NVT Phybridge Case Study: Institute of Technology

One of the top U.S. universities, located in the southeastern region, has modernized its communication capabilities to provide industry-leading education. Offering only a single degree when founded in 1885, the institution is now well-known for its prestigious degree programs in engineering, business, and the sciences. With more than six colleges containing over 30 departments, upgrading communication across the organization was no simple task.

Prior to 2011, the university was relying on a legacy Nortel solution across its 350-acre campus. In 2011, the organization made the decision to improve its communication capabilities by modernizing to an IP-based solution across all 115 buildings on campus. The university chose to leverage its existing and proven CAT3 voice infrastructure to build a physically separate network for the IP solution using the NVT Phybridge UniPhyer switch.

Eight years later, the university was still completely satisfied with the performance of the UniPhyer solution. However, since the deployment in 2011, many new IP voice solutions were brought to market. The customer was interested in taking advantage of these new capabilities and decided to modernize to a Cloud-based solution across the campus.

As part of the technology refresh, the university wanted to modernize from the UniPhyer to the next generation of innovations from NVT Phybridge; given the enhanced capabilities. The organization was interested in the PoLRE^®(Power over Long Reach Ethernet) switch due to its advanced feature set, which includes power-sharing for redundancy, load balancing, hot-swappable power supply, port monitoring, MAC address locking, transparency mode, and its energy efficiency. However, the organization was hesitant to upgrade the network due to concerns of cost, disruption, IDF closet requirements, and implementing a network topology that would most effectively support a hosted IP solution.

Modern LAN Design

Due to the incredible success in 2011 with the UniPhyer solution, the customer turned to NVT Phybridge for advice. Network consultants at NVT Phybridge examined the challenges and assured the organization that the PoLRE switch would be as simple, secure, and cost-effective as the UniPhyer solution. The university was pleased with the response and scheduled a no-obligation proof of concept to test the switch in one of the libraries on campus. The test took place in the library because it was the oldest building on campus, and the customer anticipated the environment to be the most difficult. If the solution worked in the library, the customer was confident it would work in all other locations.

Just as the UniPhyer did in 2011, the award-winning PoLRE solution transformed the existing CAT3 voice infrastructure into a robust and secure IP backbone for the new Cloud-based solution. The university was impressed and decided to move forward to achieve incredible results.

Create a secure and robust local area network

The organization leveraged the NVT Phybridge PoLRE switch to establish secure and robust point-to-point connections to each IP phone; significantly increasing cyber-security and performance of the real-time voice application.

Use new long-reach PoE innovations to maximize ROI

Similar to their experience with the UniPhyer in 2011, PoLRE innovation helped the university avoid the traditional rip-and-replace upgrade method; saving the organization over $1 million.

Construct physically separate networks for dedicated IP applications

As organizations continue to deploy IoT devices, the core data network has become increasingly complex, difficult to manage, and vulnerable to cyber-security threats. By leveraging NVT Phybridge PoE switch technology, the university was able to maintain a physically separate network for voice. The point-to-point topology of the new IP-enabled voice network provided the ideal environment to support real-time voice applications.

Environmental Excellence

Sustainability and social responsibility are core pillars of the university’s strategic action plan, as the organization is involved in many environmental initiatives aimed at changing the way people use the Earth’s limited resources. The research initiatives focus on a wide range of challenges involving sustainable energy, water resource management, pollution control, and climate change.

The university recognizes the importance of environmentally responsible digital transformations, which was an important factor in the planning phase of the communication upgrade. Together with NVT Phybridge, a plan was designed to minimize the project’s impact on the environment:

The organization was able to reuse its existing voice infrastructure; preventing over 8 tons of cabling e-waste from ending up in a landfill
Eliminating the need to rip-and-replace the existing infrastructure also significantly reduced material consumption, as no renovations were required
The solution eliminated the need for additional server closets; reducing ongoing energy consumption to cool and power the equipment
The university realized over $1 million in infrastructure cost savings, which can be used to fund its sustainability research and programs

A Better Return on Investment

The customer took a proactive approach to find new and better ways to support their IP modernization objectives in a financially and socially responsible manner. By applying Modern LAN Principles and Power over Ethernet (PoE) switch innovations, the university reduced infrastructure costs, eliminated risk and disruption, reduced the negative impact on the environment, and fast-tracked its digital transformation project while ensuring a secure and robust IP platform for the enhanced communication solution.

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