The IIAF World Championships of Athletics is the third most prestigious global sporting event after the football (soccer) World Cup and the Olympic Games. The ninth Championships, staged in Paris in August 2003, attracted over 500,000 spectators, drew more than 4.5 billion TV viewers (over a total of 3,000 broadcast hours), 4,000 volunteers and 2,000 athletes representing 210 countries.
Hosting this international event was the catalyst for INSEP to rethink its entire network infrastructure, with the primary goal of meeting the expectations of athletes coming to train on its premises.
"INSEP is comprised of a number of buildings often quite far apart from each other and Wi-Fi technology has the advantage of requiring no network cables. However, before installing it, we had to be sure that the wireless technology offered a high level of security," said Gérard Caty, head of the IT, office automation and telephony department at INSEP.
Gérard Caty contacted several suppliers, including HP's partner Point Sys. His aim was to carry out a technical study focused on security and performance. Two Wi-Fi platforms were examined, including HP's. "The HP solution, based on Wi-Fi-enabled terminals and an HP ProCurve Integrated Access Manager 760wl, offered the high levels of security we were looking for, well above that of the other solutions tested. Therefore, we opted for HP and Point Sys, who had been our partners for other programmes and for the Olympic Games in Sydney in 2000."
An HP ProCurve Integrated Access Manager 760wl was connected to four Wi-Fi terminals located in the reception, cafeteria and general offices, with each terminal covering a distance of 300 metres, with five HP laptops and tablet PCs integrating the Wi-Fi technology.
To access the Internet, athletes and other sporting participants obtained a User ID and a password from Gérard Caty's IT department.
The network lived up to expectations. The HP ProCurve Integrated Access 760wl device, running a number of software packages, ensured user identification before granting secure access through a firewall to INSEP's wide-area network (WAN).
As far as performance is concerned, Gérard Caty is very satisfied with the architecture that has been installed. "Using a network monitoring tool, I measured available mean data throughput of around 11 Mbits/s, even in the more remote parts of INSEP. In terms of outbound data, we always have 100% availability, and only slightly less than that for inbound data. We had no service downtime: an athlete can begin a connection in the cafeteria and continue roaming without interruption in the stadium. Fantastic!"
The week-long Athletics World Championships allowed INSEP to perform a real-life test. Now there are plans to go one step further: "Ultimately, any INSEP student with a laptop or any other Wi-Fi peripheral will be able to log on to the Internet for coursework, without any restrictions and in complete security, following the launch of our comprehensive eLearning program. Our intention is to become a technological shop window for sportsmen, sportswomen and their trainers," concluded Gérard Caty, who appreciated the responsiveness and commitment of HP and Point Sys. He sees this as the basis of a long-term partnership.
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Gérard Caty
Head of IT
INSEP
