The Best Solutions Showcase is a component of Government Technology’s GTC expos featuring successful solutions implemented in government organizations. The Mesquite school district’s implementation of an OptiSwitch solution garnered recognition as a best solution in the Southwestern Region (Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico or Louisiana). The program was open to all GTC Southwest exhibitors, with winners being recognized at the show in Austin, TX, January 28-31.

The Mesquite Independent School District of Mesquite, Texas, serves more than 33,000 students and employees each day through its 53 facilities—31 elementary schools, nine support facilities, eight middle schools, and five high schools. When faced with the choice of continuing to pay service providers or installing its own fiber and network equipment, the MISD decided to move from multiple leased data circuits to its own Gigabit Ethernet network in order to meet growing bandwidth demands. The district chose MRV’s OptiSwitch® 304 optical termination unit as a key element of its network design.

“The flexibility of this solution enables it to perform all the functionality of either CWDM or DWDM but on either a single fiber or a pair, letting customers tailor a solution that most closely fits their exact district, campus or enterprise network needs,” said Noam Lotan, president and CEO of MRV Communications. “The network visibility offered by the digital diagnostics built into the OptiSwitch product line was the key component in allowing the school district to implement its own private fiber network—a necessary step in its continuing battle to maintain enough bandwidth to match its growth rate.”

MISD's collaborative network implementation effort included local engineering and network consultant Cactus Computer, Inc., value-added reseller Mercury Networks and MRV. The OptiSwitch-based network consists of a 144-strand fiber ring delivering redundant one Gigabit Ethernet service to each campus. The MISD monitors the network through another MRV product, MegaVision Pro®, a full-featured, SNMP-based management application that reduces operational cost and complexity.

About OptiSwitch

The OptiSwitch family consists of five enterprise-class chassis and two telco-optimized chassis that can host more than 90 types of modules for a wide range of networking applications. The OptiSwitch family’s unique modular architecture offers a wire-speed, non-blocking switching solution designed for fiber-optic interfaces, VDSL connectivity, optical wireless links and TDM voice over Ethernet. The systems are ideal for large enterprises and carriers (broadband service providers) that offer communications services and are looking for fast ROI and a scaleable solution design. OptiSwitch solutions provide flexible options that enable building layer-two transport networks that maintain the security, QoS and traffic policing rules implemented at the higher layers.

About MegaVision Pro

MRV Communications’ MegaVision Pro is a full-featured, SNMP-based network management system (NMS) that provides comprehensive management and control for all of MRV’s managed products including Fiber Driver, OptiSwitch®, TereScope® and LambdaDriver®. The MegaVision Pro product also includes the EventHorizon Fault Management system and combines complete end-to-end network viewing and performance monitoring with robust configuration and fault management features. In addition, it automatically detects and monitors any SNMP or TCP/IP compliant device from any vendor.

About MRV Communications, Inc.

MRV Communications, Inc. (“MRV”) is a leading provider of network equipment and services, and optical components. MRV’s networking business provides equipment used by commercial customers, governments and telecommunications service providers, and includes switches, routers, physical layer products and out-of-band management products as well as specialized networking products for aerospace, defense and other applications including voice and cellular communication. MRV’s optical components business provides optical communications components for metropolitan, access and Fiber-to-the-Premises applications, through its wholly owned subsidiary SourcePhotonics, Inc. MRV markets and sells its products worldwide through a variety of channels, including a dedicated direct sales force, manufacturers' representatives, value-added-resellers, distributors and systems integrators. MRV also has operations in Europe that provide network system design, integration and distribution services that include products manufactured by third-party vendors, as well as internally developed and manufactured products. Publicly traded since 1992, MRV is listed on the NASDAQ National Market under the symbol MRVC