CASE STUDY

Copyright ©2012, Carousel Industries® www.carouselindustries.comPEMBCS-0112

Product List

Wireless• Meru Networks MC3075

Wireless Controller

• Meru Networks AP320i Access Points

At A Glance

Pemberton Township Board of Education• Public school district

• 11 schools, K-12

• Serves over 5,000 students

• Burlington County, New Jersey

Challenge• Create highly reliable, secure wireless network in high density environment

• Deliver bandwidth capable of HD video streaming

• Limited budgets required staged implementations

• Avoid disruptions to everyday school operations

Solution• Implemented Meru Networks wireless network

• Centralized Meru controllers to interface with WLAN infrastructure

• Careful signal analysis district-wide to avoid dead spots

• Installed in stages to accommodate budgetary concerns

Success• Robust wireless support in high density educational environment

• Successful implementation without disruption to school activities

• Centralized network administration provides high level monitoring and control

• Strong satisfaction of customers and users

• On time completion with full customer requirements met successfully

Challenge

Public schools face tremendous difficulties today. Shrinking budgets are forcing many school districts nationwide to postpone, downsize or even outright cancel much-needed programs and technology modernizations. Meanwhile, rising enrollments add building pressure from the other end: while classroom sizes increase and the expectation demands of standards-based education rise, decreasingly available resources make meeting those expectations an ever more difficult job. School districts everywhere today are searching for ways to do more for less, and with more significant results.

Pemberton Township Board of Education, supporting eleven public K-12 schools and over 5,000 students, has long been committed to maintaining a modern and efficient technology base. The district supports over 2,500 computers, replacing the fleet’s oldest one-fifth every year to ensure that no school desktop or laptop is ever more than five years old. Computing labs at each school, interconnected via 12-strand multimode fiber optic cable into a district wide WLAN infrastructure, each support at least four stationary desktop PCs for students to share during lessons. Mobile computer labs house 25-30 laptops each, powered by portable cart-based wireless access points to deliver needed computing resources in classrooms unable to make use of stationary computer labs.

By 2009, however, the limits of this arrangement were becoming clearly evident. A significantly increased population of personal mobile devices, unable to make use of the mobile lab-based wireless systems, led to a problem common in schools - the proliferation of personal coverage access points, consumer-grade wireless routers installed ad hoc outside of the district’s formal IT planning process. These in turn created radio interference that negatively impacted wireless connectivity, creating signal “dead zones”. An annual review of district technology usage determined that the number of available mobile labs should be increased - but also that the wireless network design should be upgraded, expanded and simplified to provide more seamless and available connectivity.

The technical challenges were direct and clear. A replacement wireless network would have to be capable of efficiently supporting high density client environments, with up to 50 laptops or other mobile devices served from a single wireless access point. The network would need to provide easy, seamless roaming, enabling a connected client to move between access point service areas without losing connectivity. Available bandwidth would have to be high enough and consistent enough to reliably support high definition video streaming, among other applications crucial to coming educational initiatives. The network would have be robust and user friendly enough to provide a frictionless computing environment for both students and faculty, and be able to be installed with little or no interruption to regular school operations.

As school districts across the country are increasingly pressured to accomplish greater educational goals with fewer and fewer budgetary and staff resources, relatively inexpensive - but highly effective and reliable wireless networking solutions are coming to the rescue.

The Pemberton Township Board of Education oversees the operations of eleven K-12 public schools in Burlington County, New Jersey and the quality education of over 5,000 area children every year. No stranger to classroom innovation, the Pemberton Township school district had in prior years already implemented an integrated Cisco WLAN to interconnect the district’s schools. Each school, likewise, was equipped with mobile computer labs that offered Pemberton Township educators a flexible instructional technology platform for supporting student learning.

However, by 2009 the limits of this infrastructure were being significantly tested by the proliferation of personal mobile devices and the steady expansion of wireless-related computing needs. Eager to begin work on a new, more robust wireless network that would prepare its schools for coming education initiatives, Pemberton Township Board of Education contracted with Carousel Industries for a solution.

