Wifi Revolution

Meru Networks’ virtual cell wireless technology reportedly has been selected by Cedarville University – a self-described “Christ-centered, Baptist” school in Cedarville, Ohio whose women’s volleyball team is pictured below – to upgrade its wireless network.

 

The school’s existing 802.11a/b/g standards will be replaced with high-performance IEEE (News - Alert) 802.11n standard, which is expected to improve the performance five-fold, according to the company and university.

 

Generally speaking, the technology helps to get wireless access to the Internet, e-mail, research materials and administrative functions like class registration and more. It has provision for supporting applications like wireless VoIP, for various school purposes.

 

Nathan P. Hay, network engineer for Cedarville’s Computer Services department, said that with most of students bringing their own laptops to campus, there’s a built-in expectation that they’ll have wireless everywhere.

 

Students - such as the women's volleyball team, pictured below - hardly know anymore what it means to plug a laptop into a port in their rooms, Hay said.

 

"In the academic buildings, wireless helps us in addressing the demand for temporary high-density setups,” Hay said. “If a special event at the student center requires short-term use of 15 computers, it’s a lot less work and time providing laptops connected to the wireless LAN than PCs on a traditional wired LAN.”

 

Cedarville University was founded in 1887. It is located east of Dayton in southwestern Ohio. Cedarville first deployed a Meru wireless network in 2006.  

 

According to Hay, the reason the university chose Meru is that its virtual cell architecture let Cedarville put all the access points on one channel and turn the power up without worrying about radio interference.

 

That’s a major benefit, Hay said, especially in older residential buildings where many of the walls are concrete block construction and we need full power to get in-room coverage from APs mounted in the hallways.

 

“The other vendors we tested all use a micro cell approach that forces you to constantly adjust power up and down to avoid interference,” Hay said. “The Meru single-channel technology also eliminates channel planning – I looked at the blueprints and just eyeballed for AP placement to get full coverage. And once an AP is configured and mounted, there’s not much to do except let it run. Since I’m a wireless department of one, that’s a big help.”

 

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