Government Technology - December 2008 - (Page DC18)

ADVERTISEMENT Now and in the Future Tacoma, Wash., deploys an MPLS-based network to meet growing demands for capacity and new services. or some years now, Tacoma, Wash., band connection. It just took so long to do has been running just to keep in place. anything,” said Donnie Claunch, Tacoma’s Even with ongoing improvements to its telecommunications technical administrator. Agencies also needed the many new IT backbone, demand has steadily exceeded network capacity. To solve the problem, the and improved services — such as VoIP, city deployed a new Gigabit Ethernet (GigE) video surveillance and video conferencing multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) network. — an enhanced network would provide. For The network provides ample communications Tacoma network managers, MPLS provided capacity for city agencies, ensures quality much-needed network redundancy, backup of service and — perhaps most importantly controls, and the ability to direct network — serves as a solid foundation for innovative trafﬁc and monitor the system for potential problems. new services. F Citizens can now watch broadcast-quality government- and educational-access television. Better video performance across the network also increased Tacoma’s use of time-saving video conferencing to support interagency communications. And ﬁnally, users throughout the city government can access critical data faster than ever before. Out With the Old Tacoma ran into capacity challenges despite its best intentions. The city had deployed two network infrastructures in recent years, yet requirements for capacity, speed and management tools continued to challenge the network managers. In 2001 and 2002, the city implemented a synchronous optical network (SONET) architecture — a robust platform — yet as fast as planners could build the technology, network demands were surpassed. The city’s technology staff then developed an Ethernet ring structure, expanding the structure steadily until it too was overtaxed by growing bandwidth demands. Both networks were unable to meet Tacoma’s long-term growth requirements. It was time to issue an RFP for a more scalable solution. The city needed a network that could meet its current demands for speed, capacity and ease of management — and scale to accommodate future connectivity requirements. The Road to MPLS Network managers found numerous reasons to support MPLS, especially its ability to deliver a broader range of service possibilities. Planners also liked the technology’s performance and ease of implementation and integration. They were equally taken by MPLS’s ability to bring together existing services and new MPLS-based functionality as elements within a common network-migration strategy. The ability to migrate seamlessly was A signiﬁcant number of city ofﬁces and agencies in Tacoma depend on CityNet, the metro network, from bridge engineering to schools, metropolitan parks to county government. But capacity limits of the old network restricted the ability of these agencies to serve the public. Until recently, for example, the Pierce County television station broadcast video over telephone wires with unacceptable quality. “It was like a dial-up modem versus a broad- Tacoma found a solution in an MPLSbased network delivered by Alcatel-Lucent. Besides speeding the ﬂow of network trafﬁc considerably with its 10-gigabit backbone, MPLS gives Tacoma substantially greater capacity, allowing city agencies to manage the growing communications requirements for voice, video and data applications. The new network technology enables services that previously were unavailable and improves those that were insufﬁcient. 18 DIGITAL COMMUNITIES DECEMBER 08

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Government Technology - December 2008

Government Technology - December 2008 Contents Point of View Four Questions for... On the Scene Big Picture Year in Review Who Controls Your Network? Paper Makes a Comeback Halting Meth Abuse Spectrum Up Close signal:noise Digital Communities Contents Becoming a Digital Community Rethinking 700 MHz Smart Grids: Powering the Future Gearing Up for Crime 2.0 Software Predicts Crime Local Portals on the Red Carpet More Than Just a Pretty Face

Government Technology - December 2008

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