In preparation for the introduction of student laptops, the IT staff at Christ the King College were looking to implement a structured, managed Wi-Fi system to replace their scattered collection of older access points.

Christ the King College, on the Isle of Wight was formed by the amalgamation of two highly successful middle schools in September 2008. The College is currently split between two sites, linked via high-speed fibre-optic cable. The structure of the buildings on both sites is a varied mix of brick, concrete and metal, which can pose issues to Wi-Fi signals.

One of the College’s two sites had previously installed a non-managed 802.11b Wi-Fi network, which was no longer in use due to the lack of bandwidth and security issues with the older technology. Wi-Fi provision on the other site consisted of a few stand-alone access points (APs) that provided only patchy coverage and lacked any management capability, as well as only running at 802.11g speeds.

“I don’t usually choose the cheapest option on the market when it comes to buying any ICT equipment, but whitepapers and specifications were better in most aspects against Ruckus competitors whilst offering the lowest price.

Originally I was looking at another system to go for, but that was over a third more expensive in the end and didn’t offer the latest Wireless-N standard and the same amount of coverage. Within a few days of ordering, all the equipment arrived and within a few weeks all Access Points were installed, dotted around the college.

It’s fantastic; I really don’t have to worry anymore about network access. Keeping remote sessions active while users are wandering around and crossing over to the other site is something I never thought possible. Truly impressed and a must-have for any large site or spread-out campus”
– S Wills, ICT Network Manager at Christ the King College

Christ the King College obtained quotations from a number of Wi-Fi suppliers, but the Ruckus solution provided the most advanced technology – with 802.11n, meshing, and RF beam steering – at a lower cost.

After a full site survey had been carried out it was established that a total of 48 access points were required in order to achieve the desired throughput. Complete site coverage with Ruckus technology would have been attained with less points due to the ZoneFlex’s high-gain directional antenna array, however the College may eventually be using 30+ laptops in a classroom and needed enhanced bandwidth capabilities.

Much of the cabling from the older 802.11b Wi-Fi network was retained – after being tested and certified to Cat 5e standard for Gigabit traffic. An additional 26 data circuits were run to expand the coverage across both sites, using ADC Krone Truenet category 5e certified cabling and components. Once the additional cabling was installed, 46 ZoneFlex 7962 Access Points were fitted, along with a pair of ZoneDirector 1050s installed in a ‘failover’ configuration.

The ZoneFlex 7962 Access Points provide both 802.11g and 802.11n coverage. The 802.11n is provided over both the 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz frequencies, allowing for much faster data rates for newer devices. In addition to this, the 7962 can be powered using industry standard 802.3af^* Power over Ethernet (PoE), removing the requirement for running power to each point. Unlike other dual-band devices, the 7962 is perfectly capable of running both 2.4Ghz and 5GHz radios simlutaneously, even when using PoE.

All configuration for the new Wi-Fi network was carried out through an intuitive wizard on the ZoneDirector controllers. Once the access points were connected to the network, they automatically discovered their ZoneDirector controller and self-configured.

The College opted to use the more secure WPA2 encryption, and to authenticate student users against its Active Directory domain.

When combined with the College’s managed layer-3 network structure, the Ruckus ZoneDirectors provide several different Wi-Fi networks over the same access points. This allows the College to offer guest access without compromising security, and also to provide individually authenticated student access.

*802.3af PoE equipment should support full-duplex gigabit operation for maximum wireless-to-LAN throughput. DataSwift specified mid-span injectors from Phihong for this requirement.