Procurement guidelines on Layer 3 Switches from Ministry – Procedure

Procedure:

Our Preferred Tier 1 Vendor is HP for Switches.

Procurement of Layer 3 Switches

For School Districts procuring layer 3 switches, to integrate school sites into the NGN PLNet infrastructure, the following features are required:

    • 1 Gigabit port capabilities
    • Spanning Tree Support
    • Loop Protection
    • VLAN capable
  • Multicast Support

The following layer 3 switch features should be considered as they will position
Districts both now and the future:

    • Offer and support 24- and 48-port Power over Ethernet (PoE).
    • Chassis or stackable switches with a roadmap for 2.5 Gb/5 Gb wired connectivity on existing
    • Category 5 enhanced (Cat5e)/Category 6 (Cat 6) cabling to closet switches.
    • Ability to detect wired and wireless intrusion.
    • Integrated network management for all wired and wireless LAN components.
    • Vendor independent for configuration, provisioning and device profiling.
    • Include network forensics tools in addition to security functionality.
    • Support for voice and video applications by adding features to detect and resolve latency issues that
    • result in reduced jitter.
    • Awareness and monitoring of voice and video quality, and fixed mobile convergence capabilities.
    • The ability to provide managed services when additional IT resources are needed.
  • Although the ministry does not direct Districts to procure from specific vendors, it is highly recommended that network switches be procured from a Tier 1 vendor, where Districts can achieve best value and total cost of ownership.

Purpose

Data Security in the event of asset theft.


Scope

New Layer 3 Switch procurement

Roles & Responsibilities

IT Manager

Owner

IT Manager

History

Updated: December 6, 2018 – formatting
Created: January 28, 2016

Enforcement

Technology Services staff education and training