Universities Adopt BridgeWave's Gigabit Wireless Solutions for Campus Connectivity

Business Wire, Sept 3, 2008

Coppin State University, Rush University and California State University, Fullerton Select BridgeWave for Fiber-Equivalent Network Performance and Significant ROI

SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- BridgeWave Communications, the leading supplier of gigabit wireless solutions, today announced that several universities have adopted BridgeWave's gigabit wireless links to provide network connectivity on college campuses. Three of the latest universities to deploy BridgeWave's gigabit wireless solution include Coppin State University in Baltimore, Md., Rush University in Chicago, Ill., and California State University in Fullerton, Calif. The universities have opted for gigabit wireless to achieve fiber-equivalent performance and the ability to provision service quickly. BridgeWave products deliver significant return on investment (ROI) in as little as six months and eliminate ongoing OPEX costs, alleviating IT budget pressures in a tighter economy.

Educational institutions that rely on BridgeWave's point-to-point wireless links to connect multiple campus buildings are able to eliminate recurring costs of leased lines, increase capacity and improve performance. BridgeWave's radios are deployed without the obstacles associated with fiber such as cost, licensing or construction needed to lay optical cables. BridgeWave's links provide carrier-grade performance, reliability and a high speed network backbone, delivering full-rate, full-duplex gigabit Ethernet speeds with ultra-low latency that is required for many bandwidth-intensive applications being run on university campuses. With these new deployments at the universities, BridgeWave continues to solidify its position as the vendor-of-choice for gigabit wireless connectivity.

Coppin State University - Wireless system required minimal IT support

Coppin State University, a fully accredited institution with quality undergraduate and graduate degree programs, attracts students from around the world. Despite its small IT staff, Coppin State is widely recognized as an innovator in the use of technology. Coppin State sought a way to connect their main downtown Baltimore campus with new overflow classrooms located three miles away. They initially considered leasing dark fiber, but that meant a mandatory three year agreement, at a cost of thousands of dollars per month. After evaluating several alternatives, they selected BridgeWave's GE80 wireless links as their network backbone between the two locations. BridgeWave was chosen for its superior link performance. Additionally, the advanced network management features meant that the IT staff did not have to spend time to closely monitor and manage the system.

"We needed a flexible solution with fiber-equivalent performance for the copious amounts of voice and data traffic on our network," said Dick Rader, director of telecommunications for Coppin State University. "We installed BridgeWave's radios in a couple of days - without long term service provider contracts. The performance of BridgeWave's gigabit wireless links has been seamless, without any additional ongoing OPEX costs, and with very little support needed from our IT staff."

Rush University - Addressing Security Concerns with Wireless

Rush University's Medical Center was expanding into a new facility and needed to connect remote leased space to the campus LAN in the main building. The connection would handle sensitive financial and medical information, so a highly secure and reliable network backbone was required. Rush investigated installing fiber, as fiber had been the de facto method of campus connectivity, but the investment for running new fiber cables to the building required up to $500,000 in installation and trenching costs.

"Installing fiber to connect the new building onto the LAN would have required a three week trenching job at a significant cost. We also needed a system that would provide a highly secure connection with superior performance," said Eric Schoedel, voice manager at Rush University Medical Center. "BridgeWave's gigabit wireless links were up in a day. Additionally, the network backbone has securely supported the financial and medical data to and from our data center and the links have five nines reliability despite poor weather conditions. We have already saved at least two hundred thousand dollars by using BridgeWave's GigE radios."

California State University, Fullerton - Needed immediate network connectivity and cost savings

With more than 36,000 enrolled students in the Spring 2008 semester, California State University, Fullerton offers both undergraduate and graduate programs in the Southern California area. When the campus required more room, the university decided to lease office space one block away across the street from campus. Budget and total deployment time was a key factor in the search criteria for a network connectivity solution. Dick Bednar, senior director of information technology at CSUF, was charged with finding a solution that would not only be up and running in less than two months, but could effectively handle the bandwidth demands of a large university and the diverse applications that are transmitted across the network on a daily basis.