Cisco Wireless Solution In Education
Cisco Aironet Wireless Solution helps education institutions to improve learning infrastructure without breaking the budget.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Technology plays a vital role at today's education institution, but traditional wired networks are often too costly and inflexible. Wireless LAN (WLAN) technology helps higher education institutions to securely extend their existing network into both indoor and outdoor areas where hardwiring would be expensive or difficult, while improving mobility and productivity. Cisco® Aironet® wireless solutions offer a host of benefits for educators, providing support for fast, cost-effective connectivity, even over long distances or beyond the campus.
CHALLENGE
Technology poses a huge challenge for schools, colleges, and universities. Besides supporting administrative and faculty requirements, institutions must introduce technology to enhance the learning experience and attract the best students. Yet they are faced with meeting these requirements on a limited budget and with an infrastructure that is unlikely to have been designed with such technology in mind.
Wired networks have limitations: growth in demand puts strain on network access; computing resources can be tied to specific physical sites; the cost and time needed to extend the network are often prohibitive. On the operations side, education administrators want to manage their valuable assests and resources, the lack of visibility into the location of equipment due to loss or theft results in increased costs for the institutions. Finally, the lack of ubiquitous wireless connectivity to the network beyond classrooms in outdoor campus area hinders the learning experience for students. The challenge is to create a robust end-to-end network that meets the current and future needs of all users.
WLAN technology is an important enabling technology that lets institutions extend their existing network into areas where hardwiring would be expensive or difficult. The Cisco Aironet Family of wireless LAN solutions introduces new levels of mobility and productivity for educational establishments worldwide, while protecting their investment into the future.
WHY EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS ARE GOING WIRELESS
To date education has been one of the most aggressive market areas adopting wireless technology. A recent NOP World Technology survey1 found that 35 percent of educational institutions in the United States have already implemented wireless networking. This is far higher than in any other industry. The reason is simple. The use of WLANs helps financially constrained institutions achieve more within their existing budgets. It allows them to introduce, at a reasonable cost, leading applications-like e-learning-that enhance the learning experience.
The survey determined that the benefits for educational IT departments were based on mobility, convenience, and flexibility. It was the ability to quickly deliver IT services anytime, anywhere, without the need for cabling that distinguished this technology. When translated into a return on investment (ROI) calculation across all industry sectors, this represented a US$550 savings per user or an average US$164,000 annual cost savings-not including ROI from productivity gains.
IT Managers Perceived Benefits of WLAN Technology
• Mobility within building or campus 80% Convenience (no cabling) 78%
• Flexibility (anytime, anywhere access) 69%
• Easier to set up temporary spaces 62% Lower cabling costs 58%
• Easier adds, moves, and changes 49%
Mobility Increases Productivity
In a campus setting, wireless technology allows users to achieve total PC portability and location independence. Students and teachers can collaborate with each other in small groups outside the classroom and connect virtually via the network with each other anywhere on campus. Computer resources can now be put wherever they are needed without wire connections for every computer. In the ever-changing educational environment, wireless technology can reduce the cost and complexity of facility reconfigurations.
With a Cisco Unified Wireless Network, users can roam among access points between indoor and outdoor environment without connection interruptions. Cisco Wireless Mesh Networking solution can be easily deployed in outdoor areas to provide network access for users. The ability to wirelessly roam between indoor and outdoor means freedom to move in the area with wireless coverage without having to log on again to the network and not having to find a connection to the wired network. As long as an area is covered by the wireless infrastructure, educators and students can work, share resources, or communicate anywhere within the institution.
The NOP survey found that this level of mobility brings real productivity benefits to an organization. On average, end users said WLANs allowed them to stay connected 3.5 more hours per day-an estimated extra 90 minutes of productive time or US$14,000 per employee. Within education, that can equate to a productivity improvement of more than US$3 million per year.
1 `Wireless LAN Benefits Study' (2003) conducted by NOP World Technology on behalf of Cisco Systems.
No Cabling Means Flexibility and Cost Reduction
Wireless LAN equipment allows educational institutions to provide broadband capabilities quickly and cost-effectively without expensive rewiring. Providing Internet access to students can be prohibitive if existing buildings and outdoor locations are not properly wired. Most institutions cannot afford the high expense of installing high-grade copper or fiber cabling, especially with the environmental concerns inherent in many older buildings-such as asbestos remediation or restrictions placed by listed or protected buildings.
A wireless solution averts these problems by eliminating the need for new wiring. Administrative costs are reduced and many improvements in faculty convenience are realized. Educators can immediately share course materials and other teaching aids. Network access is no longer determined by the capabilities of assigned rooms; it is straightforward to make adds, moves, and changes, and providing access to temporary facilities can be done in a timely manner.
