Click here to receive your FREE subscription to Campus Technology
News
Temple To Deploy Wireless LAN Across 8 Campuses in Philly
6/26/2008
|
|
The Meru network has been deployed in Temple's Law School, School of Business and Teaching-Education-Collaboration-Help (TECH) Center, a 75,000-square-foot facility housing a 700-computer lab.
A 200-AP deployment, nearly complete at the College of Liberal Arts, will start out as 802.11b/g and later activate the 11n capability of the Meru products.
A pilot 802.11n network at the School of Medicine has been deployed, letting students stream video applications and download complex medical images to their laptops. In a new multi-story medical center to be completed next year, wireless will be the primary means of networking in the center's academic spaces.
Parts of the Meru wide area LAN replace an 802.11b network installed several years ago by another vendor and plagued with problems since then, said Michael Taylor, Temple's executive director of telecommunications. "It took more than a year to make that network stable, and even then we were unhappy with it," Taylor said. "Clients would routinely disconnect while roaming, and with its limited number of channels and interference issues, it didn't come close to supporting the user densities typical of lecture halls. Then 802.11g came out, and we needed a way to deploy it without letting our 11b clients drag us down. We were constantly on the lookout for a new solution."
The university envisioned its new WLAN as a potential replacement for wired networks in academic settings. "Today students want to use wireless in the classrooms, for high-bandwidth medical applications--every way a wired network can be used," Taylor said. "Equally important, wireless is a money-saver on construction costs because we don't have to wire every seat in a lecture hall."
Taylor said he believes the Meru approach simplifies network management. "Every other vendor's product requires a detailed site survey, to figure out what you'll do about access point placement so as to avoid co-channel interference. With Meru the survey is much easier, and often not needed at all. In a given area you can provide coverage on a single channel, and then layer more channels to add capacity, without worrying about what's already there."
Dian Schaffhauser is a writer who covers technology and business. Send your higher education technology news to her at dian@dischaffhauser.com.
Cite this Site
copy text (above) for proper citation
Recommended Reading
- Microsoft Outlines Next-Generation Databases
Microsoft is planning to enhance the BI capabilities in the next version of its flagship SQL Server database, the company revealed Monday. The company kicked off its second annual Business Intelligence Conference in Seattle by outlining plans for a new set of managed self-service analysis and reporting capabilities that will be integrated into the next version of SQL Server.
- Red Hat Expands HPC Solution Availability
Open source software vendor Red Hat went global with its high-performance computing (HPC) product Thursday. An announcement issued by the Raleigh, NC-based company claims that the Red Hat HPC Solution product is the "first" integrated Linux-based HPC platform.
- IBM Aims To Boost Mainframe Competency with Scholarship Program
As we reported recently, IBM is accelerating its efforts to bolster mainframe education in an effort to increase the number of professionals entering the workforce with mainframe skills. Now the company is putting additional money where its mouth is with a new scholarship program supported by itself and its partner ecosystem, along with higher education institutions.
- Microsoft's 'Dublin' App Server Tied to .NET 4.0
New Windows Server and .NET Framework 4.0 technologies aimed at developers who are building composite applications will be released at Microsoft's Professional Developers Conference, Oct. 26-30. The server technologies are the first to support Microsoft's upcoming "Oslo" modeling platform, according to Microsoft.
- WoW: Microsoft, Cisco Continue to Cozy Up
The ongoing relationship between Cisco Systems and Microsoft has become even closer, according to recent news that the Windows Server on WAAS (WoW)-- an appliance that merges Cisco's Wide Area Applications Services with Microsoft Windows Server 2008--is available to order.
- Yahoo Fixing Zimbra Bug, Integrating with Exchange
Web-search advertising giant Yahoo plans to resolve a password security vulnerability identified in late September in its Zimbra open source e-mail and collaboration software. On Wednesday, a Yahoo spokesperson stated by e-mail that the problem will be addressed in a few weeks' time.
