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In 1996, Swedish utility company Sundsvall Energi Elnät AB launched a network services division called ServaNet to bring high-bandwidth connectivity to central Sweden and become the region's leading communications provider, offering data connectivity, IP telephony, and multicast television services. Fast-forward to 2007, and ServaNet has realised this goal, delivering high-speed Internet to thousands of homes and businesses, providing unrivalled customer service and paving the way for efficient, seamless implementation of future applications on its network. This achievement has been enabled by 3Com secure converged networking and its Open Services Networking (OSN) strategy that facilitates customer service excellence and ensures cost-effective implementation of new networked applications.

The Challenge

To achieve the ambitious goal of becoming Sweden’s leading communications provider, ServaNet first needed to upgrade its infrastructure and future-proof its network to accommodate new applications quickly and cost effectively. Its legacy network was based on core switches no longer serviced or supported by the manufacturer and lacked the bandwidth to accommodate projected demand. It also was unable to prioritise traffic for ensured high-quality voice and video communications, and offered no easy way to deliver and manage multiple services for its smaller end users. To ensure these customers had enough Ethernet ports for both high-speed Internet access and other IP-based services, ServaNet anticipated having to equip even home subscribers with costly 24-port switches.

Additionally, the service provider needed the means to satisfy the evolving demands of its expanding customer base, including the verification of reported discrepancies between the bandwidth it was supplying to some customers and the amount those customers believed they were receiving.

Why 3Com

ServaNet chose a powerful, scalable, end-to-end network solution from 3Com that was affordably priced and provided a rapid return on investment (ROI). After initially examining products from Cisco, Extreme and 3Com, it chose 3Com systems for their reliability, power, ease of management and solid support services. It was especially impressed by the 3Com Switch 7700's 10-gigabit-ready architecture, security and traffic prioritisation capabilities-major assets for a growing connectivity provider.

"We wanted the best function at the best price and a rapid return on investment in order to control the total cost of ownership, and we found that in 3Com's pay-as-you-grow philosophy," says Lars Norling, chief technology officer of ServaNet.

The 3Com Switch 5500s were also ideal for meeting the demands of the rapidly expanding network, and the 3Com Open Services Module deployed in the Router 6080 helped address customer concerns over bandwidth availability and ensured easy and economical implementation of future applications.

Key Benefits

Improve Services While Reducing Costs In August 2003 ServaNet's 3Com solution dramatically improved network performance and better positioned the company to achieve its key sales and marketing objectives, in addition to providing a rapid three-year ROI.

Two modular 3Com Switch 7700s formed a robust gigabit network core at Sundsvall that supported both layer 2 and layer 3 switching, as well as Quality of Service (QoS) capabilities ideal for integrating ServaNet's voice, video, and data traffic.

QoS-capable SuperStack 3 3Com Switch 4400s formed intermediate aggregation points in metropolitan areas, while SuperStack 3 3Com Switch 4200s at customer sites helped deliver 10/100 connections at the edge with gigabit uplinks tying back to the network core.

The built-in QoS functionality in both the 3Com Switch 7700s and 4400s allowed ServaNet to prioritise important traffic, ensuring customers enjoyed smooth, reliable connectivity for even their most bandwidth-intensive uses. The 3Com Switch 7700 was also used to separate traffic between three main nodes, improving network performance. It additionally re-routed traffic to the intermediate switch that passes the data package on to the edge switches.

The 3Com Switch 7700-based ServaNet network easily scaled to handle data speeds between 1 Mbps and 1 Gigabit, enabling it to respond easily to increasing user demands. ServaNet also tested the new 3Com Switch 7700R 8-slot chassis, which provides a redundant fabric for one-second fail-over operation for even higher availability.

With its faster, higher-capacity infrastructure, ServaNet was now able to bring entire apartment blocks online at once while still maintaining ample capacity to lease to local ISPs. The 3Com Switch 7700 and supporting 3Com switches can create virtual LANs (VLANs), enabling the provider to create discrete networks for specific customers or geographic areas for security and improved service.

The 3Com Switch 7700's security also enables the use of Access Control Lists (ACLs), to prevent unrecognised PCs from accessing the network and, using 3Com Network Supervisor to manage the network, ServaNet is able to troubleshoot customers' connections from a single central location, eliminating the need to dispatch technicians to determine where the problem originates.