Pemberton Township School District Fosters Mobile Learning With Meru Wireless Solutions

CASE STUDY

Most of all, a proposed new wireless solution would have to be cost effective, and able to be delivered in a multi-staged process that accommodated the availability of uncertain budgets. In the event that financial resources were unavailable to complete the upgrade all at once, the design would need to be capable of partial implementations leading to a final successful conclusion.

Solution

Following a detailed evaluation of Pemberton’s networking needs, Carousel Industries engineers proposed installing a Meru Networks wireless platform. Popular with schools, hospitals and other large mission critical environments, Meru wireless access points and controllers offer an exceptional level of reliable coverage for areas supporting large numbers of concurrent clients. Able to deliver consistent service to over 50 users simultaneously, the Meru Networks AP320i wireless access point was a natural fit for Pemberton’s classrooms. This would also have the added benefit of hardware efficiency - fewer device purchases would be required to achieve superior performance for the same cost.

Implementation began in the summer of 2010. In the Pemberton Township School District, schools are grouped into complexes, combining multiple educational facilities into single large campuses. In order to take advantage of this arrangement, Meru MC3075 wireless controllers were installed in central locations to act as operational hubs for campus wireless deployments, as well as gateways to the districtwide WLAN and the Internet. Meru Air Traffic Controller, a central feature of these systems, would then provide the district’s IT department with comprehensive, user friendly administrative control and detailed network monitoring capabilities for the entire architecture.

When the first phase of this project got underway, budget limitations prevented the district from implementing a full scale wireless deployment in all eleven Pemberton schools. Working closely and carefully with Pemberton Township and technology vendors, the Carousel team designed a purchase and installation plan that would enable the district to begin their process, start realizing the benefits of Meru Networks technology, and lay the foundation for future expansions and investments as additional resources became available. By October 2010, working carefully outside of school hours to avoid any disruption to classes, seven district schools were outfitted with fully operational Meru wireless access points and controllers.

Pemberton officials credit

this project’s success to the

effective integration between

the Carousel and Pemberton

technology teams, as well as to

Carousel Industries’ flexibility

and willingness to accommodate

the unique and demanding

needs of today’s public school

district.

Carousel Industries, Inc.659 South County Trail

Exeter, RI 02822

800.401.0760 www.carouselindustries.com

Success

By May 2011, resources became available to enable Pemberton Township to begin work on a second phase of wireless rollouts, installing new Meru systems in the district’s remaining four schools. When completed, the network will feature approximately 130 Meru AP320i access points and will support nearly 5000 students and nearly 600 faculty members.

The new wireless network has virtually eliminated client roaming problems in the areas that have been completed. In addition to better supporting educational initiatives, faculty members are also enjoying the benefi ts. From documenting meetings and sharing curriculum materials, to supporting laptops on a mobile basis to aid in teacher evaluations, faculty on the move are able to invisibly transition from one access point to the next without losing signal or connectivity. The mobile computer labs, already the operational backbone of the district’s educational computing programs, have been modernized and are now able to be distributed between multiple classrooms. This is empowering Pemberton Township schools to pursue new program opportunities, as well as extend the usefulness and lifespans of their existing fl eet of laptops and other classroom computers.

By carefully evaluating each school and classroom, Carousel engineers were able to document optimum placements for access points to ensure that the network would achieve maximum coverage and reliability with a minimum of hardware installations. This simplifi ed the installations, reduced impacts to working environments and provided Pemberton with the fl exibility they needed to plan their IT budgets conservatively. The resulting network today provides more than adequate bandwidth to support large classrooms of students streaming high defi nition video to laptop devices - one of the district’s strategic program requirements, and a major focus point for this project.

Acting as technology partner and trusted advisor, Carousel Industries continues to consult with Pemberton Township Board of Education about this and future technology options. Pemberton offi cials credit this project’s success to the effective integration between the Carousel and Pemberton technology teams, as well as to Carousel Industries’ fl exibility and willingness to accommodate the unique and demanding needs of today’s public school district.

The completion of Pemberton Township’s new Meru Networks wireless implementation is scheduled for summer 2011.

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