With flexibility comes scalability. The Cisco Aironet product line allows individual units to be used alone or in tandem with others, so wireless technology can be installed in as little as a single room. Taking another computer into a room and installing a Cisco Aironet client card is all it takes to increase the size of the network-no costly wire drops. It is more cost-effective to provide wireless network access in classrooms and lecture halls than to install individual ports. As network use increases, the system can be expanded to cover a building floor, entire buildings, and the entire site by adding access points in appropriate positions.
Wireless Mesh Expands Your Network Outdoors
For outdoor wireless network deployment, wireless mesh technology can prove invaluable for expanding your coverage area on a broader scale, within a community. A wireless mesh access point can be easily deployed to provide not only local network access, but also point-to-point or point-to-multipoint backhaul bridging functionality to connect remote campuses, research field sites, and even community to provide communitywide information, learning, or research networks. The technology also allows multiple buildings or remote locations to share a single high-speed connection to the Internet without cabling or dedicated lines.
Mesh technology relies on the IEEE 802.11 standard for wireless networking and thus is a highly stable technology, unlike other emerging wireless methods that are unproven and do not utilize the ubiquitous installed base of 802.11 clients. The Cisco Wireless Mesh Network based on the Lightweight Access Point Protocol (LWAPP) provides zero-touch configuration. The Adaptive Wireless Path Protocol (AWP) provides self-healing and dynamic route optimization capabilities, making the mesh network simple and cost-effective to deploy and manage. In addition, wireless backhaul leads to elimination of recurring leased-lines expenses, delivering tremendous financial benefits.
Location Service Improves Resource Management
Location tracking is an essential feature for education institutions to identify and manage the location of their highly mobile assets. IT staff can leverage the Real Time Location Service (RTLS) to monitor and efficiently allocate their use of people and equipment, thus reduces excessive cost of leasing and purchasing additional resources. Location tracking service can simultaneously tracks thousands of devices from directly within the WLAN infrastructure-bringing the power of a cost effective, high-resolution location solution to critical applications such as high-value asset tracking, IT management and location based security.
SOLUTION
The Cisco Aironet Family of wireless LAN solutions integrates easily into an existing network as a wireless overlay, or creates freestanding all-wireless networks, facilitating mobility and increasing productivity quickly and cost-effectively. The Cisco Aironet Family sets the standard for high-performance, secure, manageable, and reliable WLANs. With products supporting IEEE 802.11a/b/g technologies, the Cisco Aironet Family offers a complete line of indoor and outdoor WLAN solutions. The product line includes access points, mesh access points, client adapters, bridges, antennas, and accessories.
The Cisco Aironet Family includes the following important products:
• Cisco Aironet Access Points-Access points connect wireless clients to the wired network, or can serve as the backbone of an all-wireless network. With the Cisco Aironet 1100, 1200, and 1300 series access points, Cisco Systems® helps WLAN customers to meet varying technical and business needs. Cisco Aironet 1200 Series access points deliver the flexibility of dual-band wireless connectivity. Cisco Aironet 1100 Series access points offer an affordable, easy-to install, single-band alternative. Cisco Aironet 1300 Series access points offer an environmental enclosure for outdoor deployments. All three series deliver enterprise-class management, security, and scalability.
• Cisco Aironet Mesh Access Points-Cisco® Aironet® 1500 Series lightweight outdoor mesh access points enable cost-effective, scalable deployment of secure outdoor wireless LANs. With dual-band, simultaneous support for IEEE 802.11a and 802.11b/g standards, the Cisco Aironet 1500 Series employs a patent-pending Adaptive Wireless Path Protocol to form a dynamic wireless mesh network between remote access points, and delivers secure wireless access with the total lowest cost of ownership.
• Cisco Aironet Wireless Bridges and Workgroup Bridges-Cisco Aironet wireless bridges help enable high-speed, long-range, outdoor links for applications such as connecting difficult-to-wire sites, campus settings, satellite offices, and mobile and temporary networks.
• Cisco Aironet Wireless LAN Client Adapters-The adapters quickly connect desktop and mobile computing devices to the WLAN in 802.11b-compliant or 802.11a-compliant networks.
• Cisco Aironet Antennas and Accessories-With the industry's widest selection of directional and omni-directional antennas (2.4 GHz or 5 GHz), low-loss cable, mounting hardware, and other accessories, you can create a customized wireless solution that meets the requirements of even the most challenging applications.
• Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers-Cisco Wireless LAN controllers smoothly integrate into existing enterprise networks to provide system wide wireless LAN functions, such as security policies, intrusion prevention, RF management, quality of service (QoS) and mobility. They work in conjunction with Cisco lightweight access points and Cisco Wireless Control System (WCS) software to support business-critical wireless applications. From voice and data services to location tracking, WLAN controllers provide the control, scalability, and reliability that IT managers need to build secure, enterprise-scale wireless networks from indoor to outdoor areas.
