IKANO Press Releases:

OLYMPIC TECHNOLOGY: A BEHIND THE SCENES LOOK. IKANO Prepares to Deliver Gold Medal Performance for Olympic Winter Games of 2002

Date: October 1st, 2001
Release: IMMEDIATE

Preparation for Olympic events extends far beyond an athlete's painstaking conditioning, significant time commitment and emotional involvement. And although Olympic athletes are the focus and most important consideration of the Games, the Games would not be possible without technology.

Today, information technology is critical to the success of any Olympic Game. So, behind the scenes technology partners devote extensive resources, time and effort to deliver the technology solutions that make the Games possible.

IKANO Communications, based in Salt Lake City, Utah, is the Official Data Networking Services Supplier for the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games of 2002. IKANO will provide all data-networking services and accompanying support for the 2002 Olympic Winter Games. This high-performance Olympic data network will be used to aggregate data and information from Olympic events and then distribute the information to Olympic staff, athletes, officials, the host broadcaster, and the Salt Lake Olympic Organizing Committee (SLOC) Web site at www.saltlake2002.com.

Information distributed over the network will include event schedules and real-time results, athlete profiles, weather and performance data. IKANO is currently building, configuring, testing, managing and maintaining a data network capable of supporting all the integral technology functions of the Games. The network will be available at all venues, many of which will stage events simultaneously.

Over 900 switches, 120 routers, 150 T1 lines, 11 T3 lines, 12 network management stations, firewalls, cache engines, a few load balancing servers and nearly two years of preparation and testing assure that the IKANO-supported Olympic data network will deliver a gold medal performance in February 2002 during its 17 days of operation.

"The data network services provided by IKANO will be a critical component in our overall Games technology solution," said Mitt Romney, SLOC President and CEO. "We are confident that IKANO will provide reliable, safe and timely network services."

The Network Delivers Data with a Gold Medal Performance
Most of the behind-the-scenes technology preparations go unnoticed, but there are some visible aspects to viewers during typical Olympic Games event Broadcast.

On a typical Olympic competition day, times are tracked, judges' scores are recorded, and results are posted. Historical information about the athletes is made available to commentators, news agencies, and spectators. Large quantities of printed reports are generated. Weather information is constantly updated and recorded. Accreditation systems are used and security systems are monitored. Support for the data networking equipment that makes all this possible is the prime responsibility of IKANO. After every detail, latency, utilization, fault tolerance, fail-over to backup systems, monitoring, and security, have been considered, and once the network is built to meet the strict requirements of the Olympics, the Network is ready for the Games to begin.

"Our assurance to the Salt Lake Organizing Committee is to provide world-class network services and support that will meet the critical need to accurately report, transfer and manage information during periods of high traffic and enormous pressure," said Henry Smith, CEO of IKANO. "This partnership will allow SLOC to execute swiftly while immediately harnessing the power of the most up-to-date IP technologies available."

"IKANO expects that this will be an unmatched platform for showcasing its capabilities on a global stage," Smith said. "IKANO will turn in a gold medal performance at managing the network technology for the world's most complex and greatest sporting event."

A Test Run
Now that network plans and preparations are underway and complete in many cases, IKANO has the opportunity to test its strategy for building the network during test events at the Utah Winter Games of 2001.

IKANO is installing required data networks at each venue so that systems such as On Venue Results (OVR) and the Commentator Information System (CIS) can shadow the event. During these test events, IKANO gathers the network statistics necessary to verify that the designed network will support the Olympic Winter Games of 2002.

