Infrastructure

Tulsa Public Schools Upgrades to Adaptive Wireless Network

• By Scott Aronowitz
• 03/18/10

Tulsa Public Schools (TPS) of Tulsa, OK, has announced it has deployed a new adaptive wireless network solution from Aruba Networks.

With about 42,000 students enrolled in 90 schools spread across 173 square miles, TPS is the second largest district in Oklahoma, and it needed a network that could provide reliable speed and access with a user capacity to accommodate all of its students, teachers, and staff. And because many K-12 schools are situated in or near residential and commercial areas, they are usually subject to nearby radio interference and conflicts with other WiFi networks. The district's new network, designed to serve a continuously increasing number of users, uses Adaptive Radio Management (ARM) to select the optimal band, channel, and access point for each user and location.

"The Aruba network was very easy to set-up and manage, it scaled to support both current and future needs, and it offered industry-leading client density," said Kirk Damron, TPS's director of system architecture.  "In terms of functionality, a single Aruba 6000 Mobility Controller accomplished what the other vendor required multiple separate appliances to do."

The ARM technology also offers a power switching feature that protects each access point from physical disaster by automatically switching power from an endangered access point to a safe one.

"The Aruba WiFi network we deployed has been rock solid, and has proven to be especially flexible, easy to manage, and inexpensive to run," said Damron.