On a better note
Bay Networks The Ace In Star City's Network; Bay Networks Supplies the Largest ATM Network in Australia
SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 8, 1998--Bay Networks(R), Inc. (NYSE:BAY) this week announced it was selected to provide Australia's largest ATM network for the new Star City Casino in Sydney.
The network has a full ATM backbone with switched and shared 10Mbps going out to users and 100Mbps connections from servers to the core.
The network connects up to 800 users at over four sites, including the Casino, warehouse, the company's training facility, and its recruitment center. Additionally, it will connect a disaster recovery center.
In all, there are close to 45 equipment rooms in the Casino complex in Pyrmont which, in addition to the gaming areas, includes two theatres, a conference center, a 365-room hotel, a 156-room serviced apartment tower and a number of restaurants, bars and shops.
Star City's network is comprised of the following Bay Networks products: 38 Bay Networks System 5000BH(TM) ATM switches, 15 BayStack(TM) 101 hubs, six Remote Annex(TM) terminals, two Backbone Node (BN(R)) routers, six Access Stack Node(TM) routers, a number of Bay Networks Nautica CLAM(TM) routers and 8-port hubs. The network is managed using Bay Networks' Optivity(R) network management software and the Casino has a comprehensive service contract with Bay Networks.
Simon Nimmo, network manager of Sydney's new casino, is passionate about his network and justifiably proud of its success. "It was a great challenge, a lot of hard work and I am very happy with the outcome," he said.
"The Casino runs 24-hours a day, seven days a week and has grown regularly since we opened. This is a very high-tech operation and the network is crucial to its success. This need for reliability, Quality of Service (QoS), flexibility, security, bandwidth and room for growth is what led me to select ATM as our core technology and Bay Networks as our supplier," said Nimmo.
After a month of testing the network, Star City opened in November 1997 with a huge fanfare. Australia's top celebrities attended the opening, which was covered by a live television broadcast. Going live in such a public way might prove daunting for many people but Nimmo was confident in the network.
"It went off without a hitch and has been running perfectly since, which is as we expected," he said.
Nimmo compared a variety of networking technologies, such as Fast Ethernet and FDDI, before selecting ATM. Star City Casino looked at ATM solutions from Cisco Systems and 3Com before selecting Bay Networks.
Bay Networks' commitment to open standards across its product range was an important factor in Star City's decision. "We wanted this place to be based totally on standards. Bay Networks is standards-oriented, as opposed to proprietary, so their devices will run with those from other suppliers. This commitment is important to us as we want to have open systems," added Nimmo.
ATM's scalability enables Star City to expand and enhance the features and functions of their network. For example, the Casino is currently working on its own Web site.
"Future directions also include live video links to the main gaming floor and to the information kiosks so customers can see what's happening around the Casino," said Nimmo. "Bay Networks' Adaptive Networking strategy gives us the flexibility to add these types of advanced applications to our existing network." |
