Network Automation and Non-Stop Operation for Education Campus

NIT Raipur in India gets a non-stop, resilient solution featuring simplified and automated management.

Bringing the Old into the New

Founded in 1956, the National Institute of Technology (NIT) Raipur is a technical institute funded by the Government of India, located in Raipur in Chhattisgarh, India. NIT Raipur is one of the oldest institutes of its kind in India. Offering Bachelor’s degree programs in Technology and Architecture and Master’s degrees in Technology and Computer Applications; the Institute has approximately 2,700 students, all requiring both wired and wireless connectivity.

When the campus network began showing signs of age, NIT Raipur decided it was time to both bring it up to speed and future-proof it, by implementing intelligent design and sufficient bandwidth.

NIT Raipur had several critical requirements for its new network:

• a single converged network to support voice, video and data
• a resilient design, with no single point of failure
• high-speed automated network recovery in the event of any problems

The Institute was also interested in implementing Software Defined Networking (SDN) in the future, so the solution had to be future-proof and ready for next-generation technologies.

NIT Raipur chose Allied Telesis over several industry-leading network providers. Allied Telesis was the easy choice for the Institute, thanks to its cutting-edge technologies—including Allied Telesis Autonomous Management Framework™ (AMF)—and superior service and support.

Fully Managed, with No Single Point of Failure

NIT Raipur now have a brand-new campus network, with the entire implementation based on three-tier architecture with AMF. The new network is fully managed, with no single point of failure.

The network core comprises four SwitchBlade x908 modular switches, two of which use Virtual Chassis Stacking (VCStack™) to create a single virtual chassis. The VCStack is connected to the other two SwitchBlades in a high-speed Ethernet Protection Switched Ring (EPSRing™). This combination of VCStack and EPSR creates a fully utilized and resilient network core.

The x510 Series distribution switches are connected in two further EPSR rings. The versatile x510 Series are also used as access switches at the edge of the network.

This powerful solution is perfect for distributed environments like the NIT Raipur campus. EPSR provides high performance for this converged network carrying voice, video and data, with automatic failover in as little as 50ms in the event of a link or device failure. This resilient design ensures always-available access to online resources and applications, for both staff and students.

Unified management

The new network is under central control thanks to AMF, which provides centralized management of the entire network, as well as automation that simplifies day-to-day administration. Intelligent software reacts to changes within the network and automatically changes the topology. Network switches are automatically backed up, and can be recovered with zero-touch, and new devices can be added to the network with plug-and-play simplicity.

Success, Thanks to AMF

The new network implementation went very smoothly. The project met all the expected timeframes, easily fulfilling NIT Raipur’s requirements, and was complemented with industry-leading service and support.

The cost-effective new solution has met all the Institute’s requirements, and is prepared for the future adoption of SDN and other next-generation applications that support a modern learning environment.

The entire campus now enjoys a brand new high-performance network, providing voice, voice and data services, with immediate and constant access to online information. Thanks to AMF, NIT Raipur IT staff have an easy-to-manage network, with automated backup and recovery, reducing administration time and cost. Allied Telesis is committed to supporting NIT Raipur both now and well into the future, with superior services and support.