Doing the wave

Communications News, April, 1998

Voice, data, and Internet access run over radio links for this New York school district.

Microwave technology is at the heart of connectivity district wanted technological advanced, cost-effective high-speed network infrastructure that would connect all schools and facilities; seamlessly integrate data, voice, and video; and provide Internet access to every classroom--all within the modest budget of a public school system.

The school district serves the towns of Rush, Henrietta, West Brighton, and Pittsford in the Greater Rochester, N.Y., area. Twelve buildings house nearly 8,000 students, faculty, and staff. There are two campus environments, each with three buildings, and the remaining six buildings are standalone, scattered throughout the district.

Stanley W. Polmateer, director of school facilities, managed the project. "We wanted to lay the groundwork to integrate voice and data networks," he says. "Back when we started, the Internet and World Wide Web were not household names, but we knew that technology was playing an increasingly important role. So we tried to create an infrastructure that would be scalable and flexible."

Budget limitations posed the greatest challenge, according to Polmateer: "It's easy to dream up your ideal system, but it's another thing to keep within your budget."

For help in designing and developing the network, Polmateer turned to Wildec Technical Service, Inc., of Schenectady, N.Y., Rush-Henrietta's data/voice consultants.

At the time the project began, the district had been leasing equipment and services from Frontier Communications (formerly Rochester Telephone). The system consisted of leased lines and a PBX for voice communications only. There was no data network.

"The PBX system was shot and our voice services were costing a fortune," says Polmateer. "At the time, leasing lines between buildings was a hot topic, but we frankly didn't like the cost."

Leased lines would have been prohibitively expensive, agrees Kevin P. Lawless, vice president of Wildec. "We wanted to look at an alternative to leasing -- a system that Rush-Henrietta could own. So, we suggested microwave technology."

The microwave system was purchased from Transwave Communications Systems, Inc., of Buffalo, N.Y., a turnkey wireless systems integrator. Transwave specified digital microwave radios from Advanced TechCom Inc. (ATI) of Wilmington, Mass.

"By properly combining the ATI radios with the other equipment necessary for the network--such as towers, power systems, and antennas--we were able to provide Rush-Henrietta with the bandwidth required, at a cost they could afford, without sacrificing quality," says Raymond E. Rabb, president of Transwave Communications.

Transwave engineered the system using the Sperry High School campus as the microwave and network hub, installing an eight-bank microwave radio system there. Trunking for the voice system takes place through a Northern Telecom Meridian One PBX at Sperry.

Each of the seven satellite locations is wired with Category 5 cable with a fiber backbone. There is a distance of up to five miles between the hub and each satellite site. Each satellite location has an ATI FSK+-4DS1 microwave radio operating in either the 23 or 18 GHz microwave bands, and a Meridian One PBX that communicates back to the hub at Sperry through a system of towers and mounts individually designed by Transwave for each school. Four T1s are terminated at each location: one is used for voice, two for data, and one is a spare link for future expansion.

Initially, the microwave backbone started out as voice communications only. As time went on, they added data, integrating a 10/100 Base-T Ethernet WAN and individual 10/100 Ethernet LANs at each building, all using the microwave links. Plans are to add video transmission capabilities as well.

The district handles purchase orders, work orders, and attendance records for employees, students, and staff through the new network. All buildings and classrooms are fully enabled for e-mail an voice mail. In the works is a point-of-sale application for food services that uses debit-card system for the cafeteria and school stores.

Rush-Henrietta teachers prepare materials and documents for classroom lessons using the microwave network in coordination with Xerox's DocuTech on-demand publication and printing system. They select the text from a master textbook, scan it over a computer system, and send the information over the microwave links to a central processing printer that produces booklets. The booklets arrive at the teacher's classroom door the next day.

This process has saved us substantial money since we don't have to buy as many textbooks as we did before," says Polmateer.

The district is working now on a distance learning application. "There is desire to tap into the college campuses in the area and offer college courses via radio transmission to high school students," says Polmateer. "If we wanted to offer, for example, a college chemistry course, we could have a real-time video link between the college classroom and the high school studio projected onto a studio screen. The video would either be compressed over the existing WAN or the spare T1 lines, or we may expand the microwave radios to accommodate up to 12 T1 links or even DS3 links."