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When Stroud District Council took the decision to upgrade its token ring network to Category 5e, they knew the project was not going to be an easy one. In the event, Molex Certified Installer GFI Informatics completed the entire project including installation of nearly two and a half thousand Category 5e outlets and more than 150 cores of fibre – over just seven weekends, allowing the work of the council to continue uninterrupted throughout.
Andy Pain, IT Manager at Stroud District Council explains: We were operating on an eleven year old token ring network. It was only a matter of time before we were going to hit a major bandwidth problem. With the increase in Internet traffic we have to support now, we had to replace the network before it ground to a halt.
GFI Informatics recommended a Molex Premise Networks PowerCat solution for the 11-floor converted mill in Stroud which houses the council offices. They worked with the councils IT department to design a network which would provide future proofing in terms
of bandwidth, speed and number of users. The result is a flood-wired system with a 1Gbps fibre backbone and Category 5e Ethernet connections to each floor. Network speed to the desktop has been increased from 16Mbps to 100Mbps.
Use of the Molex PowerCat range throughout ensures the continuity necessary for optimum performance, says Carl Healey Installation Manager of GFI Informatics. He continues: There are a number of design features of the Molex system which enabled us to optimise the solution for Stroud. It is an old converted mill which would have otherwise been a difficult building to cable. For example the floor boxes installed in the old mill are too shallow for standard connectors. Rather than go to the expense of replacing them, we were able to use Molex’s angled connectors in the existing spaces.
Molex Universal Patching Frames were used too, for patching equipment on each floor. The open design of the frame helps with cable management, especially where space is as tight as it is at Stroud. It is easy to access cables from the back or side of the frame without having to remove panels.
The building is now flood-wired with 2378 outlets to support maximum occupancy. The capacity of the network, in terms of number of points, is between 50 and 75% more than the council actually needs at the moment, says Carl Healey. This will give them the flexibility to support more staff, or different office layouts in the future without the need to revisit the cabling system. In the long term, it is a much more cost effective option.
Managing a project like this and making sure it runs smoothly is a question of planning and co-operation. GFI Informatics Project Manager Brian Birchall planned the operation down to the last detail, working closely with the councils IT team at every stage. The removal team would move in on Friday morning to start the process of clearing all the IT equipment and furniture, which had to be stored off site for the weekend. Floorboards were then taken up; cable was pulled, connected and tested. By Sunday lunchtime it was ready for the desks and computers to be put back in place.
While Carl Healey comments how helpful the council staff were Pauline Bird from Stroud Council praises the GFI teamwork. At the end of the day it is about co-operation, she says. When problems came up, they were solved. Everybody worked together to get the job done.
As the network on each floor was replaced, GFI Informatics also installed temporary balun connections to the token ring system. This allowed council staff to continue working on the old system until the new one was ready for the switch over. It also meant the council could stagger investment in new desktop equipment.
Now that the new network is up and running, there are no longer the frustrating problems of intermittent network faults that staff had been experiencing previously. In the rare event that there is a problem with the cable, IT staff are able to locate, identify and correct it quickly and easily.
It is the PCs which are the limiting factor now in the speed of the network, admits Pauline. A few of them still only have 10Mgb cards in, but these can be replaced over time. The point is; we now have a network infrastructure which will support our needs for the next five years at least, and probably many more. We won’t be pulling up the floor boards again for some time.
