A Major Medical Center Relies on EtherWAN Connectivity for its IP Surveillance Backbone
Overview
A major public medical center in Taiwan houses 1,500 beds and employs a staff of over 3,000 employees. It cares for 6,000 outpatients, 130 inpatients and 180 emergency room patients daily. It also provides high-quality medical services with advanced facilities and training courses, as well as outstanding research and development programs. The medical center consisted of several multi-level buildings, and the outdated analog surveillance system operated individually at each building. The client asked the system integrator (SI) to upgrade the outdated system with a fully digitized and centralized surveillance solution.
The Network Connectivity Challenge
The facility covered a vast area of 27 hectares (67 acres), and the buildings needed to be networked with long-distance fiber cabling to form a centralized system. A significant amount of video surveillance data was expected to be transferred to the server end. This meant that a network backbone with sufficient bandwidth was an absolute necessity.Furthermore, most new IP cameras support Power over Ethernet (PoE). The new system would require reliable PoE and fiber optic connectivity for a robust surveillance operation.
The Network Connectivity Solution
The SI built a gigabit Ethernet backbone with 8-core fiber cables connecting the networks between the buildings, and EtherWAN's PoE switches were selected to establish fiber-to-fiber connections among the buildings.Also, more than 460 PoE cameras connected to 49 EtherWAN's PoE switches at the installation site; EtherWAN's EX17000 series, web-smart PoE switches provided the following benefits:
- IEEE 802.3 af/at Power over Ethernet compliance, powering up the cameras via CAT5 or better Ethernet cable
- Can be configured and reset by a web browser, saving maintenance time
- Gigabit SFP transceiver slots, capable of forming a gigabit network backbone
- Network redundancy with low failover time
- Supports Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN) configuration
EtherWAN helped the SI plan out 35 VLAN segments specifically for each floor in the major buildings. This allowed each network segment to work independently without cross interference.
EtherWAN also recommended deploying EX77900 lite-L3 managed switches for converging data from the VLAN segments. The EX77900 switches intelligently recognize network segments with Routing Information Protocol (RIP) and provide optimized data transmission and routing across the large and complex network topology.
EtherWAN's EX25611 L2 managed Ethernet switches, each equipped with 24 gigabit data ports, were employed to receive the data from the PoE switches connected to the cameras. The EX25611and EX77900 were both ready for 10G SFP+ connectivity for uplink to the core switches, NVR or NAS storage. For example, at the administration center for the facility, the NAS received all data from the NVR via the EX77900, allowing security personnel to instantly access and monitor important footage from NVR or directly from an IP camera.
With the proper distribution of network segments, the SI was able to provide an optimized surveillance infrastructure.
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The Result
The surveillance system has operated stably and reliably since its installation. Live footage from the CCTVs is captured, recorded, and smoothly transmitted back to the NVRs and control room. Medical data is also accessible through the IP network, ensuring that both the hospital's property and patient's safety are secured through a resilient network infrastructure.
EtherWAN provided the client with prompt inquiry responses, network design suggestions, and technical support, delivering the performance and value that this important project demanded.
EtherWAN – " When Connectivity is Crucial "
► For more information, please contact: info@etherwan.com.tw