For a typical test event, T1 circuits are brought up one week prior to the event. They are tested by Olympic telecommunications partners and accepted by IKANO engineers. Three days prior to the event, IKANO is allowed to install all the routers and switches necessary to support the shadow operations. The installation window can be as short as three hours. The network is installed while workstations and servers are being placed. And because distances at many of these mountainous events are so great, many require fiber connectivity. Once everything is installed, IKANO engineers test the backup systems such as spanning-tree, EIGRP, device failures, and network monitoring. The remaining time before an event is utilized by application developers who test applications such as OVR and CIS. While applications are being tested, IKANO engineers gain valuable insight as to how some of these applications can be improved through the use of various diagnostic tools. During February of applications are being tested, IKANO engineers gain valuable insight as to how some of these applications can be improved through the use of various diagnostic tools. During February of 2001, IKANO supported as many as four of these competition and non-competition venues simultaneously.

Center Stage
During the summer of 2001, IKANO engineers actively prepared the data network equipment and resources needed to operate during the Olympic Winter Games of 2002. New equipment arrived, and was tested daily, over a period of three months to ensure that it will be operational during the Games. Operation systems on all network devices are constantly evaluated to ensure that they remain stable and comprise the required features. Complete networks for each venue will be staged and fully configured in a lab environment. This ensures that it will operate during deployment and within a very limited installation window.

The Final Round
During the fall of 2001, installations began in earnest for the Olympic Winter Games. As final touches were placed on the network designs, IKANO engineers prepared the tools, supplies, and network equipment necessary to install networks at some sixty locations throughout the state of Utah. One by one each venue network is built and connected to a grid of T1 and T3 lines that connect to other venues.

The operability of each Olympic application s verified before the data network is considered complete. After all, the IKANO supported data network is what connects every client and server of every application at every venue.

To accomplish this task, some 26 IKANO engineers, organized into a series of teams, will follow established procedures assuring that any action taken by any IKANO Olympic technology team will contribute to the success of the data network without leaving it vulnerable at any time.

While the Games network is being designed, staged, built, and maintained, there is an entirely separate administrative data network that must also be handled as well by the IKANO team. This temporary network is comparable to a typical corporate network of some 1,500 users at a variety of locations.

9-1-1 Response Times
IKANO's data network has an extremely low likelihood of crashing, but in the rare instance that a problem occurs, IKANO engineers are prepared to combat the problem in record time.

While the data network is operational both before and during the Olympic Games, systems must be in place to ensure that the network stays operational. If a failure should occur, IKANO engineers must isolate and solve the problem as quickly as possible. While the primary network may fail-over to a backup network in a matter of seconds, the original problem must typically be corrected in a matter of minutes. To ensure that this happens, approximately 12 network management stations will be strategically placed throughout the network using a variety of utilities and several custom-built applications and databases written by IKANO engineers. During the Games, IKANO engineers will be stationed within these network management stations to offer a quick response. The goal is to ensure that regardless of the nature of any failure, all Olympic systems such as OVR and CIS are able to continue operating with no visible affect on the Games.

Security
The Olympic Winter Games of 2002 will draw a TV audience of billions from around the world, making it one of the most visible sporting events on earth. For many people, this will be an opportunity to see the performances of some of the greatest athletes that the world has to offer.

For others, this will be an opportunity to interrupt the operations of critical computer systems. IKANO will install several network security systems and have a well-developed network security plan in place. This will require a high level of continuous diligence and expertise.

"The IKANO engineering team has extensive experience building, managing and securing extremely complex, networks. IKANO currently supports its own nationwide network and I am confident that the Olympic network will remain secure for the duration of the Games," said Dave Busser, SLOC Chief Information Officer. "We chose IKANO because of its demonstrated expertise in delivering high-performance network infrastructure, built-in redundancy, and its experienced staff."

About IKANO Communications, Inc.
IKANO Communications was founded over 10 years ago as a regional Internet service provider in the Intermountain West and since then has flourished to become the industry leader in private-label, wholesale, and retail Internet services. IKANO leverages its ISP platform to provide outstanding services at highly competitive prices. The company's rapid growth and excellence in the field have resulted in IKANO's ranking in the Inc. 500, Technology Fast 500, Inner City 100, Utah 100, and Call Center of the Year.

Companies interested in learning more about IKANO should contact info@ikano.com, or call 877.492.0121.