A New Wireless Network

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Designing the best and most reliable network solution for our school has been a challenge. The need to balance ongoing support for the network presently in place, together with designing a reliable high-speed wireless campus for both the current location and the new facility under construction, has not been easy. In close partnership with network experts both locally and overseas we have arrived at a solution that successfully balances both needs and budget.

Our goals have been:

To create for the current school a solid, reliable foundation that can be relocated to the new campus in the summer of 2009;
To provide reliable wireless network and internet access to every Middle and High School classroom, with up to 21 Macbook computers in each class;
To support regular backups for 100+ computers throughout the school day, with large file transfers occurring regularly at 45-minute intervals;
To remotely monitor and control wireless access points located throught the school campus

The initial solution focused on quickly getting in place the foundation that would enable AISK to begin operating as an eSchool. The new solution goes beyond this, addressing the challenges we’ve had by implementing technology from industry leader Cisco Systems. In the past two weeks we have finalized our comprehensive network plans that will carry the school forward into 2011 and beyond. We’re removing the four wireless access points that have served us well, if problematically. We’re replacing them with ten new state-of-the-art wireless access points, the fastest and most reliable available today. We’re also building out the network and redesigning some of the foundation to yield greater speed and more reliability. While the Cisco managed wireless network comes at a not insignificant cost, we expect it to eliminate our connection difficulties and promote a secure and robust wireless network solution for our school campus. We’ve also ensured that the new hardware will move to the new facility when we do, reducing our costs there.