Campus Network Design

Campus Network Design Using Fiber Optics

College Campus Example

A campus, whether medium or large in terms of area has several buildings such as various academic departments, administration, library, and more. All of these buildings are connected through a LAN network. However, universities and educational institutes are expanding not only in terms of student strength but also with their presence in other cities and countries. Therefore a demand exists for a specialized campus LAN network design with improved bandwidth, data rates, geographical distance of transmission, remote access, data storage on cloud, security, and more. This can be done with fiber optics. VERSITRON offers premium quality and compatible devices such as media converters, switches, and others that help form a robust fiber optics campus network design.

Why Use Fiber Optics in Campus LAN Architecture

Expanding physical as well as virtual campuses have increased the demand for advanced networking features and functionalities. Seamless and high-speed connectivity among all the entities in a campus, whether physical or virtual, is of utmost importance. Also, there is a huge amount of data that is collected through various departments that may need to be analyzed as well as stored and shared on a common platform. Some of the data may be confidential. This aspect has driven the changes in network architecture. In such a scenario, opting for fiber optics is the best solution to meet all the demands and requirements. However, the budget for entire fiber optics would be high, and hence a blended network comprising copper cable and fiber optics is most of the times the right solution.

Overview of a General Campus Network Design Using Fiber Optics

Typically, a campus network comprises several connected LAN networks as most physical campuses don’t require WAN. These LANs connect to the internet, which enables external files to be shared in the private network environment. The entire network is controlled by a team of network administrators and database managers, which enables granting or revoking rights to employees as well as students based on their needs and positions. These networks have a firewall for security reasons. This forms a basic overview of a physical campus LAN network design. The legacy network in a campus can be blended with fiber optics to make it effective, fast, and scalable.

Using Fiber Optics: In the case of a campus fiber network design, there are switches in each building; for instance, one in the server room which is connected to various classrooms through fiber optic cables. Each of these switches is connected to another switch in the concerned department which has a legacy or existing network. There are multiple copper cables connected to a switch, and the other end is connected to various related devices such as students’ computers, peripherals, cameras, and so on. There are fiber media converters added at each end which help interpret the signals, and convert them from an electric one to light pulses and vice versa. This is a basic example of how blended networks are built in campuses. They are useful in various ways as the fiber cables run underground and do not suffer from EMI. So, when connecting two buildings which are a few meters away from each other, the cables are safely guarded from rain and other environmental parameters.

Fiber Optics in Virtual Campuses: Nowadays, it is possible to do online courses, and students from any country can enroll in a particular institute and learn using remote access. This is enabled using virtual private networks specially designed for campuses.

Network Devices Used in Campus LAN Network with Fiber Optics

These campus networks must have good quality components, whether fiber or Ethernet. Here are some devices we offer.

• Network Switches: We offer a number of managed and unmanaged network switches in various configurations and number of ports ranging between 2 and 40 and beyond. These include hardened industrial switches, Gigabit Ethernet switches, fiber switches, commercial grade switches, and PoE switches. All our switches have SFP+ as well as RJ45 connectors. Our fiber network switches have VLAN or virtual LAN which can be configured on Layer 3 for specified LAN segments.
• Media Converters: We offer 10/100 and 10/100/1000 double duty and triple duty media converters. Our media converters in certain specifications have been used in mission critical applications in defense and other sensitive industry segments.
• POE Switches: We offer Power over Ethernet switches and Fiber Optic Media Converters which transfer power as well as data over a single cable. These are extremely useful in remote areas of the network.

If you are planning to expand your campus network in terms of geographical distance or setting up a virtual campus for students from other countries, you can rely on us for the right network devices. Feel free to contact us via phone or email in case of any relevant questions. You can share your requirements with us and we’ll customize a configuration for you based on your specific network requirements.