ALLAMA IQBAL OPEN UNIVERSITY

Directorate of ICT (Network Department)

Ref. /ICT/N/2019 Dated: October 1, 2019

Subject: JUSTIFICATION FOR UP GRADATION OF NETWORK

INFRASTRUCTURE

Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU) has planned to enhance the quality of its business processes under
the initiative of Digital Transformation. The early fruits of this project is already ripe in the form of e-Tutor
registration and Online Admission. The stream of moving from manual laborious tasks to fast and
transparent digital services is planned to increase day by day. This will certainly put testing burdens on
overall IT infrastructure, especially network and compute. The Enhancement of Network Infrastructure at
AIOU Main Campus is the component of Smart Services Model, which aims at automating overall
processes of university with the latest, most trustworthy and globally adopted technologies. This upgrade
of network infrastructure system will result in efficient service delivery & effective decision making as well
as making it more robust and secure. In this regard Network Department, Directorate of ICT conducted a
detailed study in consultation with several industry experts and formulated a Comprehensive solution for
the Enhancement of Network Infrastructure at AIOU Main Campus. We selected the experts due to their
broad clientele in both public and private sector organizations belonging to not only the education sector,
but all walks of life. This exposure enables them; and eventually us to design a cutting edge reliable and
secure network infrastructure in line with modern network design practices.

As the natural first step was to design passive network components and their paths. After several iterations
and revisits to rectify the problems, we came up with a comprehensive design of the high speed connectivity
through an optical fiber ring that branches out to all the current buildings of AIOU. Not only currently
erected buildings have access to direct fiber termination, but future construction will also benefit from this
fiber backbone. The design of the said optical fiber is attached at “Flag A”. The already laid optical fibre
network will act as backup and will enable us to carry out further extension or repair/maintenance tasks on
the new ring without any down-time.

After finalizing the passive network design, we turned to fill that with active components. The experts again
helped us finalizing the count, placement and specifications of forty (40) Campus Network switches (Copy
attached) for upgradation of network infrastructure, from them twenty (20) switches have already been
upgraded in past one year and purchasing of Twenty (20) switches proposal is in progress. Detailed Bill of
quantity (BoQ) of active equipment is prepared after deep deliberation as attached at “Flag B” for reference.
 ALLAMA IQBAL OPEN UNIVERSITY
Directorate of ICT (Network Department)

The proposed Gigabit Ethernet switches are ten times faster than their predecessors (Fast Ethernet).
They are designed to address the requirements of today’s high speeds internet service providers.
Gigabit Ethernet switch, therefore, refers to the kind of Ethernet switch that operates at Gigabit
Ethernet speeds – that is theoretically up to 1 Gigabit per second (Gbps) (1000 Mbps). It is also
backward compatible with the legacy 10/100 standard. Aside from the notably enhanced transfer
speed and improved performance, the Gigabit Ethernet switch differs from Fast Ethernet switch in
the following aspects.

Feature Sets: The Gigabit switch is built with the latest network management features, allowing
network administrators to assign QoS and security policies to specific applications. These
advanced features help guarantee service level agreements and enhance security. Fast Ethernet
switches with similar management and security functions often demand a premium, in order to
narrow the price gap compared to the Gigabit Ethernet switch.
Power Standard: The original PoE technology delivers 12.94 watts for wireless access points and
other IP-enabled device. This fails to satisfy the power requirements of the newer equipment. The
latest Gigabit switches support the enhanced PoE+ standard that delivers 30 watts of power.

Power Consumption: Along with providing higher bandwidth and a more robust management,
Gigabit Ethernet switches are also more energy efficient than Fast Ethernet switches. Enterprises
could lower their power consumption by deploying Gigabit Ethernet switch at the network edge.

Future Growth: The Gigabit switch on the network edge may prepare local area network for the
upcoming convergence or the next technology refresh.