Cisco network for growing AUT

By ADAM GIFFORD

Auckland University of Technology has started a $650,000 Cisco network on its Akoranga and Wellesley St campuses.

IT manager Calum MacLeod said AUT had been using a Newbridge ATM (asynchronous transfer mode) system which was no longer fully supported by Newbridge's new owner, Alcatel.

"That was a problem for us because of our growth," Mr MacLeod said.

AUT had 26,000 students, compared with 17,000 four years ago, and expected to have 35,000 by 2007.

"We have almost doubled the number of computers on the campus, and the old ATM network wasn't coping.

"When you have up to 70 classrooms of 20 or more students all logging on at the same time, you need plenty of bandwidth," Mr MacLeod said.

PCs on the network were getting 100Mb of bandwidth.

"ATM is technically sound for specific uses, but it never really took off in the LAN (local area network) space.

"Meanwhile, ethernet has been enhanced enough to do what we need, and we could get similar performance for 30 per cent cheaper," he said.

Mr MacLeod said AUT expected Cisco to be the highest bidder in the tender, but the opposite was true.

"They also had a clear road map for the future, which was very important to us, and good local representation."

The bulk of the roll out was completed in five months with help from Cisco and network integrator Logical.

Mr MacLeod said the next step was starting a VOIP (voice over internet protocol) network, using Cisco's AVVID (architecture for voice, video and integrated data).

The voice over internet phones were already in use by IT staff and would go into the AUT's Queen St building next month.

"The main saving is it means you need only one network connection to sites," Mr MacLeod said.