NEW DELHI: Cisco Systems, a firm dealing in networking for the Internet, has
announced it had been selected to provide the communications and networking
equipment for a new terrestrial network for INFINET (Indian Financial Network).
The network is owned and maintained by IDRBT (Institute for Development and
Research in Banking Technology).
The terrestrial network will cover the entire breadth of India and connect 21
major cities including the metros through a Leased Line Network (LLN). The LLN
would provide gateways to the member banks for inter bank applications such as
simple messaging, delivery vs. payment and government transactions. The
terrestrial network will compliment the already existing INFINET VSAT network.
IDRBT director Dr V P Gulati said, "The new terrestrial network links
will provide us higher bandwidth speeds from 2 MB to upwards of 34 MB, and will
be integrated with our existing VSAT network. INFINET is a blend of both leased
line and VSAT network technologies. More importantly the terrestrial WAN network
will be easy to migrate to Ethernet speeds in the future."
To set up the terrestrial network, Cisco Systems will supply high-end
routers, security systems, network management software and switches. Cisco 7500
series routers form the core of this network, which would be located in
important cities across the country. This core network would interconnect the
various cities in India.
The bank branches will use Cisco 2600/3600 routers depending upon their
requirements. Cisco's PIX firewall security solution has been deployed at the
distribution centers to take care of the stringent security requirements of the
banks in India.
IDRBT inaugurated INFINET in June 1999 to provide a reliable communication
backbone for the banking and financial sector. INFINET, a closed user group
network for the exclusive use of member banks and financial institutions, was
initially a satellite based VSAT network that had 675 VSATs supporting
approximately 200 towns and cities across India.