Ottawa U Cranks Up Network Performance

Ottawa University, based in Kansas, has selected XO Communications to provide a multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) IP virtual private network solution for its six campuses in four states.

Originally founded in Ottawa, the university has grown to 7,000 students at the institution's residential campus in Ottawa and added adult and professional studies on campuses in Phoenix, Milwaukee, Kansas City, and Jeffersonville, IN. It also offers online courses. With the university's broad geographic requirements and varied bandwidth needs, it needed a scalable, managed network setup that enabled its campus community to connect and communicate across multiple sites in a secure network environment.

Ottawa U will use XO's nationwide Ethernet network and the XO MPLS IP-VPN solution to connect its locations and support network applications, including Internet access, voice over IP, and unified communications. The XO network will converge voice and data traffic over a single IP network infrastructure.

"XO Communications has designed a custom solution for Ottawa University that will enhance our network capacity, support the varying bandwidth speeds of our campuses, and improve our overall communications efficiencies," said Jack Maxwell, director of IT. "It also enables us to leverage voice over IP and unified communications applications in a flexible and cost-effective way."

About the Author

Dian Schaffhauser is a former senior contributing editor for 1105 Media's education publications THE Journal, Campus Technology and Spaces4Learning.

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