College of St Benilde expands network with 3Com switches, XRN technology

3Com Corporation today announced that De La Salle University - College of Saint Benilde (DLSU-CSB), a premier Philippine institution providing world-class tertiary education, has enhanced its network with 3Com switches and XRN technology. This network improvement will address the institution`s user growth and allow students and the faculty to handle high bandwidth applications while assuring cost-efficiency in tackling support issues and network redesign.

3Com is powering up DLSU-CSB`s network with two units each of 3Com Superstack 3 Switch 4950 and 4924 combined with the 3Com eXpandable Resilient Networking (XRN) Interconnect Kit. This solution gives unmatched performance, superlative redundancy and resiliency features to network users in the five edge sites using copper and fibre links to the school`s four intermediate distribution frames (IDFs) located at the Benilde, Duerr, Mutien and Solomon buildings plus a separate fibre optic link to the Angelo King International Centre - which is two blocks away from the main DLSU-CSB campus - where users access internal applications such as office productivity software, the Internet, Microsoft Exchange, and Oracle Financials.

The school is one of 3Com`s first customers in the Philippines to acquire 3Com`s XRN technology that allows a "pay as you grow strategy" which greatly reduces the total cost of ownership within the core of the network. By using cost-effective, compact core switches that are easy to use and easy to deploy, customers` upfront acquisition costs and ongoing management are much lower than a traditional approach based on a high-end centralised core.

"Using 3Com`s powerful network solutions, our students and faculty can now enjoy reliable, high-speed network performance," said Jaybee N Santos, director, DLSU-CSB Information Technology Centre (ITC). "Since its installation, network users have noticed a significant improvement in terms of accessing the Internet and network resources."

Additionally, DLSU-CSB has acquired the 3Com 11Mbps Wireless LAN Access Point 8000, and 3Com OfficeConnect 11Mbps Wireless LAN USB Adapter to offer high-speed Wireless High Fidelity (WiFi) access for students and faculty members alike.

"We`ve also invested in 20 3Com WiFi USB cards for students or faculty who need wireless connections. They can just borrow the cards and attach these to the USB ports of their own computers and instantly get WiFi access," Santos revealed.

Around 900 Intel-based PCs are scattered across the network connected to various application and file servers through Gigabit links provided by the 3Com switches, with 1 440 available ports to users.

Santos expressed confidence in the new 3Com Gigabit Ethernet network, especially with its ability for traffic prioritisation through virtual local area network (VLAN) support. "With the VLANs, we can contain the traffic into specific segments. We can fine-tune the network, and can organise traffic into segments based on a particular need," Santos said. "This will prevent bottlenecks in the entire network due to specific bandwidth requirements of a particular group of users. For example, in the Multimedia Arts program where high bandwidth applications are run, we can place their students in one VLAN. They then generate traffic only in their own VLAN and not in other VLANs."

"The 3Com Gigabit Ethernet set-up will provide the expected speed and robustness that our growing institution would need in the next five years before deciding on making the next upgrade," he added. "When we reach that point, 3Com would definitely be considered once more."