Chain gives VSAT net an IP overhaul

Shoppers Drug Mart jazzes up a mature technology that's critical to its 800 outlets.

Canadian retailer Shoppers Drug Mart last year gave its 5-year-old very small aperture terminal system an IP face-lift that the company says has cost-efficiently turbocharged the network.

Supporting more than 800 stores throughout Canada has been no easy task, but like many retail chains Shoppers is using a widely deployed VSAT satellite network. However, the system's 128K bit/sec bandwidth limitations and lack of IP support were leaving the company wanting more.

Banking on bandwidth

VSAT technology has been around for quite some time and is primarily used to connect large numbers of remote locations on a single network. But the technology is not known for fast speeds. Instead of upgrading to a new satellite system or fixed wireless service, Shoppers decided to put a new face on an old standby.

Parker Shoppers turned to its VSAT equipment provider, Scientific Atlanta, for an answer. The retailer needed to support IP broadcast video and IP data, as well as increase the bandwidth the system could handle, says David Parker, administrator of VSAT network services at the company's Ontario headquarters.

Tampering with the nervous system of the company was a big challenge for Parker and his team.

"Everything critical to business is done through our VSAT platform," Parker says.

Scientific Atlanta, which has since sold its satellite business to ViaSat, brought in ViaCast Networks to answer Shoppers' call. ViaCast specializes in satellite IP data and video equipment that rides over most VSAT network infrastructure.

Shoppers deployed ViaCast Quantum receivers that support video and data traffic in one device at all 800 stores. Parker says most other satellite equipment required two receivers, one each for video and data.

Shoppers also deployed ViaCast Forte IP Gateway, DVB Forte 300 Multiplexer and video encoders at its headquarters. The company built its own television studio in Ontario that is used to produce training and distance-learning material for the stores.

"The ViaCast video IP products let us bring business television to our stores," Parker says. "It's not for customers to watch; it's for franchise owners and for interactive distance learning."

The benefits of the upgrade are threefold: IP is now supported across the Shoppers satellite network; bandwidth has been boosted from 128K to 4.2M bit/sec; and the company now supports broadcast video traffic.

The huge bandwidth increase primarily comes from the ViaCast equipment, Parker says. "We didn't have the capability to broadcast IP traffic, which more efficiently uses our space on the satellite network," he says.

Parker has the company's network set up so that 3M bit/sec is dedicated for video broadcasts, while 1.2M bit/sec is used for data traffic during store hours. At night, more bandwidth is dedicated for data traffic to handle large transmissions. Later this year, the company plans to upgrade its internal network to support IP on all its LANs. Today, the company is running its network off of a Santa Cruz Operation Unix platform with Timeplex routers. Once the entire LAN and WAN is supporting IP, Shoppers will have greater bandwidth flexibility. Instead of dedicating 3M bit/sec for video, Parker can then reserve that bandwidth and borrow from it when it's not in use.

Shoppers now sends pricing updates and promotional information to all stores on the fly without worrying about chewing up too much bandwidth. "The IP overlay gives us much more bang for the buck," he says.

In each store all cash registers, pharmaceutical terminals and manager terminals can receive information in real time. Before the upgrade, the company would hold off on large data transmissions because of the limited bandwidth and the network is used to distribute music and audio promotional material that is played in each store.

Now store managers can send inventory updates and download software upgrades anytime.

While Parker would not reveal how much the company spent on its upgrade or how much the company is saving, he describes those savings as substantial. Shoppers has reduced training costs because employees don't have to travel great distances to attend a session. The company also no longer needs to use correspondence courses, which were popular for pharmaceutical assistant training.

Chain gives VSAT net an IP overhaul

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