As part of the initial implementation programme, ServaNet also installed 3Com IntelliJacks in direct subscribers' homes and offices as a further service enhancement. The innovative, affordable 3Com IntelliJack turns a single wiring drop into four fully managed in-wall Ethernet ports – one for Internet connectivity and three for future services such as IP telephony and multicast television. In addition, the IntelliJack's unique Location Mapping capability allows the company to quickly verify and pinpoint exactly where each unit is installed.

"The IntelliJack switch is the product we had been waiting for to connect small customers while retaining full functionality," Norling says. "No other product makes it so simple to regulate the bandwidth at a VLAN level, segment services by port, and administer the network all the way to the user interface."

The new network also supports a 3Com NBX networked telephony system that provides ServaNet's employees with phone features like four-digit dialling, hunt groups and call forwarding. In addition to improving communication both within the company and with the public, the 3Com NBX system was effectively a test case for network telephony throughout ServaNet's service region.

At the same time, the company made plans to offer corporate-class IP phone services to consumer and business accounts via the 3Com VCX™ V7000 IP Telephony Solution, a scalable carrier-class open standards platform that can support tens of thousands of users. Increasing numbers of customers were considering replacing their PBX phone systems with IP-based telephony and ServaNet stood to reap significant profits in direct competition with the local telco.

"Other connectivity providers talk about the potential of networks," says Norling. "Thanks to 3Com, we were able to deliver on that potential to make ourselves truly indispensable to our customers.”

The network was not only designed to meet the needs of ServaNet in 2003, it was designed to easily accommodate greater expansion and further innovations in the future. This was put to the test in 2007, when ServaNet needed to extend the network to meet the demands of its ever-growing customer base. This was achieved by adding additional Intellijacks, a further nine 3Com Switch 7700s, two Switch 7754s and a range of Switch 5500s.

3Com’s Switch 5500 family of premium stackable switches delivers maximum levels of security, converged features and intelligence for advanced networks. Employed at the edge of the network, they offer flexible, scalable connectivity for a heterogeneous mix of data, voice, video and other business-critical services. ServaNet chose Fast Ethernet 10/100 models featuring Enhanced Image (EI) and Standard Image (SI) capabilities, as well as the Gigabit EI 10/100/1000 model that offers industry-leading stackable performance and features for Gigabit-to-the-desktop, distribution and core deployments.

At the same time, ServaNet sought advice from 3Com with regard to discrepancies between the bandwidth it was supplying to some customers and the amount those customers believed they were receiving. This discrepancy was highlighted by online TP Test bandwidth checks carried out by customers, who subsequently rang ServaNet’s helpline in complaint. It was a situation ServaNet was keen to remedy as quickly as possible, particularly in light of its rapidly expanding customer base, which included 4,400 new apartments and 1,200 student apartments in Sundsvall. With this in mind, ServaNet looked to its network for clues as to why the reported differences arose.

As suspected, the answer lay in the way the bandwidth was being measured by the TP Test. Like most Internet service providers, ServaNet operated the TP Test application from a stand-alone Linux server at the edge of the network, an architecture that gave rise to less than accurate readings due to a delayed response time. In order to ensure correct readings, it was essential that TP Tests be performed at the core of ServaNet’s network, using a solution that enabled disparate, proprietary applications to communicate quickly and efficiently.

That solution was 3Com’s Open Services Networking (OSN) module FIC, a Linux-based server blade integrated into a 3Com Router 6080 at ServaNet’s network core in Sundsvall. Installed in March 2007, not only did the OSN Module provide ServaNet with the means to remedy the problem, it also gave the company a significant competitive advantage. It provided ServaNet with the simplicity, low cost and ease-of-use associated with integrated solutions, combined with the innovation and flexibility of a multi-vendor, best-of-breed solution. By adopting an open, all-in-one network infrastructure, ServaNet can now implement new and emerging technologies that best address pressing business issues, while reducing the complexity of the IT infrastructure.

Since implementing the OSN module, ServaNet has witnessed a dramatic fall in the number of complaints to the helpline. And, in the longer term, OSN will also provide ServaNet with an easier, more cost-effective route to implementing new applications on the network and ensure its customers benefit from this faster time-to-market.

ServaNet technician Ramus Flodin said: “Deploying the OSN module in the router has provided us with much faster response times and, in turn, far more accurate bandwidth readings for our customers. Not only that, but the amount of time and money we will save in future when installing new applications makes it an investment that will pay dividends well into the future.”