Allied Telesis to provide integrated network solutions for TAF hospital system

Allied Telesis, Inc., a global provider of secure IP/Ethernet switching solutions and an industry leader in the deployment of converged multi-play networks, was selected by the Turkish Armed Forces (TAF), the second-largest standing force in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), as the network solutions provider for improvements to 34 military medical facilities as part of an ongoing technology modernization effort driven by the Turkish Ministry of Defense.

The project included the AT-x908 advanced layer-3 switches, AT-8624 layer-3 and AT-8516F layer-2 Fast Ethernet switches, AT-AR750S firewall and wide area network (WAN) router, AT-2701FX fiber Network Interface Card (NIC), and AT-AR440S asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL) router. The Allied Telesis multilayer core switching solution is highly flexible, incorporating specialized security protocols for enhanced protection of sensitive personnel and patient information.

"Allied Telesis is working closely with the Turkish Armed Forces as they undergo a vast modernization effort to transform their networked infrastructure," said Philip Jopa, Allied Telesis chief technology officer. "Specifically, the Turkish Armed Forces were looking to deploy a technology solution offering speed, security, and scalability — due to the highly sensitive and confidential data being transferred — and with our breadth of experience with military and defense networks, we were uniquely positioned to assist them in their deployment of a complex medical network within a large military system."

The Allied Telesis solution helped to seamlessly integrate the hospital Internet and intranet. The AT-x908 and AT-8624 advanced and Fast Ethernet Layer-3 switches feature private VLAN (virtual local area network) capabilities, and Network Access Control (NAC) security, ideal for securing the end user entry point at the edge of the intranet with full routing capabilities to handle high levels of data traffic transported along the backbone of the system. The AT-AR750S routers were deployed for WAN E1 (2.048 megabyte/second data rate) connections between the data center and the hospitals.

The AT-AR440S and AT-8516F enable fiber-to-the-desk (FTTD) and 802.1x MAC (media access control) based VLAN assignments to ensure workstation security. The AT-2701FX fiber NICs connect the workstations to the data center.

"Having a network with nearly 5000 workstation users in 34 hospitals posed a unique challenge, as we needed to ensure the network could scale in terms of performance and end user security," said Antonella Santoro, Allied Telesis southern European sales director. "We proposed a multilayer core switching solution based on Allied Telesis modular machines and were chosen because our enterprise-class network solutions offer high resiliency, advanced security, and innovative, flexible models that minimize the total cost of ownership for our clients."

The hospital information system comprises nearly 34 facilities varying in size from clinics to large-scale national treatment centers. Allied Telesis successfully won the TAF contract for technology upgrades to 34 medical facilities in November 2009. Installation will be completed this month.