Khon Kaen University Thailand Embraces Huawei FTTO to Build a Digital Campus

The campus has more than 40,000 students and covers an area of 3.3 million m2. What kind of network can meet the increasing network access requirements and ensure teaching and learning experience on such a huge campus?

The Huawei FTTO network solution has been proven to be the ideal choice for Khon Kaen University Thailand.

Promoting Education Transformation to Digital University

Founded in 1964, Khon Kaen University is a renowned university in northeast Thailand. It has 22 secondary colleges and is one of the most famous public universities in Thailand. With the vision of building a world-leading research university, Khon Kaen University plans to promote education transformation through education, promotion, application, and development of advanced academic fields and professions.

Digitalization is indispensable for realizing this vision. In the "SMART" values and culture of Khon Kaen University, "T" stands for technology and innovation, which is most important for building a digital university.

To realize this vision, Khon Kaen University continuously promotes the digital transformation. First, use digital technologies to change education models and teaching methods, build a digital teaching environment, and improve learning experience. Second, apply digital technologies to university management, optimize management services in terms of efficiency and accuracy, reduce work redundancy through more automated processes, and improve organizational management capabilities.

In this process, as an important infrastructure, the network is facing an increasing challenges. "In the early years, we provided Internet access through copper lines, which met the network requirements at that time. However, as the number of teachers, students, and network devices increases, concurrent network access increases sharply, and the existing network coverage and bandwidth become insufficient. What's more, the original network architecture cannot keep up with the development of new services. Said Pipat Reungsang, IT director of Khon Kaen University.

What impressed the management of Khon Kaen University most was that the students who entered the campus grew up with digitalization. Each student has three devices on average and has higher requirements on network services. The university needs to adapt to this change. Only in this way can we cultivate graduates well adapted to the digital technology revolution.

To improve network service capabilities, Khon Kaen University decided to use more advanced network technologies for reconstruction and upgrade. Pipat Reungsang said, "After extensive research, we finally chose to work with Huawei to build a future-oriented digital campus foundation using the Huawei FTTO solution."

From Pilot to Full Promotion, FTTO Builds a Digital Campus Foundation for Khon Kaen University

Khon Kaen University first piloted the FTTO network in the new administrative building. In the pilot phase, the construction and management team set three objectives:

• Provide high-bandwidth connections to ensure network quality and experience.

• Implement efficient O&M and unified management, improve troubleshooting efficiency, and ensure network connection reliability.

• Meet the requirements for smooth network evolution in the next 5 to 10 years.

According to the pilot results, the FTTO network is a great success. It features high bandwidth, low latency, easy O&M, easy evolution, and simplified architecture, proving that it is suitable for covering the entire campus with one FTTO network.

The dormitory area is a typical access scenario of a university's education campus network. By deploying the fiber to the room (FTTR) solution, Khon Kaen University has built a high-speed network for 45 dormitory buildings and 3000 dormitory rooms. The solution provides gigabit high-bandwidth access in each dormitory, greatly improving students' online learning and network access experience.

In addition, the FTTO network of Khon Kaen University covers multiple areas, such as offices, research rooms, and electronic classrooms. "We have deployed 3500 ONUs to effectively solve the last-mile network coverage problem. This enables 40,000 students and 10,000 faculty members to enjoy high-quality optical network experience." Said Pipat Reungsang.

The FTTO network provides higher network performance and reliability, greatly improving user experience. Pipat Reungsang said, "This significantly reduces or even almost eliminates network complaints."

Simplified Management and More Diversified Campus Digital Services

In terms of deployment costs and O&M, the FTTO network also brings significant benefits to Khon Kaen University.

Regarding network architecture, the FTTO network reduces the complex three-layer architecture into a two-layer architecture, simplifying networking and cabling. As the wired and wireless networks are integrated, the TCO is reduced by 30%. In addition, passive optical splitters are used to replace active devices in a traditional network, reducing the space occupied by extra-low voltage (ELV) rooms, achieving green and low carbon, and reducing energy consumption by 30%.

In terms of service network bearing, Khon Kaen University has deployed fiber to the desktop (FTTD) and fiber to the camera (FTTC) networks to implement unified bearing of wired, wireless, and closed-circuit television (CCTV) services, ensuring stable and efficient operation of digital campus office, learning, and security systems. FTTO also provides superior experience and solid support for innovative services such as e-Sports clubs and events of Khon Kaen University, meeting the requirements of multi-scenario campus services and achieving one network with multiple functions.

In terms of O&M management, a copper network only supports limited management functions and network visibility, making it difficult to locate faults and recover services. By deploying the FTTO network, a GUI-based O&M platform is provided to make the entire network information visible, such as device information and service traffic, reducing maintenance complexity by 50%.

Pipat Reungsang said, "Thanks to the deployment of the FTTO network, our network has become better, faster, and more reliable. By working with Huawei to build a high-speed, green, and simplified all-optical education campus network, Khon Kaen University's digital transformation process is significantly enhanced."

Compared with the traditional Ethernet architecture, FTTO replaces copper cable with optical fibers, and comprehensively upgrades bandwidth, networking, and O&M, efficiently supporting the digital campus construction of Khon Kaen University.

All-optical networks are becoming the choice of more and more campuses, including university campuses. The all-optical network practice of Khon Kaen University proves the unique benefits of the Huawei FTTO all-optical network solution. Education transformation is a long-term process. Huawei FTTO builds a solid and future-oriented network foundation, and is helping Khon Kaen University accelerate its progress towards a world-leading research and digital university.