Microserve Teaches A Lesson In Wireless

Microserve recently sold the Wetaskiwin School District in Alberta, Canada, wireless networks for a computer lab within each school library that eliminated the need to drill through concrete walls to add network drops. Throughout the rest of the classrooms, 100-Mbps wired networks will be installed.

The 15-year-old solution provider is also working with the Calgary, Alberta, Board of Education to equip more than 221 primary and secondary schools with wireless capabilities. For Calgary schools, wireless networks allow users to move computers from room to room without hassles, and outdated cabling will never have to be replaced as wireline network standards improve, said Bruce Burke, Microserve's Alberta technical manager.

Wireless access points will be positioned so that students can move desks around during classroom projects and teachers can move from room to room with wireless notebooks without losing their connections.

Although each school district had different requirements, cost savings was a priority for both, said Larry Stefanishen, Microserve's Alberta regional manager. Since about 60 percent of the clients in Burnaby-based Microserve's Alberta practice are in the education, health-care and government sectors, Microserve built a methodology designed to save clients money in the long run, he said.

The solution provider also trains school staff how to troubleshoot and maintain their networks. "In the education sphere, you have to be creative," said Dean Larson, a Microserve client manager. "They're usually very short on support staff, and they have to use their dollars carefully," Larson said. In addition, Microserve maintains an in-house financing arm to help schools pay for technology products and services, he said.

Part of Microserve's strategy when working with schools,which typically have large open areas that can be tricky for wireless coverage,is starting with a site survey, Larson said. Microserve has created a detailed spreadsheet that helps calculate the number of access points needed based on the walls involved, the square footage and the number of users accessing the network.

The solution provider also consults with clients to pinpoint the applications that will be used over the network. More access points and corresponding bandwidth will be needed for accessing database applications over the network than for simple Internet access, Larson said.

Although the Wetaskiwin district will use a wired network in many classrooms because school officials wanted a speed of 100 Mbps, Larson said most schools find the 10-Mbps speed offered by Wi-Fi (802.11b) wireless networks acceptable. And most schools will be sharing one pipe anyway, so access speeds won't exceed network capabilities in the majority of situations, he said.

In both the Wetaskiwin and Calgary installations, Microserve is working with Avaya, Basking Ridge, N.J. Larson said Avaya's rating system,it numbers wireless switches from one to three, increasing the reach as the number increases,helps technicians pick the right products. Avaya's AP-3 Access Points also draw power from the broadband pipe, saving technicians from having to place access points near a power source,a critical factor in schools, Larson said.