Hong Kong: H3C Provides Mission Critical Network for WTO Ministerial Conference in Hong Kong

Background
The World Trade Organization (WTO) Hong Kong Ministerial Conference was one of the largest global events ever to take place in Hong Kong. Held from 13 to 18 December 2005, over 20,000 delegates from 150 countries around the world participating over the six days.

Since The Sixth WTO Ministerial Conference was the largest of its kind hosted in Hong Kong in recent years, there were multiple challenges facing the project management team not least of which was the provision of a safe and secure network within a very short space of time. The conference was unique because it required the creation of an extensive and efficient large-scale 'temporary' IT network infrastructure; one of the most complex ever created for such an international conference anywhere in the world.

The Challenge
To meet this challenge the HK Government asked various network providers to deliver a complete, fast gigabit Ethernet network that would allow high reliability, scalability, maximum security, easy management, accessibility and interoperability.

During the Ministerial Conference, the various trade delegates needed to communicate and transfer data and information back to their headquarters in their home countries in real-time with no risk of downtime or malfunction. Added to this, the connection had to be completely secure from hacker intrusions, internal carelessness and possible malicious tampering from within to provide the level of confidence that the WTO required. The network also had to be interoperable with any brand of networking equipment in Hong Kong and abroad without non-line blocking or single points of failure.

The Solution
H3C was given this daunting task as the only IT Core Infrastructure provider for the 2005 WTO Ministerial Conference in Hong Kong. It delivered a mission critical solution based on a fast Gigabit Ethernet network built using its market-leading Quidway® networking gear; the most dependable switches and routers available.

Various products H3C Quidway® products were used to construct the network including:

• Core Routers: Internet Gateway

• Core Switches: Quidway® S5624F

• Aggregation Switches: Quidway® S5012T

• Edge Switches: Quidway® S3952P-EI, S3952P-SI, S3928P-EI, S3928P-SI and S3026C

• Firewalls: SecPath 100F

Benefit
Scalability
T he number of estimated users almost doubled, from the expected 11,000 people to over 20,000 during the Ministerial Conference. This high scalability not only enabled demand to be met, but meant that there were no problems in handling the connections between various equipment from a multitude of different contractors.

Security
As part of the three-tiered plan, H3C employed a variety of methods to maintain integrity. At the router gateway, the internal addresses of WTO departments were translated into public addresses in case any sensitive internal address was accidentally disclosed to outsiders. The firewalls were configured to only allow access requests, which were defined as legal, to pass through, while other requests that were defined as hostile or undefined were all blocked. The security mechanism on the core switch made the different user groups invisibleto each other, so that anyhostile activities from one department would notaffect otheruser groups. To further limit breaches, VIP seats were isolated from others on the network to prevent any unauthorized access.

The Results
H3C's carrier-class networking gear successfully empowered the Hong Kong WTO Ministerial Conference as though it were a globally distributed corporate network with such features as distributed device management and resilient routing to provide a truly scalable and secure network that exceeded the stringent demands placed on it by EMSD and the WTO MCO.

"The WTO event held in Hong Kong became a valuable opportunity for H3C to demonstrate and showcase one of the most comprehensive 10G networking solutions in the market today. With considerable experience in the government sector worldwide, and having worked closely with the team at the EMSD, H3C's solution was deployed ahead of schedule, passing with flying colours. We are pleased to have the opportunity to develop the massive network for the Hong Kong WTO event," explained Rose Chen, President of International Marketing and Sales at H3C.