| [December 04, 2008] |
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Philadelphia's Girard College Campus Goes Wireless with High-Performance 802.11N WLAN from Meru
SUNNYVALE, Calif. --(Business Wire)--
Philadelphia's Girard College, an independent boarding school for academically capable primary and secondary students from families with limited resources, will complete deployment of a Meru Networks high-performance IEEE 802.11n wireless network for its 750 students, faculty and staff in December.
The Meru virtual cell wireless LAN, being installed in most of the academic and residential buildings on the school's 43-acre campus, will let students easily access online course materials via mobile computer carts and allow teachers to do student assessments using handheld computer devices as they walk around their classrooms.
The Meru network will address a growing demand for wireless access on the Girard campus, according to the school's technology manager, Keith Steininger.
"Wireless makes it easier to address so many issues," Steininger said. "On a campus like ours, with 160-year-old buildings and concrete construction, the logistics of wired networks are very challenging. We're expanding several computer labs, and rewiring is costly and difficult. And there are some areas where, simply for aesthetic reasons, we just don't want to be pulling cables through buildings.
"Wireless will let us take full advantage of online curriculum applications by easily moving our laptop carts from room to room as different teachers need them," he added. "Elementary school teachers can input student reading assessments on handheld wireless devices instead of having to take notes and enter the scores at their computers later. And more and more students are bringing their own laptops to campus. If we didn't provide wireless, they would find a way to get it - the city of Philadelphia now provides free wireless, and has an access point right outside the school. With our own network, we'll be able to have a degree of control over the kinds of things the kids have access to."
Meru Virtual Cell Ensures Seamless User Experience, Easy Network Growth
"Most of the vendors we looked at required that adjacent wireless access points be placed on different RF channels," Steininger said. "Meru's approach of putting them on the same channel made for a much more continuous, seamless user experience - no dropped connections when moving from one AP to another."
It also made expansion planning much easier. "Our original deployment plan called for a building-by-building rollout in three phases," Steininger said. "But we were concerned about funding down the road, so we decided to set up Wi-Fi 'hot spots' initially all around the campus, and fill in coverage gaps as needed later. If we'd had to worry about which channel a given AP was on and confining radio signals within certain areas, it would be very hard to grow the network on an ad hoc basis. With Meru's virtual cell approach, we'll be able to install an AP wherever we need extra coverage without detailed channel planning. And Meru's controller-based technology allows us to manage the entire campus network from one point."
The Meru choice was solidified by talks with Steininger's colleagues at nearby Villanova University and the Philadelphia public school district's School of the Future, which had successfully deployed Meru WLAN infrastructures.
Girard chose products based on the new 802.11n standard, which provides access at up to five times the speed of legacy 802.11a/b/g products. "We didn't want to install a technology we'd have to upgrade in a year or two," Steininger said. "When we started this project, only Meru already had 11n customer deployments and seemed confident about its 11n technology."
Girard's Meru deployment includes 165 dual-radio AP320 802.11n access points (also backward-compatible with the 802.11a/b/g standards); four OAP180 ruggedized access points for use in outdoor areas of campus where students congregate; and an MC5000 controller, a modular, five-blade chassis controller that supports up to 1,000 APs.
About Girard College
Girard College, founded in 1848, is a private boarding school for academically capable students, grades one through 12, from families with limited financial resources, each headed by a single parent or guardian. All Girard students receive full scholarships to take part in the school's strong academic program, and to live safely on its enclosed 43-acre campus in Philadelphia, Pa. Girard's mission is to prepare students for advanced education and life as informed, ethical and productive citizens through a rigorous educational program that promotes intellectual, social and emotional growth. For more information, visit www.girardcollege.com.
About Meru Networks
Founded in 2002, Meru Networks develops and markets wireless LAN infrastructure solutions that use virtualization to deliver pervasive, high-fidelity wireless service for business-critical voice, video and data applications. The company first introduced its award-winning virtual cell wireless architecture in 2003, and Meru products embody a complete departure from typical hub-based WLAN approaches, offering a wireless solution with levels of performance, reliability, security and cost-effectiveness previously found only in wired networking environments. Meru's solutions have been adopted in all major industry vertical markets, including Fortune 500 enterprises, healthcare, education, retail, manufacturing, hospitality and government. Meru is headquartered in Sunnyvale, Calif., and has operations in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East and Asia Pacific. For more information, visit www.merunetworks.com or call (408) 215-5300.
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