Bringing Your Campus Network into the Modern Era

For many years, campus networks have seen little innovation beyond incremental link speed enhancements. Years of piecemeal upgrades have turned traditional legacy campus networks, which should provide a unified network architecture, into a complex and fragmented patchwork of network devices.

Campus networking has reached a point where traditional network architectures are struggling to keep up with users’ relentless demands for both seamless mobility across the campus and pervasive access to latest-generation applications. It is increasingly challenging for IT departments to maintain network Service Level Agreements (SLAs) and to enforce specific access policies across a broad range of wired and wireless users and devices.

Legacy campus networks suffer from various problems:

• Complexity: Legacy campus networks are managed one switch at time. Network teams are required to connect to each individual network device to provision resources, apply configuration changes, and deploy network policies. The burden is on the network administrator to keep the network consistent and all network device configurations in sync.
• Efficiency: A typical legacy campus network includes multiple network layers that run inefficient legacy protocols such as Spanning Tree Protocol (STP), where only half of the links between layers are active, and the remaining links act as backups in case the primary link fails. Overcoming the limitations associated with STP requires the use of Layer 3 protocols, which add to the management complexity of such solutions.
• Fragmentation: Legacy networks include many different network devices running various network Operating System (OS) platforms and versions. Each network device offers different levels of L2/L3 network services, based on the capability of each device and the types of software licenses that are activated
• Rigidity: Traditional three-tier network designs with “big-box” chassis at the aggregation and core layers require a significant upfront investment. Also, they are frequently deployed with vacant slots to support additional capacity that might be required in the future. Modular chassis solutions also provide limited deployment flexibility and require a “fork-lift” upgrade to move up to the next capacity level.

It Is Time to Take a Different Approach to the Campus Network

Just like how data center networks experienced a transformation a few years ago to support virtualization and virtual machine mobility, the time has come for campus networks to undergo a similar transformation to support seamless user mobility and pervasive access to applications anytime and anywhere.

We recommend transforming the network with Brocade Campus Fabric which collapses multiple network layers into a single logical device. This combines the power of a “distributed chassis” design with the flexibility and cost-effectiveness of fixed form factor switch building blocks.

To learn more about campus network fabric and the key benefits to this approach, check out the “Transforming the Network with Brocade Campus Fabric” paper.

WAV, Inc. is a full service distributor of LTE, wireless broadband, networking, and Wi-Fi equipment. Located in Aurora, IL, WAV provides its partners a competitive edge by offering extensive product knowledge & unmatched technical expertise, support for multi-vendor solutions, product availability, as well as professional value-added services for its VAR & WISP communities, including (but not limited to): technical support, predictive analysis services, FCC coordination and installation & diagnostics. “We Make the Internet Work”. For more information, call (800) 678-2419 or visit the web at: www.wavonline.com.