Case Study Ministry of Agriculture, France The Ministry of Agriculture and Fishing in France selects Allied Telesis for their new network solution in the central Paris offices, providing the strong network core and effective management required by the Government department.
Case Study Ministry of Agriculture, France In 2006, the Ministry of Agriculture and Fishing in France decided to overhaul its network for the central administration offices in Paris, as its core had become unreliable, and there were problems with network management. The Ministry chose Allied Telesis products for their new solution, providing a future-proof, highvalue network that is robust, reliable, and easy to manage. Customer Profile Based in Paris, the French Ministry of Agriculture and Fishing is a government department with numerous responsibilities, including: ensuring the quality and sanitary security of imported foods conservation and environmental preservation agricultural education the economic development of agricultural sectors and the agricultural industry (both within the European Union and internationally) the development of employment in rural areas The main aims of the Ministry are to maintain and enhance economic performance in agricultural sectors, and protecting the health of the French people by ensuring the safety and suitability of food. The Ministry is very large, with approximately 30,000 employees right across France. The central administration offices in Paris house 2000 employees alone. The main network in Paris is located on six sites, called Varenne, Vaugirard, Lowendal, Maine, Helder and Fontenoy. In 2005, the Ministry decided to replace their existing network core, which had become problematic. The previous integrator was no longer actively maintaining their equipment, and as they had no local network management tool, the network was difficult to manage. Furthermore, their network lacked cohesion as it consisted of various products from multiple vendors. Through several past tenders, Allied Telesis already had a direct relationship with the Ministry and a solid reputation for delivering highly reliable and feature-rich advanced network solutions. Based on this, and on Allied Telesis' unrivalled service focus, the Ministry selected a number of Allied Telesis Layer 3 products for their new network solution. Customer Requirements Reliability The new network solution had to be extremely reliable - providing minimal downtime. As for any government department, it was vital that the network maintain stability and security in the event of software or hardware failures, or outright attack. Connectivity The Ministry required a mixture of connectivity, both fiber and copper: Gigabit fiber connects the core and aggregation switches, and copper connects the aggregation and access switches as well as users workstations. Two WAN links from each of the two main sites in Paris were needed, one to link to the Ministry's other Paris offices, and the other to link to their other sites throughout France as well as provide Internet access. Video conferencing and file sharing had to be supported both locally in Paris and also across the extensive country wide network infrastructure. Security The Ministry required very high network security. In particular, they wanted to use Access Control Lists (ACLs) to restrict access to certain network applications and provide appropriate control of business resources. Secure management was also a necessity, as was secure remote network access. Page 2 Allied Telesis Case Study: Ministry of Agriculture, France www.alliedtelesis.com
Management The new equipment had to have both a Command Line Interface and a GUI to allow configuration flexibility. The Ministry also wanted a secure distributed network management system that would enable them to monitor and manage their entire network infrastructure, as well as a device management tool that would provide support for the individual equipment. Software Features The network products had to support the following software features: Quality of Service (QoS) - to ensure the uninterrupted delivery of video conferencing streams Routing Information Protocol (RIP) - for dynamic routing of Paris network traffic Rapid Spanning Tree Protocol (RSTP) - for network redundancy Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol - for backup routing Multicast/Broadcast storm protection - to safeguard the network from unnecessary or malicious traffic VRRP Master MOREA Internet and Remote France Sites REMAC Servers R SwitchBlade 4004 Remote Paris Offices VRRP Backup AT-8648 AT-8648 AT-8648 AT-8624 AT-8624 AT-8624 1Gigabit link 1Gigabit link 10/100 link Varenne Network Diagram www.alliedtelesis.com Allied Telesis Case Study: Ministry of Agriculture, France Page 3
Case Study Ministry of Agriculture, France The Solution:Technical Overview The Ministry of Agriculture turned to Allied Telesis for their new network solution. Allied Telesis designed and installed a network for the Ministry that is both reliable and easy to manage. The two main sites in Paris, 'Varenne' and 'Vaugirard', now share a common architecture. More than 70 Allied Telesis switches are in use at each site, with a SwitchBlade 4004 switch installed in each network core. A multi-layer modular switch, the SwitchBlade 4004 provides high reliability and flexible scalability, as well as power and control redundancy. Each of the sites has 2 WAN links, 'REMAC' and 'MOREA': The REMAC WAN link connects each site to remote small offices in Paris via a direct Ethernet connection. It uses RIPv2 for dynamic routing of city-wide traffic. The MOREA WAN link provides Internet access, and access to all other sites in France. It uses static routing through a leased line. Remote small office sites in Paris have a REMAC WAN link for connection to the main city networks. To access the