KUALA LUMPUR, 26 JULY 2009—According to Malaysia’s national university, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), its students will soon enjoy what its officials call a “21st Century education experience” following the rollout of a new high performance communications solution.
"Students and staff have an insatiable appetite for knowledge, and they are increasingly hungry users of bandwidth," said UKM director/CIO, Centre for Information Technology, Professor Ir. Dr. Othman A. Karim. "It is important that we keep ahead of demand by boosting the capacity and performance of our core network.”
Professor Othman said the university had opted for a Nortel solution. “The use of 10G [10 Gigabit] Ethernet will deliver a next-generation reliable network capable of supporting research and collaboration at unprecedented speed,” he said. “And Nortel's SMLT [Split Multi-Link Trunking] technology will ensure a reliable, easy-to-manage solution that meets our current and future needs."
With more than 25,000 students and 8,000 members of staff, UKM is one of Malaysia's largest universities, and expanding its online usage by introducing a range of online applications including e-learning, network-intensive research applications, VoIP (voice over internet protocol), and IPTV (internet protocol TV).
Pressure on core network
According to Professor Othman, the new applications should empower students and faculty to teach and learn in collaborative new ways, and their successful deployment will provide an important competitive differentiator for universities. “They also require more bandwidth than UKM previously had available over its 1G [one Gigabit] campus network,” he said, with reference to the student body and university staff. “The new network solution, implemented by Nortel partner Tahiti Computers, will boost network bandwidth by a factor of ten, providing 10G Ethernet via a fibre-optic network across the university's main campus at Bangi.”
"Higher education institutions have always put immense pressure on the core network, and the digital learning style and always-on lifestyle of today’s students are stretching conventional connectivity to the limit," said Nortel’s ASEAN general manager, Enterprise, Bernard Chiang. "UKM's move to upgrade its network to 10G will pave the way for a whole range of new learning capabilities, attracting top quality students and faculty to the university."
Further details, such as start and expected installation dates, have yet been released at press time.
