Largest u-School Project in Korea Using Firetide 802.11n Wireless LAN for Ubiquitous Internet Access
The Seoul Metropolitan City Office of Education (SOME) recently deployed a high-performance Firetide Wireless LAN (WLAN) communications infrastructure across three school campuses in Seoul, Korea. The network marks Korea’s first large u-School wireless LAN project that utilizes high-performance 802.11n technology and provides Wi-Fi access both indoors and outdoors. Objectives of the u-School program are to enhance student curriculum and quickly move to use of digital textbooks by delivering high-speed ubiquitous Wi-Fi connectivity at schools.
Working with DK UNC, a distributor in Korea; LG U Plus, a Korean-based Internet Service Provider; and Firetide, SOME deployed a Firetide WLAN solution that provides complete network coverage throughout all three school campuses. Now, the Firetide network handles traffic for approximately 1,200 users per day on average.
“We take great pride in ensuring that students have the latest technologies to further enhance their education,” stated Lee Jongcheol, LG U Plus IT general manager. “Firetide worked closely with us to ensure a cost-effective high-performance solution was put in place for SOME. ”
The SOME WLAN includes over 100 Firetide HotPoint 5000 Wireless Access Points which enable over 1,200 students to access the Internet using their fixed and mobile Wi-Fi devices. Whether it’s a tablet, laptop or a smartphone, students and faculty can now collaborate with one another or within large groups to augment and accelerate research, projects and homework. Firetide Access Points are installed indoor and outdoors across the campuses providing students reliable connectivity. Additionally, Firetide’s FWC 2000 WLAN Controllers, are located in each school to provide network and policy management.
This deployment represents the first phase of SOME’s rollout of campus-wide wireless access to primary/middle/high schools in the Seoul area. Installation and configuration of the network took approximately one month.
“Our international team will continue to work closely with SOME and our partners to help them achieve their goals to improve learning and education using digital technologies,” said Bo Larsson, CEO of Firetide. “The Firetide WLAN infrastructure solution is designed to meet the needs of today’s demanding multi-media applications as well as to provide reliable connectivity for a large number of users, simultaneously.”