Networking & Wireless
Yuma Districts Upgrade Network
Two school districts in the city of Yuma, AZ are upgrading their wide area
networks (WAN) to 10 gigabit fiber, a change that is expected to increase the
speed of their networks by as much as 10 times.
Yuma
Union High School District and Yuma
Elementary School District One both have 1-to-1 initiatives, supporting
nearly 20,000 students and staff altogether. The districts needed to upgrade
their legacy networks to provide sufficient bandwidth for such a large number
of devices, while providing capacity for future expansion and controlling
costs. After considering their options, they selected a private fiber optic
network solution, which will be constructed by WANRack, a company that specializes in private
fiber optic WANs for K-12 districts.
WANRack will build an advanced fiber optic network to connect 25 schools and
administrative buildings in both districts. According to information from the
company, its design model enables it to provide both lit or dark fiber
infrastructure, and once it's installed, the fiber optic WAN "will provide a
minimum of 10 times the speed of the districts' current network, at a
significant reduction in the overall cost of service."
According to Rob Oyler, president of WANRack, private WANs eliminate "the
bottlenecks or the security and reliability concerns that plague users of
shared public networks," while being "extremely affordable."
Dean Farar, director of technology for the Yuma Educational Technology
Consortium, said "WANRack provided the best solution at the best price," and
that the new WAN will enable the districts to support nearly 20,000 devices
without hindering the educational process.
About the Author
Leila Meyer is a technology writer based in British Columbia. She can be reached at [email protected].