Case study: the Ohio State University Newark and Central Ohio Technical College share a campus-wide network and the advantages of Extreme Networks' high-performance infrastructure

University Business, Oct, 2004

The Ohio State University Newark (OSUN) and Central Ohio Technical College (COTC) share a three hundred acre campus in Newark, Ohio, as well as a network that supports 400 faculty and staff and over 5,000 students. In 2001, the campus replaced its network with a new Extreme Networks[R] infrastructure designed to bring more advanced voice, video and wireless applications to its campus population. Building upon the campus' success connecting six buildings with a 10-gigabit fiber network and new powerful capabilities, the campus added a new state-of-the-art technology and conference/auditorium positioned as the region's premier facility for technology-based conferencing--and depended on Extreme Networks every step of the way.

Sharing a Vision and a Network

The Ohio State University Newark and Central Ohio Technical College share more than a beautiful campus--they share a vision of a state-of-the-art campus network. In 2001, the campus IT department evaluated options to its existing layer 2-only network. With plans to offer voice and video services over the network in the future, it was apparent that the existing infrastructure couldn't support the quality of service (QoS) requirements of these advanced applications. The institutions wanted a new network that could provide the bandwidth, reliability, QoS support and VLAN capabilities a state-of-the-art campus requires--all within the constraints of their budgets and within a tight implementation timeline.

"Extreme Networks was not only a proven leader capable of meeting our technology expectations, it also demonstrated the ability to work with us to achieve our desired outcome," explains Tim Link, Chief Information Officer. "With Extreme's help, we were able to meet our budget and an aggressive time line and deliver a reliable, high-performance campus network."

Performance Anywhere, Anytime

One of the campus IT department's main objectives was flexibility for faculty and students on its wireless network. In addition, high availability and compatibility with industry standards were also important to ensure end-user satisfaction and investment protection.

"We want the ability for any student or faculty member to deliver a presentation from any location having full access to their network resources," says Mr. Link. "Our Extreme Networks solution allows us to deliver almost any kind of content and determine priority status for content delivery."

With Extreme Networks' wire-speed Layer 2 and Layer 3 switching capabilities, the campus experiences consistent performance regardless of traffic patterns or network load. Powered by Extreme Networks' open infrastructure, OSUN and COTC can take advantage of new applications as staff and student needs evolve, and meet campus needs today and in the future.

A New Building Brings New Opportunities

Opened in the fall of 2003, the new John Gilbert Reese Center is the essence of a high-tech, high-quality learning and conferencing facility. Offering a full range of services, the new three-part complex is positioned as a strong visual symbol on the Newark Campus. Dimensionally, it includes a Technology Infrastructure/Distance Learning Forum, Auditorium and Conference Facility, and an Academic Center for Excellence. Through the enhancement of Business & Industry's initiatives, the Center is designed to facilitate interdisciplinary partnerships between the campus and other community resources including business, government and schools.

Along with creating a strong sense of community, the campus aims to aggressively market and promote The Reese Center in a manner that will maximize its use by the campus community and businesses at a regional and statewide level. The ability to provide state-of-the-art services such as Voice-over-IP (VoIP), wireless network connectivity and real-time video to facilitate distance learning and video conferencing, is vital.

With Extreme's Policy-based QoS capabilities, the campus can easily meet the demands of real-time voice, video and other delay-sensitive applications with enforceable bandwidth and latency specifications. Network managers can define minimum and maximum bandwidths per traffic type, ensuring that higher priority traffic is marked and treated with higher priority than less important ones.

"Extreme Networks gives us the ability to support communication flow between classrooms or continents," notes Mr. Link. "With Extreme's QoS capabilities we can truly leverage our IP network investment for voice, video and data services--and the resulting cost savings."

Simplified Network Management

While the campus wanted a robust, capable network, it didn't want the complexities a converged environment can create. With Extreme Networks, the institutions can manage and monitor the new network simply.

ExtremeWare[R] operating system, software that runs on all Extreme switches, and the Infrastructure and Services Management (ISM) software family, are vital to the ongoing success of the new network, and played a large role in the selection of Extreme's broadband switching solution. In addition, EPICenter[R] management suite is an integrated application suite that simplifies configuration, troubleshooting and status monitoring.