Symbol Technologies announced that New York Institute of Technology (NYIT) is deploying the new Symbol switched-wireless infrastructure across its three New York-area campuses (Old Westbury and Central Islip, Long Island, and Manhattan). The new network will allow more than 12,000 students, faculty and staff to use PCs, notebooks and handheld computers to conduct research, collaborate and communicate "anywhere, anytime" while on NYIT's campuses.

Symbol Professional Services is partnering with the college's technology staff to complete the first phase of the network rollout by the end of August. This includes site assessment, installation and network integration of six Symbol wireless local area network (LAN) switches and 162 Access Ports. This portion of the project will provide connectivity in and around 11 buildings on the school's Old Westbury, N.Y., campus, where nearly 5,000 students can be found during peak classroom and study hours. The Symbol architecture will allow NYIT to efficiently scale its network to meet future mobility requirements.

Each of NYIT's eight schools will greatly benefit from the wireless system. NYIT's New York College of Osteopathic Medicine (NYCOM), for instance, has deployed streaming video and other Web-based educational materials. Through the new wireless backbone, NYCOM students and faculty will be able to access those rich multimedia applications from anywhere on the NYCOM campus in Old Westbury, N.Y., according to Dr. Chellappa Kumar, director of NYCOM's New Technologies Initiative.

"The Symbol solution meets our needs to provide immediate network and Internet access to our students and staff and provides a cost-effective roadmap for growth. With the Symbol switch we save time, money and critical resources by centralizing the intelligence for wireless networking in the wiring closet," said Brian Maroldo, technical director, Office of Information Technology, New York Institute of Technology.

"We can quickly deploy the network, offer multiple security services and scale to meet our future needs for higher wireless Internet bandwidth using the 802.11a standard. An intelligent migration path from one product generation to the next, plus the Symbol professional services capabilities, were pivotal in our decision to select Symbol as the backbone for our wireless network," Maroldo added.

"The higher education market is ideal for our wireless switch system because it can improve a university's operational efficiencies and reduce costs associated with "wiring" the campus, while providing a very flexible path for new technology adoption," said Ray Martino, general manager and vice president of Symbol Technologies Wireless Systems Division. "NYIT is really taking a lead in deploying mobile LAN technology to enhance the educational experience of its students," Martino added.

NYIT has already deployed Symbol Spectrum24(r) Access Points throughout several dormitory complexes to replace wired Internet connectivity. The Symbol switch will adopt these enterprise class Access Points into the system later this year to further enhance management and network services.

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