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December 3 , 2001

Commencement of collaborative experiment on connecting multiple LAN systems using wide area Ethernet Offer centralized large-scale network operation management

Commencement of collaborative experiment on connecting multiple LAN systems using wide area Ethernet Offer centralized large-scale network operation management

Through collaborative effort, Fujitsu Limited, Media EXchange, Inc., PoweredCom, Inc., Tokyo Electron Ltd., and Net One Systems Co., Ltd., commenced operational experiment on the wide area Ethernet that uses inexpensive switching hubs to create several hundred kilometers of national scale network and on providing various services using the wide area Ethernet. This experiment will be the world's first of such kind.
The experiment realizes deployment of low cost network as most of the routers formerly required on each floor or each section become unnecessary. At the same time, this experiment provides for central management of cumbersome route configuration for data transmission eradicating the need for complicated network management previously performed at disparate locations.

Recently, various equipments have been connected to the network and this created concerns over increased management operation cost and in addition, since in most cases, networks are connected through routers placed between floors and sections, numerous network administrators were required. Rather than having numerous small and dispersed networks, if large scale network could be deployed without using routers, it would be possible to cut the cost of network deployment and operational management.

The overview of the cooperative experiment is as follows.

[Purpose of experiment]

The purpose is to examine various problems that occur as a result of creating large-scale unified network, and at the same time, accumulate network routing technology and operational management technology.

[Experiment period]

November 2001 to end of January 2002 (scheduled)

[Description of Experiment]

In the experiment, computers installed in various departments will be connected using easy to manage Layer 2 switching hub. This will be connected to the data center using wide area Ethernet. L3 Switch (Router) will be installed only between data center and wide area Ethernet.
The followings are the significant experiment agenda using this network.

1. examine the reliability of a network composed only of switching hubs
2. establish management technology of IP address management, DNS, e-mails, firewalls, billings etc.
3. examine IPv6 network
4. video conferencing, wide area dispersed storage, IP phone

[Anticipated effect]

1) Reduction of network related cost

• large scale network may be deployed using low cost switching hub
• reduced cost of network deployment /operational management relating to Intranet

2) Reduce operational load of intranet

• Even when changing departments, Intranet may be used through plug and play.
• Management of IP address may be performed centrally at management source (data center, etc.)
• Since various configurations ( DNS, mail servers, firewalls, etc.) for using network may be operated and managed centrally at data center, operational management task by individual departments is eliminated.

Through alliance between the companies, we plan to provide new services using these technologies.