Leading UAE University deploys pioneering campus network

Tuesday, 01 February 2011 12:08  |  James Barton

The UAE’s leading national university, the United Arab Emirates University (UAEU), is deploying a new state-of-the-art campus network. Designed to enhance academic and research functions, the network will also handle increasing data volumes that have tripled in the last 12 months.

The core network features switches and routers from Brocade to support the university’s current and projected needs. These include:

• High Definition Internet Protocol television (IPTV)
• Voice, video and data with real-time intelligent infrastructure management
• Content delivery via virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI)
• IPv6
• Telepresence-based video conferencing
• Remote high definition virtual classes over IP
• HD video and lecture capture
• Cloud-based content delivery in each classroom

The new network will provide a robust delivery platform for UAEU’s classrooms, labs, library, lecture rooms and other spaces to provide an integrated and high performance ICT architecture.

Dr. Wyatt R. Hume, Provost of UAEU says: “The commencement of the new campus for UAEU’s students marks a giant leap in our mission of establishing the UAEU as part of the global research community, which the country will be proud of and an investment which goes a long way in creating a most successful future for the UAE.”

At the heart of the new 120-hectare campus is the UAEU data centre, housed at the Faculty of Information Technology (FIT) building that was designed jointly by UAEU’s IT Services Group and Visionaire, the appointed design and build systems integrator. The FIT building hosts over 20 of the world’s most advanced IT laboratories, which includes an 8.3-teraflop super grid computer that is the fastest in the region. The laboratories also include the latest interactive humanoid technology, enabling students to perform experiments in speech recognition, vision and motion capture. Six laboratories dedicated to IT security provide the students hands-on experience in security systems ranging from intrusion detection to biometrics. A further five laboratories dedicated to the field of networking provide the students an opportunity to learn about wireless networks, VOIP and other exciting new concepts in networking.

Nick Choban, CIO of UAEU was delighted with the results: “[Of the network going live] This was a day that will stay with me for the rest of my life. An interesting fact, Internet bandwidth utilisation has nearly tripled in the past year, and thanks to a great design and implementation, I can sleep well tonight. The unanimous consensus around the new campus today was that a great achievement was accomplished.”

UAEU followed a thorough performance and commercial evaluation process to come to its final selection of technologies with design and build services being provided by leading systems integrator, Visionaire, to deliver the solution, which included Brocade’s core, distribution and network access switches and a best-of-breed integrated ICT service oriented infrastructure.

“UAE University has demonstrated a clear vision and determination for embracing a unified approach towards technology based achievement of the desired learning outcomes for UAEU.  We speak for all the technology partners who have contributed to this project that we are honoured by this association and opportunity to deliver the technology integration with the extremely high quality of construction and architecture provided by the joint PPP venture of Mubadala with UAEU”, said Aneeta Gupta, President & CEO of Visionaire.

More info:

• www.brocade.com
• www.uaeu.ac.ae/

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