Case Study: Nirasaki City Hall

Nirasaki City Hall has replaced a significant portion of its network equipment due to the expiration of equipment leases. This provided an opportunity to overhaul their entire network and select new hardware, with the utmost priority placed on building a "never-fail network."

About Nirasaki City Hall

Stepping off the train at Nirasaki Station, visitors are first greeted by the graceful figure of the Heiwa Kannon (Peace Kannon). This statue, counted as one of the three Kannon statues of Kanto, was reportedly erected to pray for the peace and safety of the city's residents.

Nirasaki City, Yamanashi Prefecture, is a small municipality located approximately 80 miles (130 km) from Tokyo and 7.5 miles (12 km) northwest of Kofu City (the prefectural capital), with a population of 32,047 as of May 1, 2010. Two major rivers, the Kamanashi River (also known as the Fuji River) and the Shio River, flow through the city, joined by numerous smaller rivers originating from the Southern Alps to the west and Mount Kayagatake to the east. While fertile plains stretch along the Kamanashi and Shio river basins, the Chiri-iwa plateau bisects the central area, creating a complex terrain that includes plains, mountains, foothills, and hills.

Upon visiting Nirasaki City Hall, visitors immediately notice soccer ball sculptures adorning the parking lot and entrance, evoking the vibrant, sporty atmosphere of a city known as "Nirasaki, the City of Soccer." The city's mascot, Nira, also welcomes visitors at various points.

Character for Community Revitalization

Nira, a "mysterious frog, messenger of the gods, who makes dreams come true," was created in 2009 as part of a creative picture book titled "Nira." This project, spearheaded by Mr. Teiichiro Hori, aims for regional revitalization through storytelling. Numerous related goods have been produced, and since April, Nirasaki City's original license plates for five types of vehicles requiring municipal registration (including motorcycles under 125cc) feature Nira's image. Nira is cherished not only by city residents but also by tourists visiting Nirasaki.

The city is also actively renovating the former shopping center "Lunes" in front of JR Nirasaki Station into the "Nirasaki Citizen Exchange Center." This facility aims to promote community-led collaborative city planning, serving as a hub for citizens' lifelong learning and cultural arts activities, providing activity support and meeting rooms. It also fosters intergenerational interaction and exchange through its collaboration with the community center, library, and childcare support center located within the complex.

Priority: A "Never-Fail Network"

In this vibrant city of Nirasaki, a large-scale network overhaul was undertaken at the city hall last year, resulting in the implementation of numerous FXC switches and other products. This significant replacement project was prompted by the expiration of equipment leases, providing an opportune moment to review the entire network and select new hardware.

The primary areas of implementation included the main government building and an annex. Additionally, the Health and Welfare Center, which previously had only a rudimentary network, received new infrastructure and equipment.

Mr. Higuchi, from the city hall, explained the priorities for this replacement: "Previously, different manufacturers' equipment was used from the outset, making maintenance procedures complicated whenever issues arose. Therefore, consolidating vendor support into a single point of contact was crucial. Also, at the Health and Welfare Center, equipment was not properly housed in a HUB storage box and was exposed, leading to frequent outages caused by unauthorized cable insertions and removals. We aimed to improve such management aspects."

Beyond the ease of maintenance provided by consolidation, the most critical factor for this project was stable operation – in other words, a "never-fail network." Previously, the L3 switches, distribution, and access layers were all single-point configurations. This time, each floor was connected via optical fiber, and the L3 switches were duplicated, significantly increasing availability.

While they previously used two fiber cores, they switched to a system that allows communication over a single core, enabling them to double their bandwidth to 2Gbps by configuring an EtherChannel with the same two cores. Beyond enhanced availability and increased bandwidth, a significant change was ensuring the network could handle an increase in applications, anticipating its usability up to the next replacement in five years. This project also included the introduction of monitoring terminals, enabling "network visualization." This allows for rapid response during troubleshooting and the ability to trace past operational statuses.

"The most important thing, above all, is to avoid downtime," Mr. Higuchi emphasized. "While it was previously difficult to implement redundancy due to cost, the recent decrease in equipment prices made it feasible. Of course, cost is important, but the balance between preventing downtime and cost was crucial." Based on these considerations, they were able to standardize L2 switches, media converters, and SFPs across all floors with FXC products, enabling swift responses from issue occurrence to recovery.

"Equipment You Forget About"

We asked Mr. Higuchi about his impressions of using FXC products so far.

"Since they're inside the HUB storage box and out of sight, I don't really think about their existence," Mr. Higuchi shared. "I believe not needing to open and check them means there are simply no issues. Also, it's fine if the air conditioning is on 24 hours a day, but it turns off after closing hours. In the summer, especially over weekends, some areas can get quite hot. The fact that we can use these products with peace of mind even in such environments is a major plus. In terms of the environment, we have a switch placed between desks, but it's quiet, and we haven't received any noise complaints."

As a manufacturer, hearing "equipment you forget about" might sound a little disheartening, but perhaps it's actually the mark of excellent network hardware. We are truly honored to receive such high praise. Nirasaki City, with its slogan "Nirasaki: City of Dreams and Inspiration," aims to be a comfortable and vibrant urban center. We believe it's wonderful that FXC can contribute to the remarkable progress of its bright future.