Rural Kansas District Rolls Out 802.11n
Following a year-long review period and site survey, Ulysses Unified School District 214 in Kansas has deployed an 802.11n wireless network across all of its campuses.
Ulysses USD is a small rural district serving just 1,700 students across four K-12 schools and one career academy. The high school, middle school, two elementary schools, and vocational school are spread out over 517 square miles, according to state figures.
The 802.11n rollout, which has been operating for about five months now, was part an effort to enhance teaching and learning with technology throughout the district. The deployment used gear from Xirrus, a wireless networking provider that specializes in K-12.
"Since we had no existing wireless solution in place we were starting at ground zero with our wireless search," said Matt Stein, technology director at Ulysses USD, in a statement released this week. "Our selection process took an entire year, during which we learned some valuable insight on the wireless world. We researched not only the different wireless brands and models, but also the satisfaction and dependability of the solutions on the market, and, in the end, we made a vital decision to have a site survey done."
He added: "The Xirrus design allowed us to make fewer cable runs, and the load balancing is awesome in an educational environment. Several of our Arrays are covering [three or more] classrooms, and many of our applications are very network intense, yet the Xirrus product performs flawlessly."