in Springfield, MO
Third Largest City in Missouri
Forges Ahead with Global Ethernet

August 2001


Contents

MAN Rollout Improved
Performance 2.5 Times at 1/3
the Cost...............................2

High-Speed Broadband Needed
ASAP ...................................2

Foundrys BigIron 4000 Perched
to Deliver .............................2

Customer Results and End-User
Benefits ...............................3



City Utilities of Springfield, MO
provides state-of-the-art Gigabit
Ethernet for businesses through
its SpringNet division. City
Utilities is lighting up over 360
km (225 miles) of their own
fiber covering the greater
metropolitan area. The synergy
between the power division and
SpringNet allows them to use
the same easements as the
power delivery lines.
Foundry Networks BigIron
8000s, BigIron 4000s, and
NetIron Layer 2/3 switches
make this next generation IP
network a reality.

Page 2
MAN Rollout Improved
Performance 2.5 Times at
1/3 the Cost
The SpringNet division of the City Utilities of
Springfield, MO faced increasing business
demand for a high-speed Internet
infrastructure. The bubble may have burst for
dot-coms, but information continues to grow
as an essential ingredient in todays
marketplace. Springfields businesses and
services knew that information must be
stored, retrieved, analyzed, acted upon, and
shared with others at a moments notice. A
growing workforce in Springfield was pressing
the limits of their existing SONET/SDH loop.
Although SpringNet had covered their metro
area with optical fiber, scalability remained a
concern. SpringNet was committed to
enhancing speed, reliability, security, and
network management capabilities. They also
needed to keep costs as low as possible and
simplify their ongoing maintenance of
SpringNet.

Foundry Networks provided the solution they
needed with optical transport of native
Gigabit Ethernet and high-density Layer 2/3
Switching to create a metropolitan access
network (MAN). SpringNets own
measurements showed a 250 perc ent
increase in performance. The Foundry
solution was approximately one-third the cost
of achieving this performance gain if they had
merely added additional SONET-based
equipment.

Today, SpringNet can deliver fiber and copper
right to a customers doorstep. Their
business-to-Internet solutions provide
10/100/1000 megabits per second (Mbps).
SpringNet also provides business-to-business
Ethernet Solutions from 1.5Mbps to 10
gigabits per second (Gbps).
High-Speed Broadband
Needed ASAP
Springfield, MO is the third largest city in the
State of Missouri. Geographically, it is located
almost exactly in the center of the U.S. The
city is home to 151,000 residents, plus
another 50,000 people in the greater metro
area. Like many cities, Springfield enjoyed
great growth and prosperity in the 1990s. In
May 2001, they were named in the Top 10 of
the Best Places to Live and Work in the U.S.
1


As of the 2000 U.S. Census, the workforce in
Springfield had grown 28 percent (twice the
national average).

In 1987, City Utilities began the construction
of a fiber optic network. In 1994, it upgraded
to SONET/SDH. In 2001, SpringNet
completed their research on upgrade options.
The simplicity and cost-effectiveness of
Ethernet was the clear winner over additional
SONET build-outs and upgrades.

Foundry was invited to participate in trials
against two competitors. Foundry not only
provided equipment according to a standard
evaluation agreement, but also provided an
on-site Systems Engineer for installation and
configuration. In just one day, the Foundry
solution was up and running.
Foundrys BigIron 4000
Perched to Deliver
In one of the more innovative uses of Foundry
Networks products, engineers at SpringNet
designed a protective cabinet that could be
literally mounted on the power poles already
used for electricity distribution. The weather-
proof cabinet features a small 7,000 BTU air

1
Employment Review, (May 2001)
Photograph: BigIron 4000s are
Installed Whe re Needed
Power
source
Protective
cabinet
Air
conditioner

Page 3
conditioner that keeps the equipment cool in
the summer. The power to run both the Big
Iron 4000 and the air conditioner comes, of
course, fro m the power lines supported by the
utility poles.

Foundry Networks BigIron 4000 and 8000
backbone switches are also deployed in
SpringNets tornado-proof equipment rooms.
In the NetOps and in the field, Foundry
Networks easy-to-use Command Line
Interface (CLI) and Web-based HTML
interface make device and network
management simple and fast.
Customer Results and End-
User Benefits

Foundrys solution for private Virtual Local
Area Networks (VLANs) also brought new
functionality and ease of maintenance to
SpringNets business-to-business customers.
With Foundry devices, Layer 2 VLAN
connection can be handed off across the MAN
at multiple locations. This provides
SpringNets customers with their own secure
network connections across the MAN, and
SpringNet is relieved of IP addressing
concerns with regards to their customers
networks.

Foundrys complete solution for MANs can
also be seen in the benefits it provides to the
users of SpringNet.

High-bandwidth applications such as
multimedia and IP multicast are now
seamless and simple. For example, the main
hospital of Springfield uses the increased
capacity of SpringNet to transmit electronic X-
ray images to medical professionals in
seconds. The typical file size of an X-ray
image is between 150 and 250 megabytes.
Costly X-ray imaging film and cumbersome
developing processes are eliminated with
direct-to-file X-ray imaging. Delays inherent
in developing traditional X-ray films and
distribution by courier are also eliminated.
The hospital serves the residents of
Springfield through its main facility and its
neighborhood clinics. Using a 2-gigabit
Ethernet optical VLAN, information such as X-
ray images can be delivered in seconds.

City Utilities of Springfield, the parent
organization of SpringNet, has made
Springfield, MO a leader in next generation
networks.
About Foundry Networks

Foundry Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ: FDRY) is a
performance and total solutions leader for
end-to-end switching and routing including
Layer 2/3 LAN switches, Layer 3 Backbone
switches, Layer 4-7 Web switches and
Internet routers. Foundry's 3,750+ customers
include the world's premier ISPs, Metro
service providers, and enterprises including e-
commerce sites, universities, entertainment,
health and wellness, government, financial,
and manufacturing companies.

Visit Foundry Networks on the World Wide
Web at http://www.foundrynet.com

Foundry Networks, Inc.
Headquarters
2100 Gold Street
P.O. Box 649100
San Jose, CA 95164-9100

U.S. and Canada Toll-free: (888) TURBOLAN
Direct telephone: +1 408.586.1700
Fax: 1-408-586-1900
Email: info@foundrynet.com

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© 2001 Foundry Networks, Inc. All Rights Reserved.