Wimbledon gets IP overhaul

The network is crucial to smooth-running response times at Wimbledon

The Wimbledon Championships has upgraded its IP network to support new services as part of a wider overhaul of communications for the world-famous tennis tournament.

The All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club (AELTC), which runs the event, has deployed a £300,000 Cisco network in partnership with supplier Logicalis.

More than 50 systems will run across the network as part of plans to improve facilities for half a million spectators, players, officials and media.

Applications include critical security, accreditation to authenticate 6,000 support staff, a ticket-monitoring service that allows tickets to be resold when spectators leave, and a new IPTV stream to ensure fans see as much court action as possible.

The Wimbledon information and TV commentators’ systems, run by IBM and used by the media, are also dependent on the network.

‘For two weeks of the year, response times are measured in seconds not minutes,’ said Jeff Lucas, IT director at AELTC.

‘With so many critical systems running over the network, availability is crucial.’

Lucas says the main challenge was to carry out the upgrade with minimum risk or disruption to this year’s championships. ‘We had to be ready to open our doors, confident that all services would run smoothly and without a glitch,’ he said.

To ensure a smooth transition from the legacy network, which lacked capacity for new services, a phased approach was agreed.

‘The network upgrade involved a staged changeover of hardware, followed by changes to the configuration and design of the network, to make it more scalable,’ said Lucas.

The network rollout is part of a bigger project to upgrade facilities provided at AELTC and for the championships. Phase two of the rollout will take place after the tournament and include services such as IP telephony, internal communications and a public address system.

‘We are talking about an IP-based radio system that will give umpires, ground staff and security the ability to communicate. We are also looking ahead to next year’s championships and the 2012 Olympics,’ said Lucas.