Cisco Teams Up with Notre Dame to Build an AI-Ready Network

Cisco has partnered with Notre Dame Athletics to modernize the University of Notre Dame's campus-wide network. The multi-year partnership aims to improve connectivity, resiliency, and operational efficiency as artificial intelligence increases demands on higher-education infrastructure.

The university is preparing for growing network requirements driven by AI applications, connected devices, research workloads, digital learning environments, and bandwidth-intensive student experiences. Notre Dame will standardize its network on Cisco's Catalyst 9300X switch platform, deploying nearly 1,000 new switches throughout the South Bend campus.

The infrastructure upgrade is intended to support a wide range of academic and operational use cases. Students will gain higher-performance connectivity for applications including immersive virtual reality laboratories and real-time collaborative projects. Faculty and staff are expected to benefit from greater network reliability for teaching, research, and administrative operations.