The Johnson School at Cornell University Shares 'Lessons Learned' in Deploying Wireless LAN Technology

Business Wire, Sept 13, 2004

WALTHAM, Mass. -- Johnson Graduate School of Management Succeeds with Chantry's BeaconWorks; Highlights Unique Technology Challenges Faced by Higher Education Institutions

The Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University was an early adopter of Chantry Networks' award-winning BeaconWorks(TM) wireless LAN technology and has 'lessons learned' to share with other higher education institutions. The Johnson School began deploying BeaconWorks as a beta product in early 2003; now they have fully integrated BeaconWorks with the university's existing network of wired and wireless technologies provided by Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO) and Enterasys Networks, Inc. (NYSE: ETS).

Chantry's BeaconWorks uses Layer 3, or IP, as its communications layer, enabling out-of-the-box interoperability with existing and future wired and wireless networking equipment that also uses Layer 3 technology.

"The Johnson School at Cornell University is committed to providing students, faculty and staff the most advanced and functional technology available," said Kevin Baradet, Chief Technology Officer, Johnson School, Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. "In deploying Chantry's BeaconWorks as part of our initiative to provide wireless access, we learned some valuable information specific to wireless in an academic setting."

Continued Baradet, "The best example is that wireless on a school campus has moved beyond the 'tipping point.' Unlike a typical technology adoption curve, which is slow and steady, the 'big bang' of wireless chips pre-installed on laptops resulted in a significant critical mass of students and faculty requiring wireless access. Essentially, every person on campus who had a newly purchased laptop or handheld device wanted to use the wireless network."

During the late summer and early fall months - when students and faculty were arriving on campus - the Johnson School's network administrators realized:

--They needed to understand their users. The MBA students are using the latest and greatest laptops and handheld devices, some of which need some tweaking to access the network. Johnson School anticipated this and had its help desk appropriately staffed and prepared for this during the beginning of each semester, when the majority of new users or users with new devices were most likely to need support.

--Cords are virtually obsolete. No one is coming to the School looking to 'plug in' to the network. Stop looking to install ports.

--Any large-scale deployment requires access points that are inexpensive to install and maintain, but provide great coverage. A state-of-the-art wireless network needs to operate with the quality of service of a wired network - not that of a cellular network.

--Successful wireless networks are developed in a collaborative process. Having a champion to voice the requirements of the users and shepherd the trial phases is vital to a smooth transition, satisfied users and appropriate deployment of network administrators.

--Building materials matter. While one would think cellular access would be inhibited by Cornell's surrounding environment of mountains and gorges, in fact, it is the use of concrete in older buildings that blocks cellular signals. By turning to a wireless LAN instead, the school can have fully functioning devices and pagers.

--Students and faculty work in a different time frame. While corporations are use to peak traffic times occurring 9am to 5pm, a university environment is significantly different. The Johnson School realized peak times would happen 12pm - 2pm, when most everyone on campus was having lunch, and 7pm to 2am, when students did most of their out-of-classroom work.

--Look for additional features. Eventually, professors will want to limit students' usage of devices during lectures and class time. A wireless solution that provides virtualization (separate virtual networks) is essential to implementing a measure of control in the classroom.

--Choose solutions that interoperate with existing network equipment. No business should build a wireless network from scratch. Time, money and resources used to create wired networks need to be leveraged. As a result, be sure to select a solution that is backwards and forwards compatible.

"Cornell's Johnson School of Management is a shining example of the strategic use of wireless technology," said Tom Racca, vice president of marketing, Chantry Networks. "It is not just a matter of installing technology and watching it work; success is dependent upon understanding how your end users want to use a wireless network."

About BeaconWorks

Chantry's BeaconWorks uses IP as its communications protocol, which customers can quickly and easily overlay the wireless network on top of the existing wired network. Chantry's technology enables customers to rapidly deploy BeaconWorks directly with routers and switches handling the wired network traffic. Therefore, customers are able to deploy wireless more quickly and with less expense than with other solutions that do not interoperate with wired networks. This enables companies to not only use their full network resources without wasting extra network ports, but also enables easy skills transfer from the wired world to the wireless world.