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The China Youth Daily Group is
a large business conglomerate
with many divisions and
subsidiaries. Its main business
is newspaper and journal
publishing. The flagship China
Youth Daily Newspaper is the
third most widely read national
daily. In addition to the
newspaper building, the Group
also owns the China Youth
Journalists Hostel and printing
works in 23 provinces all over
China.
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The China Youth Daily Group, a large
conglomerate and publisher of one of the
country's most widely-read newspapers,
the China Youth Daily, has been running
all its business operations on a local area
network since 1996. After a decade in
operation, the 10Mbps network was
technologically lagging and could no
longer cope with new business demands
such as daily transmissions of a large
volume of news reports and large files of
high-definition images. The Group needed
a new high-speed communications
network to efficiently support the day-today
operations of a modern newsroom.
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The old network, using hub technology
with only one broadcast domain and one
collision domain, offered a low level of
security, reliability and network
manageability.
The China Youth Daily Group decided to
go for a total revamp of its network
infrastructure, upgrading its technology
platform with the use of switching
technology, as well as replacing all its old
network devices. The primary goals were
to increase the network operating speed,
boost security and reliability, and
improve manageability.
The Group evaluated network equipment
from several vendors and finally chose
ProCurve Networking switches for best
price-performance and ability to provide
a comprehensive set of solutions to meet
the requirements of the network
upgrade. In addition, the Group was keen
to ensure that the network would be up
and running at all times to support the
operations of the press room, and that
the network would be highly secure.
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The new infrastructure relies entirely on
advanced ProCurve switches. The design
of the network also takes advantage of
ProCurve's Switch Meshing technology at
the network core to ensure full
redundancy for the four switches in two
main buildings -- the Newspaper Office
complex and the News Collection and
Editing building.
Switch meshing works by providing
redundancy between multiple links,
allowing traffic to divert to another path
in case there's a problem in one of the
links. Switch meshing also makes use of
all of the links rather than having any
link sitting idle until there's a failure, as
may be the case with other technologies
such as spanning tree.
In the News and Editing building, there
are 30 servers in the central computer
room on the second floor and in another
computer room on the fourth floor. Every
server is linked to the two ProCurve core
switches via gigabit connections, while
the servers on the two floors are
connected via optical fibre.
The ProCurve switches provide threelayer
routing, but as the routing cannot
be initiated simultaneously with switch
meshing, two ProCurve 5304xl switches
are used for routing and accessing the
control list. By using the proprietary
XRRP Router Redundancy Protocol in the
two 5304xl switches, the network
ensures there is no single point of
failure.
By using ProCurve switches, the new
network is able to leverage many
advanced technologies, including:
Switch Meshing
In a network environment made up of
switches, if redundant links exist, there is
a good chance of looping, so to prevent
the network generating loops, Spanning
Tree Protocol (STP) is used. The Spanning
Tree will set the redundant link between
switches in "Blocked" status, and change
it to "Forwarding" status only after the
main link is broken. While STP prevents
looping, its inherent disadvantages
include waste of bandwidth, complex
design and layout, and too much
convergence time (at least 50 seconds).
ProCurve switch meshing technology is
also used to resolve the loop problem that
can exist in switch environments, but it
does not obstruct redundant links.
Instead, it allows the main link and
redundant link to work simultaneously
with the help of an intelligent algorithm.
Control of data between them is realized
through intellectual equalizing - i.e. when
the data volume is low, the entire data
flow is transmitted via the main link; and
when the main link is overloaded, the
excessive data flow will then be
automatically transmitted via the
redundant link. In this way, the network
achieves load equalizing of data
transmission and avoids wasting link
bandwidth.
Router Redundancy Protocol XRRP
Router Redundancy Protocol XRRP is
mainly used to achieve failover between
two router switches. Its chief advantage
lies in the ability to allow two router
switches to take up the task
simultaneously and yet allow failover at
the same time.
Virtual Stacking Technology
There are two types of stacking
technologies: physical stacking and
virtual stacking. Physical stacking can
limit the distance between different
network devices, and is commonly only
deployed inside a computer room,
specifically inside a cabinet, since the
physical stacking cable is only 0.6 meters
long. Virtual stacking does not have this
limitation and uses the normal Enhanced
CAT-5 cable to extend gigabit stacking to
100 meters. It can also connect switches
from the same stack in different wiring
enclosures and allow management via
one single stack.
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The ProCurve technology platform
provides a high-speed and efficient
communications system for the
business and newsroom operations of
the China Youth Daily Group.
One of the key reasons for choosing
ProCurve Networking is the value-add
of the ProCurve switch devices. Built
with ProCurve's own ASIC chip, these
switches have the best performanceprice
ratio compared to other offerings
in the market.
ProCurve's unique lifetime warranty,
which includes free maintenance
service and software upgrades, is also a
winning factor.
The implementation of modern
technologies such as switch meshing,
router redundancy and virtual stacking
in ProCurve switches assures the China
Youth Daily Group that it has an
advanced platform geared up for future
expansion.
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The ProCurve Networking business unit of HP is a supplier of enterprise networking solutions comprising wired and wireless networking products, services and solutions — including WAN routers, Ethernet switches, routing switches, wireless access points and network management applications — which allow customers to build networks based on open standards that meet current and future needs for security, performance and reliability.
The ProCurve Networking Adaptive EDGE Architecture™ is a unique design strategy that creates a secure, mobile, multi-service network by placing intelligence at the edge — where users connect and policies are enforced. This innovative approach creates a dynamic network infrastructure designed to keep up with advancing technology and user needs while protecting business investments.
Further information on ProCurve networking solutions and products is available at www.procurve.com.
♦For as long as you own the product, with next-business-day advance replacement (available in most countries). The following products and their related family modules have a one-year warranty with extensions available: The ProCurve Routing Switch 9300m Series, ProCurve Switch 8100fl Series, ProCurve Access Control Server 745wl and ProCurve Network Access Controller 800. Stand-alone software may have a different warranty duration. For details, refer to the ProCurve Software Licence, Warranty and Support booklet at www.procurve.com/warranty/
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