East Midlands Metropolitan Area Network (EMMAN)
Creating a cutting-edge regional learning network
Back in 1994 a high-speed fibre-optic
cable was laid. It linked Nottingham Trent University to The
University of Nottingham and its connection to SuperJANET – the
UK’s education and research network.
Not only that, EMMAN (East
Midlands Metropolitan Area Network) was born, bringing resilient
internet access to the places it linked up. But, little did the
people behind it realise that within15 years the network would have
grown so much. It now has some 600,000 people using it.
We helped EMMAN link up six more
universities to the core network. And using a range of our managed
solutions, we also helped EMMAN expand even more. This included
some 40 further education colleges, research facilities, and even
the National Space Centre. Not bad for a network that originally
started out as a single point-to-point link!
EMMAN. Expanding into the
future.
When a student at an East Midland
university logs onto the internet, it’s thanks to JANET(UK) and to
EMMAN.
It also connects to SuperJANET – which
allows institutions to collaborate and share resources – like
research databases and specialist software. And every student’s
worst nightmare – a major system outage at exam time – should be
unthinkable, thanks to the network’s disaster recovery
facility.
A bright future for EMMAN
When we were first asked to help with
EMMAN’s expansion plans, our team recommended the installation of a
Dark Fibre solution to link up the universities involved. It offers
very high performance, and because it’s a privately operated fibre
network, there’s no need to purchase bandwidth capacity. Spot on
for educational institutions with their increasing data
demands.
Over the years we have provided EMMAN
with a complete network solution – a real combination of unmanaged
infrastructure and managed services. Since the initial solution,
we’ve supplied a whole host of our managed services like National
Ethernet, Leased Lines and Ethernet Extensions helping EMMAN to
grow.
It’s all two-way traffic with today’s
students
Students today are as demanding as
ever. Things like video conferencing and multimedia learning are
doubling capacity requirements every 18 months or so. Fortunately,
it’s a straightforward task for EMMAN to increase connection speeds
across their high-capacity core network.
Educational growth
The EMMAN network is relied upon by
literally thousands of students, academics and administrators.
Robustness was and is, absolutely
vital. Which is why our planners have ensured no establishment is
left dependent on a single connection. It’s revolutionised teaching
in the East Midlands, allowing the introduction of multimedia
teaching methods. It’s also provided greater efficiencies, not to
mention major cost savings. For instance, at Nottingham Trent
University, almost a third of all phones are now VoIP (Voice over
Internet Protocol) enabled. Calls are carried over our Next
Generation Network, and cost savings enjoyed by the University.
EMMAN continues to evolve, linking up with more academic sites and
public sector bodies like hospitals and local authorities.
Institutions are free to take advantage of their high-speed
connectivity in any way they wish.
Whatever they want to do, EMMAN always
comes with the back-up and support of our experts.
