British Antarctic Survey IP telephony deployment

​Through implementing an IP Telephony solution, BAS has already experienced many of the benefits of replacing separate voice and data networks with a single converged infrastructure. Not only are there significant costs savings in maintaining and operating a single infrastructure, but the successful deployment of permanent satellite links to the remote Antarctic station mean that BAS is able to use the 1MB link to carry telephony traffic between Cambridge and the Antarctic effectively for free.
 
British Antarctic Survey rolls out IP Telephony
 
The Client
For almost 60 years The British Antarctic Survey (BAS) has been responsible for conducting the majority of Britain's scientific research on and around the Antarctic continent. It now shares that continent with scientists from around thirty countries.
 
The mission of the BAS is to undertake a world-class programme of scientific research and long-term observations, to address key issues of global or fundamental importance that require access to the Antarctic or related regions. By so doing, it helps to sustain the UK's involvement in Antarctic affairs and assists in the discharge of the UK's international responsibilities under the Antarctic Treaty System, which includes the administration of the British Antarctic Territory.
 
The BAS has around 420 staff of whom around 40 spend the austral winter in the Antarctic. Antarctic operations and science programmes are executed and managed from the BAS' UK headquarters in Cambridge. BAS Cambridge supports all the scientific and logistic activities in the Antarctic and provides specialised facilities for scientific staff. These include laboratories for the physical and chemical analyses of biological, geological and ice specimens, molecular biology facilities, a scanning electron microscope, sample preparation and controlled environment rooms (including a cold aquarium and extensive freezer storage) as well as a library, archives, computing and mapping facilities.
The BAS supports three stations in the Antarctic, at Rothera, Halley and Signy and two stations on South Georgia, at King Edward Point and Bird Island. In addition, ice-strengthened ships sustain the Antarctic operations. These include RRS James Clark Ross, which has advanced facilities for oceanographic research and RRS Ernest Shackleton, which is primarily a logistics ship used for the re-supply of stations. The Royal Navy's Ice Patrol Vessel HMS Endurance has helicopters and provides valuable logistic support.
 
The Challenge
Effective communication is vital to the business of the BAS. All the offices and laboratories are linked by a fibre-optic backbone network giving access to the World Wide Web and to an extensive internal web system of data and information. Communications with the ships and Antarctic stations is by daily e-mail, fax or phone.
 
The BAS was experiencing problems with its existing telephony systems at the Cambridge HQ. The old PBX had run out of capacity and was becoming expensive to maintain. After a detailed review of possible options the BAS decided to explore the possibility of replacing its traditional voice systems with a new IP Telephony solution. A key driver for this decision was BAS' understanding of the efficiencies and advantages of a single converged network infrastructure. In particular, the organisation was keen to take advantage of the lower on-going management costs. The ability to roll-out new IP-based applications and the productivity gains that could be achieved from the deployment of applications, such as full extension mobility and Unified Messaging, were also attractive. Furthermore, negotiations had recently been concluded to purchase permanent satellite bandwidth to provide 1MB links to remote Antarctic stations and ships, which could be used to carry telephony traffic.
 
A tender was released for the supply and installation of a new IP-based telephone system for the Cambridge HQ, which was to include Voice mail and Unified Messaging applications. An upgrade of the existing network infrastructure was also required to provide a robust, scalable platform to support the IP Telephony application.
 
The Solution
Recognising the importance of a robust communications platform to BAS' operations, a highly resilient, low-risk network infrastructure based on Cisco's AVVID architecture was designed. The AVVID architecture allows current data and voice technologies to be converged onto a single infrastructure, while offering the client freedom to choose from the very best applications available to support the business requirements. In this case, the Logicalis solution comprised a 420-seat IP Telephony system, integrated with Voicemail and Unified Messaging applications from Topcall that interface with the BAS' Novell Groupwise email application suite.
The solution is based on a proven two-tier network architecture that minimises the failure domain to a maximum of 24 user ports and protects critical applications with resilient server connectivity. At the centre of the network is a resilient pair of Cisco Catalyst 6500 switches, providing a high availability scalable platform for network services at the Core including Layer 3 routing, interfaces to WAN links and other networks (e.g. SuperJANET4). At the edges of the network, services are delivered to the users via Cisco Catalyst 3550 access switches, which also provide in-line power (power over Ethernet) for the IP Telephony handsets.
 
Cisco Call Managers have been deployed in a resilient cluster, configured to support up to 1,000 extensions, interfacing to BT, analogue devices and integrated voice applications. Further functionality can be added incrementally as new applications are introduced in the future.
 
The Benefits
Through implementing an IP Telephony solution, BAS has already experienced many of the benefits of replacing separate voice and data networks with a single converged infrastructure. Not only are there significant costs savings in maintaining and operating a single infrastructure, but the successful deployment of permanent satellite links to the remote Antarctic station mean that BAS is able to use the 1MB link to carry telephony traffic between Cambridge and the Antarctic effectively for free.
 
Furthermore, there are many productivity benefits that result from the greater flexibility and functionality of IP Telephony. For example, staff can now log onto any phone, regardless of their location, and have full access to their email and voicemail messages over a single interface. Full extension mobility means that it will be possible to be reached by the same DDI extension, whether they are in the office in Cambridge or in the Antarctic. The BAS will also be evaluating the possibility of rolling out further applications, if VoIP is rolled out to Antarctic stations, such as weather reports that could be available at the touch of a button.

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