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September 17, 2008

Trent College Sees Student IT Use Double Thanks to Alcatel-Lucent

By Raju Shanbhag, TMCnet Contributing Editor

Trent College, a top UK independent day and boarding school, has seen student use of its IT facilities double since the deployment of an Alcatel-Lucent (News - Alert) wired and wireless local area network (WLAN). In addtion, with the introduction of network access control (NAC) technology from Bradford Networks, IT support for laptops has been reduced by approximately 90 percent, according to Trent College.



 
The Bradford Networks’ (News - Alert) Campus Manager conducts a device scan and authorizes users appropriately based on whether or not each device complies with Trent’s IT security policy. The access to the WLAN is provided following this authentication. If a device fails, the Campus Manager can detail the reasons why and provide links to the required software or operating system patches.
 
With more than 230 student devices now registered to use the network- an increase of more than 100 percent on the previous year- the wireless network, which is based on Alcatel-Lucent’s OmniAccess WLAN technology, has been rolled out across 15 school buildings and supports 500 computers. Some 80-120 students connect via mobile devices on an average day, which includes laptops from a variety of different approved manufacturers, as well as iPod touch and iPhone (News - Alert) devices.
 
While Trent provides an additional support Web site to give further advice, network registration is quick and straightforward. Enhancing the ability of the student and the staff to share knowledge and collaborate outside of school hours, web portals also give students and staff remote access to the network drives and e-mail from any computer in the world.
 
The College’s fixed network infrastructure is overhauled by Khipu, which has more than 20 independent school customers, with the help of Alcatel-Lucent’s OmniSwitch technology. Trent will increase the range of supported devices to include games consoles as well as popular smartphones for the 2008/09 school year.
 
“Many aspects of the University learning model are now filtering through to secondary and further education,” said David Parker, vice president for Alcatel-Lucent’s enterprise activities, UK and Ireland.
 
“Whether its students accessing the Internet on their iPhones, or business workers requiring instant network access via PDAs, the key to becoming a more dynamic enterprise is to help people complete tasks and share information more quickly and securely in real time on the devices of their choice,” explained Parker.
 
INTERNET TELEPHONY Conference & EXPO — the biggest and most comprehensive IP communications event of the year — is going on this week (September 16-18, 2008) in Los Angeles, California! The show features three valuable days of exhibits, conferences, and networking opportunities you can’t afford to miss. Be sure to check out TMCnet.com and blogs from Rich Tehrani, Greg Galitzine, and Tom Keating for news highlights from the show. See you there!

Raju Shanbhag is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of Raju's articles, please visit his columnist page.

Edited by Michelle Robart


 







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