Wifi Revolution

Maple Knoll Communities has deployed Meru Networks’ virtual cell wireless network to provide what it calls “ubiquitous” wireless voice and data access for its 1,200 residents as well as 500 staff members at its two retirement campuses in Ohio.

 

Installed for a fraction of the cost of a wired network, the Meru’s WLAN supports a range of applications including nurse-call system, voice over wireless IP, PDA-based bedside charting, mobile training centers, financial management and personal Internet access for residents.

 

Sunnyvale, California-based Meru Networks (News - Alert) says it will deploy nearly 500 wireless access points across the 54-acre Maple Knoll Village (Cincinnati), and the 85-acre Knolls of Oxford (Oxford), providing coverage in residential cottages, apartment buildings, nursing care facilities, a senior center and administrative buildings.

 

"Wireless was one of the most underutilized systems we had," recalled Craig, an IT director who joined Maple Knoll in mid-2007, adding that there was a huge demand for technologies such as bedside charting and nurse-call systems in the campus.

 

“Putting a wired network in a large facility could run as much as $150,000. With wireless, you can equip the same facility for under $30,000," he said justifying the switch to a wireless network from wireline.

 

Meru claimed that today, virtually every application at Maple Knoll that requires access to a computer network is performed over its wireless LAN.

 

The nurse-call system sends an immediate signal to staff over the WLAN as residents push a button on a pendant they are wearing.

 

"We want our independent living residents to feel like they're in their own homes, yet at the same time have the confidence that help is seconds away," Craig explained.

 

One of the most important wireless applications at Maple Knoll is IP telephony, Craig said.

 

"Our nurses, supervisors, security and facilities personnel all depend heavily on their IP phones. Meru's virtual cell technology easily addresses the stringent demands that voice puts on the WLAN,” he explained.

 

Following the deployment of WLAN, the campus nurses and dieticians will chart wirelessly with their PDAs instead of hand-writing notes. And those nurses, who go out to people's homes in the community, can record data on their laptops and then synch up to the system at the campus.

 

Meru’s wireless LAN is likely to make life easier for the residents as well as for staff members at the community.

 

 

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