Case Study | CROUS de Dijon
CROUS de Dijon in France, selects an Allied Telesis solution, providing
connectivity to 27 separate buildings, and services to more than 10,000 users
every day.
Case Study |
CROUS de Dijon
Overview
Customer Profile
The Centre Régional des Oeuvres Universitaires et Scolaires
(CROUS) in Dijon, France, recently developed a fibre-based network
architecture.
The CROUS is a French region-based tertiary education organization
providing student bursaries, university halls of residence, and student
restaurants. It is a public organization with regional branches, which
aims to provide support to students and to improve both their living
and study conditions.
Following a public tender, Allied Telesis was selected to provide the
equipment for the new network. Allied Telesis was chosen due to
their innovative product line, and high-value solution.
The CROUS in Dijon employs nearly 300 people full-time to
provide student services. Staff administer a campus of nearly 4100
accommodation units; serve about a million meals annually; deal with
about 15,000 requests per year for social assistance, including grants
and emergency assistance; and enhance the cultural life of students,
with support for theatre and numerous student associations.
The CROUS IT administration must support and maintain a highperformance, secure and reliable communications network, to
support the culinary, accommodation, cultural and social needs of
over 10,000 people every day.
The CROUS recently completed a facility upgrade and improved
their network. As part of the network upgrade, they decided to
install a fibre-based network architecture. The main aims of the new
network structure were to connect the numerous CROUS buildings,
and to develop a unified infrastructure across the campus.
Page 2 | Allied Telesis Case Study: CROUS de Dijon
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Project objective
The solution
To continue providing superior student services in a changing world,
the CROUS IT administration decided to undertake a major upgrade
of its data network. The major objectives of this restructure were
x900 Series Switches were chosen thanks to their guaranteed
reliability and resilience.
■ to improve the students’ study environment
■ support their technological needs by providing state-of-the-art
Internet access to student accommodation blocks.
Customer Requirements
The CROUS has an IT team consisting of just 3 people, who
manage and maintain the data network, administrative services, 86
applications, 18 servers, and the student services network which is
accessible in all the residences. In order to make efficient use of their
human resources, the CROUS required a reliable, well tested, and
easy to manage network.
From a technical point of view, the main challenge in the project
was the diversity of the network, both in terms of user profiles, and
physical architecture -the network includes both wired and wireless
connectivity. This challenge was further accentuated by Quality
of Service requirements – the CROUS needed to maintain data
security and manage data flow in accordance with applications and
user profiles.
The network consists of 200 CROUS administered computers, and
around 2000 non-administered student computers. It was essential to
segment the network into VLANs, in order to maintain optimal data
flow, and to ensure data security, particularly of administrative data.
Two x900-24XS switches were used at the network core. The x90024XS switches feature advanced routing functionality along with 24
SFP ports, enabling both copper and fibre connectivity.
One of the x900-24XS switches concentrates all the fibre links
serving the CROUS sites. The other acts as the BGP4 router,
providing connectivity to the RENATER network
At the new network edge, the CROUS now have AT-8550 and
AT-8648 switches, along with AT-8624PoE switches to power the
access points at wireless locations.
VLAN implementation not only enables the separation of different
user groups, but also allows for efficient control of all data
communication, and provides network performance optimization.
Allied Telesis have met the CROUS’ needs, both in terms of longterm requirements and cost optimization. The new solution can easily
incorporate future technological developments, and supports both
IPv4 and IPv6.
The open-standards interoperability of the Allied Telesis equipment
means that the CROUS network now has maximum flexibility and
outstanding longevity, and allows for easy adoption of future network
innovations.
The CROUS network is connected to the Réseau National de
télécommunications pour la Technologie l’enseignement et la
Recherche (RENATER), which translates to National Network of
Telecommunications for Technology, Education and Research. Because
of this connection, the CROUS has a user responsibility roughly
equivalent to that of an Internet Service Provider (ISP).
Finally, like most educational institutions, the CROUS operates
within a limited budget, and so had a strong desire to reduce costs
by extracting the maximum benefit from its investment in IP and
Ethernet technology.
Page 3 | Allied Telesis Case Study: CROUS de Dijon
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CROUS de Dijon
Case Study |
The new network
Service
Apartment
8624POE
Student Residence
Student Residence
Service
Apartment
8624POE
Montmuzard
Restaurant
8500
x900-24XS
Internet
8624POE
8624POE
x900-24XS
Renater
Figure 1 –
Customer benefits
■ Improved distance learning
Use of the latest applications and services, including
video-conferencing and on-line gaming, support improved
distance learning
■ Network Security
VLANS provide total separation of user groups, guaranteeing
network security for residents, administrative personnel and
students
■ Low training investment outlay
Thanks to the user-friendly Allied Telesis equipment, CROUS
technical staff did not need intensive training
Testimonial
"In our partnership with Allied Telesis, both training and shared
technology needs are met. What's more, the very good price
and high quality of the equipment has ensured that the solution
has worked within our budgetary constraints. Today, all students
and campus residents can access resources on the Internet and
Intranet, from approximately 2000 workstations and laptops in
a large number of the university residence bedrooms, as well
as from a significant number of university restaurants thanks to
copper and wi-fi connections.”
Michel HAVOT, D.S.I CROUS Dijon
■ Low total cost of ownership and low installation costs
Allied Telesis provided a great solution at a great price
Page 4 | Allied Telesis Case Study: CROUS de Dijon
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Products
About Allied Telesis Inc.
Allied Telesis is a world class leader in delivering IP/Ethernet network
solutions to the global market place. We create innovative, standardsbased IP networks that seamlessly connect you with voice, video and
data services.
Enterprise customers can build complete end-to-end networking
solutions through a single vendor, with core to edge technologies
ranging from powerful 10 Gigabit Layer 3 switches right through to
media converters.
AT-x900-24XS
AT-x900-24XS
Advanced Gigabit Layer 3+ Expandable Switch
Allied Telesis also offer a wide range of access, aggregation and
backbone solutions for Service Providers. Our products range from
industry leading media gateways which allow voice, video and data
services to be delivered to the home and business, right through
to high-end chassis-based platforms providing significant network
infrastructure.
Allied Telesis’ flexible service and support programs are tailored
to meet a wide range of needs, and are designed to protect your
Allied Telesis investment well into the future. Visit us online at
www.alliedtelesis.com.
AT-8550GB
AT-8550GB
Layer 2 Fast Ethernet Switch
AT-8624POE
AT-8624POE
Layer 3 Fast Ethernet Switch, with Power over Ethernet
Page 5 | Allied Telesis Case Study: CROUS de Dijon
www.alliedtelesis.com
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