Real Estate

One architecture for a billion-dollar destination

When IJM Perennial Development began planning The Light City, the ambition was clear: a single waterfront destination combining a convention centre, a hotel, and a shopping mall on one freehold site in Penang, backed by a gross development value exceeding RM4.5 billion.

The standard approach for a project of this scale would have been separate networks for each property. Globalcomm Solutions, a Cisco partner and long-standing IJM collaborator, proposed something different: a single, unified architecture built to serve every environment from one backbone, rather than three independent systems built and managed on their own.

The Penang Waterfront Convention Centre, the largest in the region with capacity for up to ten thousand guests, was completed first, followed by the shopping mall, hotel, and office tower. Cisco Catalyst 9500 Series switches form the high-throughput core, while Catalyst 9200 and 9300 Series switches handle wired access at every floor. Wi-Fi 6 access points cover the convention centre and mall common areas, while Wi-Fi 7 brings wired-equivalent speed to every hotel room.

The unified approach meant one team could manage connectivity across the whole development, instead of coordinating across multiple vendors and systems. As each property opened in phases, the network was in place, tested, and running, giving IJM the confidence to move quickly without waiting for infrastructure to catch up with the business.

Shared infrastructure, independent by design

Each destination at The Light City has its own operator, and its own security and performance demands. The hotel has to protect guest traffic. The convention centre needs reliable connectivity for large, fast-changing crowds. The mall supports retailers and back-of-house systems. All three share the same unified network.

Unifying the architecture did not mean compromising on separation. MACsec encrypts data moving between switches, protecting traffic as it travels across the shared infrastructure. TrustSec adds a further layer of segmentation, keeping hotel guests, convention centre operations, and retail systems logically isolated from one another, even while running on common hardware.

That separation does not come at the cost of visibility. Flexible NetFlow gives the IT operations visibility into network traffic across the estate, helping them identify issues early and respond faster.

The architecture also leaves room to grow. It is ready for Cisco Identity Services Engine, which can bring centralised, automated access policies online whenever IJM chooses to activate them, without rebuilding the network underneath. Security and scalability were not added after the fact. They were part of the design from day one, giving each destination the protection it needs now and the flexibility to evolve as The Light City grows.

Room to grow, without rebuilding

As The Light City evolves, that unified network shapes what becomes possible across the entire development.

Smart city services could mean digital wayfinding that adjusts in real time as convention halls fill and empty, or building systems that respond automatically to how spaces are actually being used.

IoT sensors could track occupancy, air quality, or energy consumption across every property, feeding data back without a single new cable being run.

Cross-property analytics could give operators a single view across the convention centre, hotel, and mall, spotting patterns no individual property would see on its own. None of it requires a new switch or a new access point. It connects to the platform that is running today.

The Light City is not finished, and that is the point. Two residential towers, Mezzo and Lightwater Residences, are already part of the masterplan, alongside a further hotel and office component still in planning.

What IJM and Globalcomm built was never just a network for a convention centre, a hotel, and a mall. It was the foundation for a waterfront destination that is still being written, one phase at a time, an infrastructure that was ready before it was asked to be.