Napier University

Napier University finds answer to robust communications down in the sewers

Based in Edinburgh, Scotland, Napier University has 1,867 members of staff and just over 13,500 students, enrolled in a wide range of courses from engineering to social sciences. The University is committed to continuous improvement and has set the challenge to be regarded as the best modern University in Scotland.

Challenge

The University places heavy emphasis on IT as a working tool. With over 13,500 students accessing its computer system from all over the world, it needs robust and secure systems to support both learning and business processes.

The University has always had a single IT infrastructure in place, upon which all users depend on for essential everyday work, meaning that downtime was simply not an option. As part of its business continuity plans the University needed to implement an additional communications backbone to ensure that it had a highly available infrastructure for students and teachers to access at all times.

Iain Russell, Network Systems Manager comments: "Students require access to the network 24 hours a day, and some of the teaching material that they are downloading, including video, can consist of quite large files. So it is important for them that we have a robust and high speed network, so that they can pull data from any of the campuses to wherever they are."

The University looked into the traditional route of building an additional network, but realised it would be far too expensive, so looked around for a cost effective alternative. After researching the available options it came across H2O Networks, the specialist provider of fibre-optic networks via the UK's sewer system.

Solution

As existing networks become increasingly congested with cables of all types, it has become much more difficult for network companies to find new pathways.

Through its Fibre Optical Cable Underground Sewer System, known as Focus System (FS), H2O Networks Utilises the UK's sewer network to deploy the fibre optic cable and set up IT and telecoms networks with virtually unlimited bandwidth.

The FS offers a fast and cost-effective way to lay fibre optic cable and link up any location without the high costs and disruption caused by traditional cabling methods.

The FS offers organisations a cost-effective alternative to the traditional method of deploying fibre cable. It offers a fixed term cost rather than bandwidth tariffs, so that when extra capacity is needed, it's available, and organisations won't incur further connection charges. H2O has linked the two main campuses of Merchiston and Craiglockhart where over 1,000 desktop computers are provided for students as well as a WiFi service for the students' own laptops.

Results

Russell continues: "Increasingly we have to look at more ! exible ways to provide both teaching and learning for our students. With so many students relying on our networks to support their studies we can't afford for our communications infrastructure to be anything but robust. With H2O Networks we have found a partner who truly understands our situation and can work with us to provide the best learning environment possible for
our students."

As well as the deployment process being at least 80 per cent faster than traditional methods, H2O was also able to provide a flexible solution at a price 90 per cent less than other service providers. Savings in part come from there being no need to enter complex negotiations to dig up roads and pavements which can add considerable costs to
network provision.

An additional advantage is that the cables lie at depths of up to 5m below the ground, compared with 450mm for conventional cables, making it far more secure, particularly in disaster recovery situations.

Russell concludes: "The bandwidth offered is hugely scalable and so will cope with the evolution of technology and the capacity needed to support this for the foreseeable future. Who knows what students' communications demands will be in the next five or ten years?"