• Cisco Wireless Control System-Cisco Wireless Control System (WCS) is the industry's leading platform for wireless LAN planning, configuration and management. It provides a powerful foundation that allows IT managers to design, control, and monitor enterprise wireless networks from a centralized location, simplifying operations and reducing total cost of ownership. With Cisco WCS, network administrators have a single solution for RF prediction, policy provisioning, network optimization, troubleshooting, user tracking, security monitoring, and wireless LAN systems management. Robust graphical interfaces make wireless LAN deployment and operations simple and cost-effective. Detailed trending and analysis reports make Cisco WCS vital to ongoing network operations.
• Cisco Wireless Location Appliance-The Cisco Wireless Location Appliance is an innovative, easy to deploy solution that uses advanced RF fingerprinting technology to simultaneously track thousands of 802.11 wireless devices from directly within a WLAN infrastructure, increasing asset visibility and control of the air space. Additionally, the appliance records rich historical location information that can be used for location trending, rapid problem resolution and RF capacity management. The Cisco Wireless Location Appliance uses Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers and Cisco lightweight access points to track the physical location of wireless devices to within a few meters. The centralized WLAN management capabilities and intuitive GUI of the Cisco Wireless Control System (WCS) are extended for managing and configuring the Cisco Wireless Location Appliance, making setup fast and intuitive.
Cisco Aironet wireless solutions provide the following benefits:
• Set new standards for broadband performance
• Offer the industry's strongest network security
• Easily integrate with wired networks for an end-to-end network solution
• Support flexible management of central or remotely located access points from a single management console
CASE STUDIES
Cisco wireless solutions have already been deployed throughout numerous colleges and universities. The following sections describe a few examples.
Increased Productivity at Japan's Naruto University
With more students using notebook computers in class, estimating the required number of ports per room was becoming difficult. Naruto University implemented 80 Cisco Aironet access points to give secure access to the university's LAN anywhere in the facility, with lower total cost of ownership. Naoto Sone, teaching assistant at Naruto's Computer Centre, comments: "We chose wireless LAN products on our requirement for inline electrical power supply. Cisco was the only vendor that offered 128-bit WEP and RADIUS authentication."
Arnhem Goes Wireless with Cisco
Arnhem and Nijmegen High School spans two cities in the Netherlands approximately 25 kilometers apart and has 20 buildings throughout the two main campuses. "Arnhem Business School initiated the notebook project because computers are increasingly being used in all aspects of education. Students write assignments and project reports; check the latest changes in schedules and their exam results on the Intranet. They can e-mail their lecturers and search unlimited sources for information on the Internet. In the coming year the plan is to extend the network to 1000 clients within the business school. And ultimately the plan is to bring in the entire campus to the project," says project leader Jeroen Langestraat.
Cisco Aironet Helps the University of Akron Realize Significant Cost Savings
"We were facing an $800,000 cost to hardwire our old four-story library. But for $80,000, we put in an entire wireless system. The savings will enable, among other things, the replacement of the library's desktop computers with hundreds of laptops, which we made wireless with Cisco Aironet 350 Series Client Adapter cards," says Thomas Gaylord, PhD, vice-president and CIO at the University of Akron.
Cisco Powers New Zealand's First Wireless College
The biggest problem in St. Kentigern College was access-there were never enough Ethernet points in any particular room. The answer was 31 Cisco Aironet access points across the college's 12 buildings-all installed in three days.
"Students are able to connect their notebooks from within 100 meters of any access point and can download their schoolwork in seconds. Students' learning has been transformed as a result," reports Walter Chieng, the college's director of information technology.
Welsh Students Get the Information They Need, When They Need It
Using a Cisco wireless bridging solution, students at 22 different schools in Wales now access the Internet at 200 times the speed of the previous wired system. "When we interviewed teachers and the students, they were very pleased that they were able to utilize the Internet to download materials without having to go through the usual wait. The teachers can also now deliver more content per class hour than they were able to in the past," said Tom Last, a senior technical consultant with Gaia Technologies, who designed and installed the network.
WHY CISCO?
The Cisco Aironet Family sets the standard for high-performance, secure, manageable, and reliable WLANs. The Cisco Aironet Family helps minimize the total cost of ownership and maximize wireless network uptime with the following deployment, management, and security features:
• Simplified management of several, hundreds, or thousands of centrally or remotely located access points
• Simplified WLAN deployment with zero touch configuration
• Enterprise-class security and security-policy monitoring with smooth delivery of enhanced network security solutions
• Unified wireless and wired infrastructure, delivering a single point of control for all WLAN traffic
• Extension of rich, intelligent Cisco infrastructure-device features to wireless traffic
• Simplified WLAN management and operations support
• Air and radio frequency (RF) scanning and monitoring
• Interference detection to isolate and locate network interference
• Enhanced troubleshooting and diagnostic tools for proactive performance and fault monitoring
• WLAN intrusion detection system (IDS)
• Self-healing WLANs that provide high availability
• World-class service and support
The Cisco Aironet solution easily integrates with an existing network, increases the freedom that institutions can offer both students and faculty, and saves money. Cisco solutions give the mobility and flexibility needed to cost-effectively provide computing resources wherever and whenever they are required