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The story of the Boston Marathon's HP "Race Day Network" begins in 1996, when in commemoration of the Marathon's 100th running, the Boston Athletic Association sought to further enhance the prestige of its premier event by aggressively using technology to provide instantaneous, real time results through the web to the media and ultimately the public. Over the last eight years, the Marathon has continuously evolved and expanded its network to enhance the media coverage of the race and ensure accuracy of timing and scoring.
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The "Race Day Network" for this high profile, annual event is a daunting task that must be set up in just six days. With no margin or time for error, security, performance, and reliability were vital considerations when selecting the enterprise networking solution. "When we were reviewing the offerings of other networking vendors, ease of set-up and reliability were our primary concerns," said Kevin Meany, network manager for the Boston Marathon and director of technology operations for Versatile Communications, Inc. "We chose the ProCurve Networking solution because it is the only solution that provides the performance and security features necessary to ensure an absolutely reliable network."
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Since its inception, the primary goal of the Marathon Race Day Network is to provide the press with real-time race information through the web and other proprietary technologies. As the network has evolved, it has expanded to provide support for local law enforcement agencies, race information to the public, and runner status information to family members. Each year John Burgholzer, technology coordinator for the Boston Marathon, works with Meany to determine the needs for the Race Day Network. Meany and his team are responsible for designing the network.The entire Race Day Network consists of about a dozen network segments all connected to the Marathon's main computer room located in the Copley Plaza Hotel in downtown Boston. Here reside a number of servers—email, Internet, and web servers—all connected via gigabit copper to a HP ProCurve Switch 5300xl, which acts as the core of the network. "We chose the 5300 for the core because it offered routing capabilities, modular flexibility, and performance for high volumes of data transfer," said Meany. "Plus the redundant power supply and switch meshing capabilities were very important to us. If the main computer room goes down we have absolutely no time to fix it during the race or even in the days and hours leading up to it. ProCurve Networking was the only vendor to offer switch meshing capabilities at Layer 2 that allows us to set up redundant links."Beginning the Tuesday morning before the race, Meany and his team begin setting up the network starting with the main computer room. Within the first eight hours, the backbone infrastructure and pressroom must be set-up. Wednesday and Thursday are quiet days spent connecting auxiliary computer rooms within the hotel. On Friday, the team begins working feverishly to connect the race course, finish line and other areas outside the hotel before the race begins on noon Monday. » Return to top
On Race Day, the Marathon uses a chip-and-mat timing system to gather racing data from the course. Each runner's shoe or wheelchair contains a chip and as the runner passes over the 11 mats placed along the course, the information is fed real-time to the pressrooms at the Copley Plaza hotel. Also, spotters along the course, equipped with wireless HP IPAQ Pocket PCs, enter additional data into the network. "We used the HP ProCurve Wireless Access Point 520wl for our wireless connections," said Meany. "It's vital for us to ensure the security of our network and ProCurve Networking's Adaptive EDGE Architecture permits secure, fast and appropriate access by placing the intelligence for managing both wired and wireless connections at the edge of the network where we need it."Instantaneous feed of the race data comes into the Copley Plaza pressrooms through three fully meshed HP ProCurve 5300xl switches. The network not only "scrolls" real-time data from the mats and spotters but also compiles "split" reports for the press detailing the positions of the leaders at each mile for each of the four main races (Men's, Women's, Men's Wheelchair and Women's Wheelchair). Remote press can also cover the race by accessing press-only areas on the web site. Information is pushed to the web every seven minutes.At the finish line, a mat captures the race results, which are fed back to the main computer room via a T1 connection. The live announcer uses the network to access background information on the athletes as they approach the finish line. ESPN provides live television coverage using the athlete profiles and also has a direct feed to the "scroller" report that provides a chroma-key ticker at the bottom of the viewers' television screen.The network supports several systems developed to provide information to families and friends of the runners. In the family meeting area, volunteers use various tracking systems to assist family members in locating runners. All entrances and exits from the medical tents are tracked on the network. Prior to the race, runners may also provide email addresses or cell phone numbers of family or friends. During the race, the network transmits text messages detailing the runner's status. In 2002, the inaugural year for the system, the network transmitted more than 68,000 of these "status" messages—in 2003, it increased to more than 100,000. » Return to top
As the Boston Marathon goes forward into its second century, Meany and Burgholzer plan to expand coverage to the more remote areas of the race by adding additional mats and more wireless connections. According to Meany, this means adding a HP ProCurve Integrated Access Manager 760wl for secure mobility. "We want to go to ProCurve Networking across the board," said Meany. "ProCurve Networking gives us exceptional value without skimping on features or performance—the total cost of ownership is exceptional—the lifetime warranty* alone is a great reason to have one in your closet."Burgholzer adds, "We've challenged the network year after year and ProCurve Networking continues to perform flawlessly. We are confident that the ProCurve Networking solution will allow us to continue to expand the network, add more wireless and move even larger amounts of data."» Return to top
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- By using ProCurve Networking solutions, the Boston Marathon, has enjoyed increased press coverage, particularly international coverage, by providing reliable real-time results to press room and direct feeds to ESPN and other media outlets. In addition to the approximately 1200 press members in attendance at the Copley Plaza pressrooms, more press are able to cover the event from remote locations due to the quality and reliability of the real-time information available to the media on the Marathon's web site.
- As the Marathon continues to expand its coverage to the remote parts of the race through the use of more wireless and wired connections, the ProCurve Networking Adaptive Edge Architecture and its outstanding security mobility solution adds intelligence at the edge of the network to ensure that each user is authenticated at the point of connection so the network security will not be compromised.
- The scalability of the ProCurve Networking solution has allowed the Marathon Race Day Network to easily expand to provide better tracking of all 20,000 runners and enhanced support for state police, emergency medical services and homeland security needs.
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Hardware
Software
HP services
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Lifetime warranty with next-business-day advance replacement (available in most countries) on most products for as long as the customer owns it *
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Telephone support available during normal business hours
- Technical product support available via e-mail
- Comprehensive network design and configuration services offered at no extra charge
* The HP ProCurve Routing Switch 9300m series and Secure Access 700wl series have a one-year warranty with extensions available.
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When you are ready to explore the benefits a ProCurve Networking solution can offer you, call HP at 1-800-975-7682.
To learn more about ProCurve Networking's Adaptive EDGE Architecture™ solutions, visit our home page.
Purchase: In the US, HP business solutions, products, and supplies can be purchased at your local HP partner, or bought directly from HP either online or by calling 800-613-2222.
Finance: HP finance plans provide all the benefits of new technology without the risk or cost of ownership. For details, call 888-999-4783.
Accessibility: HP is committed to providing products and services that are accessible to people with disabilities. For more information, please visit the HP Accessibility web site or call 888-259-5707.
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