Westminster College - Learning lessons

Given the relentless squeeze on public funding in education, the last place you'd expect to find a highly-spec'd network being commissioned would be a relatively small, independent institution without any history of pro-actively using IT.

Westminster College is bucking the trend in more ways than one. The Oxford-based Methodist college offers degrees in education, theology and contemporary studies.

It also provides open and distance learning programmes on a national and international basis, in keeping with its original ethos of taking educational processes and liberal development to the relatively disadvantaged.

Now, with a new ATM network installed, the college is poised to provide its 2,700 students with an unprecedented range of interactive information, communications and educational services. The network also provides academic and administrative staff with an IT infrastructure designed to see the college well into the 21st Century.

The project serves as an object lesson for any commercial organisation brave enough to consider a radical rethink of its fundamental IT strategy.

On paper, it looked like a long shot. Having identified the opportunities which an ATM network could deliver, the college formed a working team which included financial director Graham May and head of learning resources Anne Hannaford, together with an independent strategic consultant, Phillip Stanley, who provided the technical know-how.

Before the project could proceed, the college had to bid for financial assistance from the Higher Education Funding Council. The Council is itself advised by the UK Education and Research Networking Association which, in 1996, launched a Lan/Man initiative designed to make money available to educational institutions which wish to develop their own networks.

SELLING THEMSELVES

Westminster's plan was submitted in early 1996 and approved in September. With funding secured for the #200,000 project, the college then took the unorthodox step of inviting prospective suppliers to come and sit around the table while college staff pitched themselves as a suitable customer to do business with.

The thrust of the college's pitch was as follows: while this would be a relatively small contract for a major vendor, the delivery of a high-grade manageable network which uses the latest technology - and has the potential to deliver groundbreaking services in this field - would make both an impressive reference site and a lever into similar projects in both the educational and commercial markets.

"It was an unusual tender process," explains Hannaford. "We were effectively selling ourselves to the suppliers rather than the other way around, trying to convince them that we would be a good prospect to work with.

"Essentially, the network had to be a microcosm of all the aspects of the college's ethos, bearing in mind that we have neither a huge IT department nor technical backup skills.

"We were asking for a high-grade solution with minimal management, which would enhance our wide-ranging educational functions," Hannaford continues.

"It had to allow us to develop links with trainee teachers in schools, deliver information and communicate electronically, in a way which has the potential to change our entire approach to learning," she added.

QUICKLY AND QUIETLY

The contract was won by network integrator ECS, bidding on behalf of Bay Networks, in January. The network was installed in the following three months, and migration is scheduled to start this month, when the network goes live.

ECS earned the respect of college staff and senior administrators alike. "The staff were good at implementing with minimal disruption," says Graham May. "The whole procedure was carried out very quickly and with great politeness."

ECS supplemented its social skills with thorough testing of the network products prior to installation. All involved in the project stress that this is really only the beginning, but they are clearly excited at the vistas which have suddenly opened up for the college as a direct result.

"Previously, we had a single 10BaseT spine chundering along with a couple of repeaters. It was just about capable of running a disparate bunch of administration systems," explains May, who is unusually technology-literate for a financial director.

"We had links to JANET, but were unable to have email. The core administrative staff could limp along, but the academic staff were not linked in and the students simply didn't have access in the required volumes to IT equipment.

"There we were, required to teach our trainees to be relaxed and fluent with the IT they can expect to encounter in schools and for their own research, and the whole thing had ground to a halt."

After much deliberation they decided to replace the whole thing with an ATM network. "The full impact of what we now have is only just beginning to dawn on us," says May.

"We now have a network designed to get all our staff linked with email and provide our students with large quantities of free-form information.

"The network will let us progressively develop ways of streamlining our revenue systems. It will constantly facilitate the lives of our students and their relationship with their learning environment."

May is careful to balance talk of the network's potential with realism. "We need to roll-out each development gently, reinforcing the value of the IT provision with a series of modest successes. It will take months or years to realise its full potential," he says.

THE TECHNICAL SPEC

The new network links some 440 users at the college's four campus buildings and comprises an ATM backbone which runs at 155Mbps. The backbone comprises four Bay Networks Centillion switches, while connectivity to the desktop is provided by LANart 24-port switching hubs, each allowing up to eight VLans per switch.

VLan capability was essential, as it allows the college to maintain separate networks for the academic and administrative functions. In the longer term, a third VLan may be established simply to carry videoconferencing traffic. The campus has also been flood-wired with Cat5 UTP cabling.

