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Cisco to power IDRBT’s terrestrial network

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CIOL Bureau
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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).

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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.

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