Cisco Live Network Infrastructure Deployment

Cisco IT Methods

Introduction
For more than 20 years, Cisco Live! has been a premier venue to demonstrate the benefits and possibilities of Cisco solutions.
From technical training to technology evaluation, the event prepares Cisco partners and customers for the future of business and
technology through thought leadership, technical sessions, and networking. The event uses Cisco technology to deploy a large
network infrastructure.
All of Ciscos architectures come together at Cisco Live, says Remco Kamerman, Cisco technical marketing engineer, and
attendees experience firsthand how each technology fits into the network. From a business standpoint, exhibiting the Cisco
network benefits the company. Multiple business opportunities arise from the event and are the main reason why Cisco IT displays
the network operations center (NOC) on the show floor. From this location, statistics from the event are broadcast live, including
core network performance, Internet traffic volume, and energy consumption of all devices (see Figure 1).
Attendees can see how the network is performing on eight large screens, from the core network to wireless and security. Given
that the network is designed and operated by Cisco, customer expectations are high, says Kamerman.

Network Infrastructure
In February 2014, at the Milano Congressi in Milan, Italy, the Cisco Live network infrastructure team successfully deployed an
enterprise-sized network to support all aspects of the event, which had 7000 registered attendees. The team monitored every facet
of the event from the NOC.
At its peak, the network connected approximately 12,000 endpoints, with many participants using multiple devices. Best
categorized as a campus, the network spans two main buildings (North and South) with multiple floors in each building (see
Figures 2 and 3). Two primary communications rooms provide redundant connections to the Internet as well as host internal
services to support the event.
The communications rooms interconnect with large amounts of fiber permitting the distribution switches to be dual-homed. For the
Internet, separate fiber pairs take diverse routes to the service provider point of presence (POP). Cisco Live in Milan was the first
Cisco Live event to implement a dual-stack design to the web servers. It also was the first venue to have an IPv6-only Service Set
Identifier (SSID), which used Network Address Translation IPv6 to IPv4 (NAT64) technology to allow users access to non-IPv6enabled websites.

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Figure 1.

Cisco Live in Milan Network Metrics

The cabling plan for the Milano Congressi mandated a three-layer network of core, distribution, and access. The main services run
in the core equipment rooms, including wireless controllers, virtual desktops, and compute architecture similar to a small data
center. The two core rooms connect by fiber to 26 wiring closets, which each have a 1-rack unit switch. Copper cabling connects to
access switches distributed near the endpoints throughout the venue. The equipment used at Cisco Live in Milan includes the
following:

Core layer: Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series for core switching, Cisco ASR 1000 Series Aggregation Services Routers for
Internet connectivity

Distribution layer: Cisco Catalyst 3750X Switches

Access layer: compact 8-port Catalyst 3560 Switches, Cisco 3750-X for areas needing higher port density

Data center infrastructure: Cisco Nexus 5000 Series, Cisco Unified Computing System (Cisco UCS)
B Series, UCS INVICTA

Wireless deployment: Cisco 5508 Wireless Controllers, Cisco 3700 Series Access Points (802.11 AC)

Virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI): Cisco UCS with Citrix XenDesktop supporting 200 desktops

Figure 2.

Cisco Live in Milan Network Overview

2014 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.

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Figure 3.

Data Center Configuration Onsite at Milano Congressi

Deployment
The main objective of the Cisco Live deployment is to maintain balance between logistics, cost, and venue restrictions such as
power and space. Months prior to Cisco Live in Milan, the network is staged in customer proof-of-concept labs in London. The
infrastructure team runs extensive tests using packet generators to simulate user traffic on the network, monitoring for any
anomalies to help ensure network stability.
Time is one of the biggest challenges for the infrastructure team. Cisco Live is a five-day event, and access to the venue is
provided a few days prior to launch. The network infrastructure team has a short timeframe to build an enterprise-sized network.
One of the services provided at Cisco Live includes reliable Wi-Fi connectivity for attendees, and wired connectivity for keynote
presentations, technical tutorials, breakout sessions, and exhibitor stands.