national network, these remote sites connect through REMAC to the SwitchBlade 4004 in Varenne, which then routes the traffic through the MOREA national link. In the core At the core of each of the network's two main sites, a fully redundant SwitchBlade 4004 switch was installed, with redundant switch controller cards and power supplies, and the following line cards: AT-SB4412 24 port 10/100/1000T AT-SB4441A 8 port GBIC AT-SB4442 24 port SFP Aggregation At the aggregation layer, switches were installed and linked to the SwitchBlade 4004 through 2Gigabit fiber connections. A redundant link with RSTP is in place between each of the switches. The switches are also used to connect to the network servers. switch At the edge At the edge of the network, AT-8624 and AT-8648 switches were used, connected to the switches at the aggregation layer via Gigabit copper links. A redundant link with RSTP is also in place between each of the AT-8600 switches. SwitchBlade 4000 Series Page 4 Allied Telesis Case Study: Ministry of Agriculture, France www.alliedtelesis.com
Benefits of the New Solution Reliability A highly resilient network infrastructure is now in place with both hardware and software redundancy providing maximum availability of network applications and resources to the many users spread across France. The SwitchBlade 4004 switches have both control and power redundancy, essential in the network core. Reliability is also increased with the use of Rapid Spanning Tree Protocol (RSTP) and Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol (VRRP). RSTP allows the provision of redundant paths through the network, so traffic can still flow in the event of a fault condition. Rapid reconfiguration, if necessary, provides minimal impact on the network - critical for networks carrying delay-sensitive traffic such as video conferencing, as the Ministry's network does. Redundant links with RSTP are in place between each of the switches, and also between each of the AT-8600 switches. VRRP provides further redundancy in the form of a backup WAN gateway at each of the two main sites in Paris. One of the AT-9924 switches in each site acts as backup for the core SwitchBlade 4004. Internet connectivity and access to the rest of the Ministry's country wide network is always available. Management A Graphical User Interface (GUI) provides comprehensive webbased management of the switches in conjunction with the CLI. SSL and SSH provide secure switch management. The Ministry have purchased SNMPc, a secure distributed network management system which will allow them to monitor and manage their entire network infrastructure. SNMPc supports SNMP v3, and has an unparalleled ease of use. Support Allied Telesis provided onsite training for the Ministry, and supplied a technician for onsite support throughout the deployment of the new solution. Allied Telesis are committed to providing ongoing support for the new network infrastructure. Quality of Service (QoS) Allied Telesis products' advanced QoS features allow high priority and delay sensitive traffic to be given preferential treatment in the network. This ensures applications such as video conferencing run smoothly and business critical applications are always available. Security Access Control Lists (ACLs) have been used to restrict access to certain network applications.the powerful filtering ability of Allied Telesis switches provides appropriate control of business resources. High-value Allied Telesis' comprehensive product portfolio allowed the Ministry to create a network solution tailored to their unique requirements. The Ministry was provided with a cost-effective new network with the benefits of industry leading feature-rich products, and the simplicity of a single vendor for ongoing service and support. Future plans The new Allied Telesis network provides the reliability and ease of management the Ministry require. Allied Telesis are providing ongoing support for the new network infrastructure, adding value to the solution. In the immediate future, the Ministry plans to implement 802.1x and dynamic VLAN assignment on all edge switches, to ensure that only trusted users have access to appropriate network resources. DHCP Snooping is also to be deployed for added security. In the short term, all remote sites within Paris will upgrade to Allied Telesis switches. Allied Telesis hopes to continue the strong relationship with the Ministry to provide them with all their future network needs. www.alliedtelesis.com Allied Telesis Case Study: Ministry of Agriculture, France Page 5
About Allied Telesis Inc. Allied Telesis is part of the Allied Telesis Group. Founded in 1987, the company is a global provider of secure Ethernet/IP access solutions and an industry leader in the deployment of IP Triple Play networks over copper and fibre access infrastructure. Our POTS-to-10G imap integrated Multiservice Access Platform and img intelligent Multiservice Gateways, in conjunction with advanced switching, routing and WDM-based transport solutions, enable public and private network operators and service providers of all sizes to deploy scalable, carrier-grade networks for the cost-effective delivery of packet-based voice, video and data services. Visit us online at www.alliedtelesis.com. USA Headquarters 19800 North Creek Parkway Suite 100 Bothell WA 98011 USA T: +1 800 424 4284 F: +1 425 481 3895 European Headquarters Via Motta 24 6830 Chiasso Switzerland T: +41 91 69769.00 F: +41 91 69769.11 Asia-Pacific Headquarters 11 Tai Seng Link Singapore 534182 T: +65 6383 3832 F: +65 6383 3830 www.alliedtelesis.com 2008 Allied Telesis Inc.All rights reserved. Information in this document is subject to change without notice. All company names, logos, and product designs that are trademarks or registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners. C618-18009-00 REV E