Background

Dhanalakshmi Bank Ltd. (DBL) is a seventy year-old bank with its headquarters in Thrissur, Kerala, India. It has 179 branches spread over the Indian states of Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, West Bengal and New Delhi. All of DBL Bank’s branches are NRI (Non-Resident Indian) approved, which has necessitated greater need for branch connectivity and data center access.

DBL Bank wanted to implement a wide-area network to connect all its branches to provide value added services to its customers. The network solution needed to provide branches with improved access to core banking functions allowing for greater ATM connectivity and deployment of better branch banking and cash management services, as well as tele-banking, Internet banking and IP telephony. With DBL Bank’s data center located in Bangalore, the company also required improved network capacity for data communications between branches and the data center.

Technology Solution

H3C designed DBL Bank’s network with eight AR46 and five AR36 routers to create a national backbone supplying WAN connectivity to its major locations. In its small branch and extension center locations, H3C installed 167 AR28 branch routers for data center connectivity.

Branch Connectivity Details:

 Branch leased lines connected to each city’s cluster routers

 ISDN BRIs configured for failover

 Interface S0 cluster routers connecting the data center and HQ

 Interface S1 cluster routers connect to the data recovery center

Data Center Connectivity Details:

 Two S7506R switches and three S3000 series switches deployed in the LAN backbone at data center.

 Gigabit Ethernet links connect two backbone switches and workgroup switches on each floor.

Why H3C?

After reviewing various networking products and solutions, DBL Bank chose H3C based on its full range of innovative and industry-leading products and deep industry experience. H3C’s total banking and financial solution offered DBL Bank guaranteed security and multifold revenue-generation services while meeting its requirements for a cost-effective network solution with low overall investment and high ROI.

High Performance and Reliability

DBL Bank is fully computerized meaning no manual transactions occur in branches. Therefore, their network has to be highly available, so H3C used a cluster network design to minimize downtime.

Advanced Routing Protocol Deployment

Since the smaller city branches are interconnected with multiple major city locations, the H3C solution ensures that traffic is automatically sent via the shortest path between routers to improve performance and connectivity.

Auto Failover

All DBL Bank branches have been set to auto failover mode between primary and backup links. The primary link runs over leased line through a serial port router and an ISDN line connecting to the router’s ISDN port serves as a secondary link. ISDN interfaces have been configured to act as backups for the primary serial interface, so if the primary link fails the secondary interface will automatically switch over.

The Benefits

By using H3C’s enterprise-class switches and routers to increase data center and branch connectivity, Dhanalakshmi Bank has achieved full computerization of its banking processes and gained a highly cost-effective backbone network offering increased access and improved performance to its many branch and ATM locations across India. Backed by H3C’s comprehensive product line and customer-oriented service and support teams, DBL Bank’s network can deliver new online and phone banking services to its customers.