The School Network - Introduction
The combination of a reliable always-on connection and greater bandwidth
should make it easier for on-line activity to become an integral part of the
work of your school.
But what you now have is more than a connection to the Internet. Your school
is part of the Cambridgeshire
Community Network (CCN) which is a €œmanaged countywide network€
protected by multiple overlapping
security
zones and
firewalls, operated by NTL linking all Authority sites (schools,
libraries, CCC buildings etc.) together.
However by joining CCN schools are connected into a wider educational
network linking schools and other educational sites right across the eastern
region. This regional network is called
E2BN (the East
of England Broadband Network). The
E2BN network is
designed as a platform capable of providing communication and collaboration
with other schools and services in our county supporting the latest
technological developments, including interactive working between connected
sites.
This will be followed by interconnections between each of the regional
consortia, so that a school in one region will have direct broadband access
to resources or people in schools in other parts of the country. The
broadband network is also expected to play a key part in the delivery of
Curriculum Online, the Government€™s scheme to support the
National Curriculum
with high-quality media-rich digital resources.
Cabinets/Routers/Switches
number of
Routers/Switches
have been provided to create the
integrated network and to enable your school to benefit from the
broadband connection. These Routers/Switches are made by CISCO or
Hewlett Packard
Each main cabinet in a typical Primary school has been
fitted with either a
Cisco 2924XL or a
HP 2524 Procurve switch.See photographs below
HP 2524 Procurve There are two types of installations in
a typical Secondary school. The first one is an "E2B" installation, where
each cabinet is fitted with a Cisco 3524XL switch. In this case the
switches are connected together using a 1
Gigabit €œfibre
ring€ topology. The other type of installation is a "CCN" installation.
This type of install has a HP 2524 Procurve switch in each cabinet. Each of
these
Switches connects to a HP 4108GL switch using a 1 Gigabit
"fibre star" topology
Cisco
3500XL. Fibre modules are used to connect switches to
a €œring€ topology.This provides a 1Gigabit network backbone.
HP4108GL. Fibre modules are used to connect switches to a €œstar€
topology. This also provides a 1
Gigabit
network backbone.
A master cabinet in a school normally contains the following equipment.
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