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Education WLAN

Enterprise Hub School Expands Wireless Network to Get More Students Online

Wireless LAN provides an easy way to add teachers and students to the network.

The Forest School, based in Wokingham, Berkshire, provides an educational base for 1200 boys, aged 12-18 and has over 100 members of staff, teaching in a range of subjects. The Forest School has been a Business and Enterprise College (BEC) since 2003 and in 2006 was awarded the accolade of being an Enterprise Hub School for Berkshire. With this status in the Reading Borough, The Forest School wanted to provide a more consistent wireless service to its users.

Challenge

Individual teaching departments wanted to add more laptops onto the network, which would mean a higher density of users logging on. The existing wireless network had grown organically over the years but was unmanaged and struggled with the amount of traffic. A new solution that was centrally managed and scalable was imperative, as it had been decided that the whole site would not be covered with the first implementation.

The Forest School approached AIT Partnership Group to provide the expertise required to specify and install the solution. After the initial meeting, AIT's wireless consultant Simon Round proposed implementing a fully managed Trapeze wireless solution in the main school block, the library and two other teaching departments. Due to the size and cost of the project, the Network Manager was required to look into solutions from other companies, with the final decision to be made not only on the solution presented, but also the price and proposing company's capabilities.

Solution

AIT delivered the solution using their own in house team who oversaw all aspects of the project from site surveys through to designing the school's guest network welcome page.

The first stage of the project involved implementing a Trapeze MX-200 Mobility Controller, and a number of 'Mobility Points' into the main school block and three external antennas onto the English terrapin and Home Economics block. This provided better wireless roaming for the users and immediately. With the MX-200 implemented, The Forest School now have the capability to expand the network simply by adding Mobility Points into the areas they want to have covered.