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Case study: Beijing No. 171 High School

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Customer at a Glance

ProCurve Networking builds pioneer network for Beijing No. 171 High School The Beijing No. 171 HighSchool is a leading school in the Dongcheng district. It has two campuses - thenorth and south campus and more than 3,000 students. The school is dedicated to achieving the highest educationalstandards and has always made an effort to introduce the most advanced teaching and learning models. As aresult, the Beijing No. 171 High School has been among the top performers in the senior high school entrance examination over the past few years.

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Abstract

The education sector in China has been one of the most aggressive adopters of information technology in recent years. From universities to high schools, a growing number of educational institutions are building digital campuses to support more efficient school management systems, and to allow students to benefit from modern learning methods.

With the installation of an advanced network solution by ProCurve Networking, the Beijing No. 171 High School has set itself up as a reference site for the design and construction of a high-performance, highly reliable and secure campus network.

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The Challenge

The school's first network was built several years ago and has been used to support daily administration and management tasks, as well as electronic teaching. Over the years, the Beijing No. 171 High School has made a continuous effort to introduce advanced teaching models and methods, and to improve the learning environment for its student population of more than 3,000.

Recently, with rapid developments in networking technology, as well as new demands arising out of the teaching and school management systems, the school decided to upgrade its network, paving the way for the introduction of electronic classrooms.

The key requirements for the new campus network were:
  1. To satisfy the demands for an e-learning environment
  2. To integrate various subnets, including a wireless subnet to support online access anywhere in the campus, an office subnet that will handle all school management functions, a teaching subnet that will support multimedia classrooms, and a network monitoring and management centre
  3. Easy to manage - network equipment must be conveniently configured and easily managed so there is no need to spend too much time and resources on managing the network
  4. Security - achieved through a network design that emphasizes security at the network edge and unified management of the wired and wireless networks.
After evaluating many competitive products and solutions, the Beijing No. 171 High School chose the ProCurve Networking solution as the one that would satisfy its need for a high-speed, efficient, reliable and safe network with excellent cost-performance. It found that overall the ProCurve products demonstrate best application performance in terms of practicality, security and operational efficiency.
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The Solution

The Beijing No. 171 High School has two physical campuses - the south campus and the north campus - and more than 3,000 students. The new network has a 1GB optical fiber backbone and 100MB access to the desktop, and can be upgraded to a 10GB platform in future, as requirements evolve. The ProCurve Networking solution divides the campus network into 4 functional subnets - the computer data network, the multimedia central control network, the wireless access network, and a data network which connects all the video resources in the classroom building, laboratories, the library building and a northern campus about 2.8 km away.

The design of the new campus network is based on a three-layer infrastructure, including the core layer, convergence layer and access layer. The network backbone, which uses advanced 10GB optical fiber, not only supports the current demands of large-scale database application, but also has plenty of room for expansion. The network also uses 10/100/1000 M copper cabling technology for connections to the desktops. ProCurve's Adaptive Edge Architecture, which creates a secure network by placing intelligent switches at the network edge (where users connect and policies are enforced), is a key feature of the new network solution.

The network uses the ProCurve 9308 core switch. At the convergence layer, four ProCurve 5308 Layer 2/3/4 switches are deployed and at the access layer, ProCurve 2626 Layer 3 switches are deployed.

In addition, the ProCurve Switch xl wireless access control module (ACM) and wireless network access control server are used to ensure the physical independence of the four subnets. The wireless switches are converged and connected with the 10GB core switch through the backbone optical fiber to unify the four subnets at the core layer.

Overall, the network structure is clear, safe and reliable. It also offers convenience, simple network management and an easy path for future network expansion. The wired and wireless networks also operate simultaneously so that users can connect both wirelessly and through the wired network.

Because security is a major requirement, in addition to the standard network security features, the ProCurve solution was able to apply unified certification management for users both on the wired and wireless networks. This effectively puts an all-around security shield around the network at all times, protecting it against malicious network attacks, viruses and Trojans.

The ProCurve solution employs RADIUS (Remote Authentication Dial In User Service) authentication standards to screen every user, including administrators and guests who may only access the network once.

Other security features include source-port filtering, Web-based authentication, MAC address locking, safe FTP document transmission, and the ProCurve Virus Throttling technology, which can immediately lock out an infected machine and separate it from the rest of the network.
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Business Benefits

After a smooth implementation process, the Beijing No. 171 High School has been delighted with the performance of the ProCurve network.

The network delivered outstanding performance and many new advantages. According to the school, the ProCurve network has demonstrated practical value. Teachers, students and research staff are able to benefit from the practical applications enabled by the high-performance network.

A unified security strategy that applies security at the network core and at the edge, as well as the built-in virus throttling technology, provides the school with a strong assurance that the network is highly secure.

ProCurve's unique lifetime warranty♦ for its switches and the easy network expansion path offer peace of mind. The lifetime warranty lowers the cost of ownership and reinforces the quality of ProCurve products.

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About HP ProCurve

HP ProCurve is the leading global provider of intelligent wireless networks (WLANs) for enterprises and service providers. Based on the industry’s first optimized WLAN switch architecture, HP ProCurve systems combine centralized management with intelligent access points to deliver superior performance, bandwidth efficiency, seamless mobility, and secure, easy user access.

More than 40 million users and 1,500 organizations across the healthcare, manufacturing, education, hospitality, service provider, and transportation sectors rely on HP ProCurve solutions. HP ProCurve provides mobile access to business-critical applications, guest/public Internet access, VoWLAN and FMC services, and video surveillance, delivering premier performance, scalability, and price to organizations worldwide.
♦  For as long as you own the product, with next-business-day advance replacement (available in most countries). The following hardware products and their related series modules have a one-year hardware warranty with extensions available: HP ProCurve Routing Switch 9300m series, HP ProCurve Switch 8100fl series, HP ProCurve Network Access Controller 800, and HP ProCurve DCM Controller. The following hardware mobility products have a one-year hardware warranty with extensions available: HP ProCurve M111 Client Bridge, HP ProCurve MSM3xx-R Access Points, HP ProCurve MSM7xx Mobility and Access Controllers, HP ProCurve RF Manager IDS/IPS Systems, HP ProCurve MSM Power Supplies, HP ProCurve 1 Port Power Injector, HP ProCurve CNMS Appliances, and HP ProCurve MSM317 Access Device. Disk drives in the HP ProCurve ONE Services zl modules, HP ProCurve Threat Mgmt Services zl module, and HP ProCurve MSM765zl Mobility Controller have a five year hardware warranty. Standalone software, upgrades, or licenses may have a different warranty duration. For details, refer to the ProCurve Software License, Warranty, and Support booklet at www.procurve.com/warranty.
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