Service and Support

Two core teams were responsible for the end-to-end design and deployment of the Cisco Live network infrastructure with a diverse
supporting team of members from Advanced Services, Sales, IT, the Wireless Networking Group, and Technical Marketing
Engineering. The Core 1 team focused on planning, design, and operations with responsibilities for wireless, infrastructure services
(Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol/Domain Name System/authentication, authorization, and accounting), Prime Wireless
management and analytics, controller configuration, and Mobility Services Engine and Connected Mobile Experiences analytics.
The Core 2 team managed deployment, optimization, and support with responsibilities for deploying equipment, RF design and
deployment, code review, and optimization.
The teams worked closely with Advanced Services staff to highlight problem configurations and used code that had been bugscrubbed to prevent network failure.
When the event is running, the network infrastructure team actively monitors the network looking for users experiencing problems
and areas where optimization is required, says Mark McKillop, Cisco consulting systems engineer. Any issues that the NOC could
not troubleshoot were escalated to the Cisco Global Technical Response Center (GTRC) and Technical Assistance Center (TAC).

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Lessons Learned
Every year, the network infrastructure team streamlines an already efficient process for Cisco Live. The team benefits from lessons
learned at other large events that the company supports, such as the 2012 London Olympics and Mobile World Congress. Cisco
Live empowers the team to learn for future implementations of enterprise-sized network infrastructures. This information
transforms how the teams go forward and apply the knowledge that they have gained from technology trends and firsthand
implementation of logistics, design, and troubleshooting.
The network infrastructure team offers the following tips for deploying a network infrastructure in a short timeframe at a conference
or other event:
Keep the network simple. During planning and design phases, the challenge is to create an ultimate network in the simplest
manner possible. It is easy to over-complicate the design by adding too many network layers, oversized equipment, and too much
technology. Look beyond and ask, What do we really need, and how can we make it as simple as possible?
Build a small representative environment and test all use cases. Test not only stability but functionality as well. Ensuring
devices work properly beforehand saves considerable time onsite. Take a subset of the network and perform a dry run of how the
equipment will be staged, configured, tracked, shipped, managed, and decommissioned. This dry run can uncover gaps in
planning or areas where further optimization is possible.
Help ensure that the technology is not too specialized or complicated. To accelerate troubleshooting, use technology that is
widely understood by several members of the team rather than a specialized few. If problems arise on the network, having a team
that understands the network is more beneficial than using the newest technology.
Understand requirements. Having too many tiers of service can be overwhelming for a large event. A service catalog minimizes
the use of heavily customized configurations that are too unique to scale. Offering a small number of standard services helps
customers clearly understand what to expect for the price point selected.
Use templates for consistency. Templates are a powerful way to ensure consistency in a fast-moving environment. Scripting
allows laborious tasks, such as creating and modifying access control lists (ACL), serial port communications interfaces, and
baselines switch configuration, to be turned into hundreds of unique device configurations in a matter of seconds. While
commercial management systems help, they are best for events requiring more tasks than patch management, connectivity
verification, ACL management, and switch configurations.
Manage teardown, collection, and recovery of equipment. Implement a clear, consistent strategy for deploying and setting up
equipment, and for tearing down and deconstructing. Managing teardown, collection, and recovery efficiently will help ensure that
equipment is not lost or stolen. Barcoding equipment increases efficiency of collection and creates an audit trail.

For More Information

Cisco Live
To read additional Cisco IT case studies about a variety of business solutions, visit Cisco on Cisco: Inside Cisco IT.
To view Cisco IT webinars and events about related topics, visit Cisco on Cisco Webinars & Events.

Note
This publication describes how Cisco has benefited from the deployment of its own products. Many factors may have contributed
to the results and benefits described; Cisco does not guarantee comparable results elsewhere.
CISCO PROVIDES THIS PUBLICATION AS IS WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED,
INCLUDING THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
Some jurisdictions do not allow disclaimer of express or implied warranties; therefore, this disclaimer may not apply to you.

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