Stanley explains: "We have established some permanent virtual circuits between the Centillions, creating one big pipeway. But we have also set up alternative pipeways so that, if there's any failure, the switches will re-route traffic through other hubs.

The Centillions were chosen because the slot space offered massive potential capacity. The LANart hubs stood in a class of their own as a desktop connectivity solution."

According to Stanley, the VLan capability of the LANart hubs also offers important security benefits. "Eventually, when students come to plug in their own machines, the password will be handled at hub level and they will automatically be connected to their own VLan," he says.

"Similarly, it gives the network manager the chance to reassign ports on the fly. For example, if a lecture hall was required for administrative purposes, college staff can simply request the network manager to reassign the ports to the administrative VLan for the required time.

"In the old days, you would have to send someone to patch the ports over in the wiring closet.

"The College is legally obliged to register incoming students within a specific period or it will incur penalties. With the VLans, it is easy to switch the gym over to the administrative systems for this purpose, making the whole process quicker and easier."

In the long run, the college aims to use the network as an incentive to encourage businesses to use its facilities during the vacations, as a means of attracting further private funding. May confirms the ambitious plan: "Ultimately, we will become a network services provider."

KEEPING IT SIMPLE

Before this transformation can happen, though, the next phase of the implementation will be to bolt on the communications links which will bring the college's distance learners to the heart of its community as well as bringing trainees and students on research placements closer to home base.

"We realise that most of our 'customers' are people who can't afford sophisticated kit," says May. "We need to develop simple methods of communication which work on any platform, but allow us to become the hub of communication for our community.

"It reminds me of the development of the Unix market. We have a considerable understanding of our own business and are passionate about what our services will provide. But we know that our customers are economically limited so we can't be seduced by the flashy CD-ROM approach to IT.

"Ultimately, the focus has to move away from the network itself and back onto what our users actually need."

FACTS AT A GLANCE

The project

Project name ATM network for Westminster College, Oxford.

Project aims To provide a network infrastructure which supports both the college's administration and its wide-ranging academic and educational functions. These include email, links with trainee teachers in school, distance and open learning for students both nationally and globally, and offering advice to potential entrants to higher education.

Timescale Implementation over months. Migration starts in June and will, ideally, be completed for the new intake in September.

Project value Approximately #200,000.

Solution ATM 155Mbps backbone distributed across campus. Network links 440 users across four buildings. College has some 2,700 students who will ultimately have remote access to the network.

Hardware Four Bay Networks Centillion 100 Chassis with redundant power connected into a resilient mesh with 4port ATMSpeed/MCP ATM Switching Host Modules for OC-3c SONET over Multimode Fibre. Alternative ATM fibre routes and UPS protection provide additional security and redundancy. Centillion Chassis include 4port Etherspeed 100Mbps Ethernet Switching Host 100BaseTX modules for server connection with local desktop connection by 16port Etherspeed Ethernet Switching Host modules for 10BaseT. LANart Segway switches have eight 10BaseT Backbone ports, allowing VLan capability across the network by assigning individual ports to particular backplanes, allowing the college to separate its academic and administrative traffic. VLan-to-VLan traffic is handled by a Bay Networks ASN Router.

Network management Network management and overview is provided by Optivity Campus for HP Openview Windows, with Centillion installation and configuration provided by SpeedView for Windows. These packages are being integrated in the next software release by Bay Networks. Additional flexibility is provided for by LANart's own port level management, either software or joystick controlled Bay Centillion Ethernet ATM switches, some with 10BaseT Ethernet cards connecting directly to Lanart 24-port switching hubs and fibre cards used to connect hubs into a "resilient mesh".

Operating system software Unix, NT, Windows 3.1 and Macintosh. Ultimate intention is to standardise on NT.

Cabling The Campus is flood-wired with Cat5 UTP cable, with 10BaseT Ethernet user connections provided by LANart Segway 24port Switches with additional 24port Segway expansion units in the local wiring cabinets. Distant workgroup connections are connected through 24port Segways to the Centillions over multiplexed 10BaseFL fibre links, with LANart Multiplexers handling the translation from UTP to Fibre.

Wan links Currently, a 200Mbit link to JANET by a Cisco router. Remote access contract to go out to tender.

Future outlook Email (currently expected to be First Class under NT), Intranet services, video library and conferencing. The college will develop relationships with software suppliers for specific applications. Possible use of Citrix Winframe could allow the college to use its legacy machines without losing them.