Author: Director of Solutions Marketing, Jim Slaby, Colubris Networks

Colleges and universities are poised to spend a bundle on WLAN equipment and services over the next few years, and Colubris is well-positioned to help you win your share. Read how Colubris solutions map neatly to the requirements that higher education CIO’s are trying to address as they plan their next-generation wireless LANs.

The higher education sector is a large and rapidly-growing revenue opportunity for WLAN integrators and resellers. Market researcher Datamonitor projects spending on WLAN hardware and services by North American and European colleges, universities, community colleges, technical institutes, and graduate and professional schools will more than double over the next few years, growing from $157M in 2004 to $325M by 2008.  

To see how Colubris can help you win a piece of this surging business, it helps to understand the goals on which the typical higher education CIO is focused: reducing operating costs, improving and re-using existing facilities, improving student amenities, bolstering campus security, and supporting broad wireless computing initiatives. Broadly speaking, most WLAN solutions can support some of these goals. But Colubris offers the only WLAN solution with unique advantages that help institutions address all of these challenges. The heart of the Colubris higher education solution is the concept of Public Access “Plus”: secure Wi-Fi networks that can deliver both public Internet access services and wireless connectivity for internal, private faculty, and administrative applications. Colubris solutions allow institutions to build out WLANs that support their new application requirements while leveraging existing wired network and security infrastructure and operational expertise. 

HIGHER EDUCATION WLANs: MOVING BEYOND HOTSPOTS 

Most institutions have deployed or are planning to deploy WLANs to provide campus “hotspot” connectivity so that students, faculty, staff, and visitors can wirelessly access email, the Web, instant messaging, and other Internet-based applications. The first hotspots are typically deployed in public areas where students congregate: student unions, libraries, study halls, classrooms, and outdoor common areas like quadrangles. Typical initial WLAN rollouts cover anywhere from 10% to 30% of the physical campus. 

But hotspots are just a first step. Most institutions have long-term plans to build out their WLANs to support two distinct goals: 

·       Extend campus WLAN coverage beyond high-traffic hotspots, to classrooms, laboratories, dormitories, administrative and faculty buildings, outdoor facilities, etc. The goal of leading institutions is 100% campus-wide coverage.

·       Add WLAN support for applications beyond public access, including Wi-Fi voice and video; private back-office applications used by faculty and staff; emerging smart classroom and e-learning applications; public safety applications; and other new mobile applications. These applications have more demanding requirements for WLAN bandwidth, quality of service, security, roaming, management, location tracking, and other features.

Figure 1, Mainstream vs. Innovative Use of WLAN in Higher Education

The key WLAN applications in higher education are outlined in Table 1:

Table 1: Higher Education WLAN Applications

As institutions pursue their goal of building a ubiquitous campus wireless network, and begin adding support for more and more applications beyond Internet access, the Colubris advantage becomes more pronounced. Your solution story to your higher education prospects should highlight the following Colubris advantages: 

• The industry’s best solution for public access, which remains higher education’s most important wireless application in the near term. Colubris has established this leadership with the market’s broadest product line, best performance and scalability, and best match of feature set to higher education requirements. 

• Services virtualization to support private applications on the same WLAN infrastructure the institution uses to provide public access. Service virtualization allows the Colubris WLAN to match wireless bandwidth, QoS, and security to the unique requirements of individual staff, faculty, voice, and video applications. 

• Comprehensive WLAN security, RF planning, and RF management tools to keep would-be hackers in check, protect the institution’s physical and information assets, and optimize RF coverage to provide the best possible user experience of accessing services over the Wi-Fi infrastructure at the lowest cost. 

• Low-cost, straightforward integration of WLAN policy and security into the wired LAN network and security infrastructure. The avoidance of an overlay solution for security gear like firewalls, interoperability with existing AAA and VLAN infrastructure and policies, and lack of onerous training and certification requirements makes the Colubris solution more cost-effective for institutions (and more profitable for resellers). 

• Strong references. Colubris has many of the world’s largest, best-known, and most innovative higher education deployments. In North America, these include: McGill University, George Mason University, Université de Sherbrooke, Université de Montréal, University of Phoenix, Clatsop College, Algonquin College, University of British Columbia, University of Florida, and Syracuse University. 

• Responsive customer support. In addition to strong traditional service and support offerings, Colubris has  repeatedly demonstrated a flexibility and responsiveness that larger, non pure-play WLAN vendors cannot match.

For more information on this article and the Colubris products available through WAV Distribution, call your WAV account or channel manager today.