library buildings. These buildings offer "open port" networking, which enables Penn State students and staff to plug their laptops into a port in the library and have full access to e-mail, the Internet and the libraries' intranet.

Additionally, this LAN supports traffic from the university data backbone, which serves 80,000 students, 14,000 faculty members, other Penn State campuses and facilities around the state, and countless members of the public who access the libraries' online catalog and electronic holdings of more than four million books and periodicals.

The network also supports a new project in which professors record classes and offer them over the intranet using RealNetworks' RealAudio software. Several Penn State music classes also are using the libraries' network to provide access to assigned music and scores from any workstation that supports RealAudio software. Students no longer need to go to a music listening lab or a dedicated workstation to access these materials. They can gain access throughout the libraries or from the convenience of their residence halls.

Because of these demands, Bender and his team needed a fast, simple and affordable high-speed technology that could support the increasing traffic on the network without adding complexity or management tasks. They turned to Lucent Technologies and its Cajun P550 gigabit switch, whose backplane of more than 45 gigabits per second enables networks to move enormous data traffic loads quickly and simply.

"As a desktop application, full-motion video consumes a lot of bandwidth, and with the Cajun P550 switches giving us a bottlenecks-free backbone network, we can now easily make this happen with no distracting latency or jitter," Bender says.

In addition to its high-capacity and fault-tolerant capabilities, Penn State Libraries chose Lucent's P550 gigabit switches because they operate seamlessly with the company's existing 20 Cajun P110 switching systems, which support the open ports, and 17 Cajun M400 gate switches, located in library wiring closets around the campus. Bender says the Lucent data switches have performed reliably, which is critical given the network's importance to education.

The M400s have also presented Penn State with a special cost savings. The M400 supports shielded and unshielded twisted pair cabling in the same port and automatically configures itself to the proper medium. That was important for Penn State Libraries, which has migrated from IBM-standard shielded cabling to Category 5 unshielded twisted pair cabling.

"No other vendors' switches would support both types of cabling, and the cost savings of going with the M400 are staggering over the life of the network," Bender says. "With the M400, you simply plug in the new cable, and the switch autosenses, pings on the line, adjusts itself and goes to work."

"Although a network is just a means to an end, it's really a lifeline to education," Bender states. "For a professor who needs students to hear the Mozart concerto as it was performed, network bandwidth is everything. And for a student who needs an abstract from the meteorological and geoastrophysical database for a final the next day, reliability is a critical concern. We've got a data network that eliminates these worries."

McGrath is a technology writer based in Portsmouth, NH.

www.lucent.com Circle 260 for more information from Lucent Technologies' LAN Division