California District Upgrades Network To Support 5,000 Devices
- By Dian Schaffhauser
- 09/03/15
A California school district is up and running with a new network and wireless infrastructure. Chico Unified School District chose to deploy networking equipment from Brocade and wireless gear from Ruckus Wireless. The district
used E-Rate discounts to help fund the work of replacing a legacy network.
The upgrade was needed to support the use of 3,000 Chromebooks in classrooms and an anticipated 2,000 additional devices coming online in
the new school year. The school system has nearly 13,000 students.
The new network includes 400-plus Ruckus ZoneFlex indoor and outdoor access points (APs), including the 802.11 ac AP,
Ruckus ZoneFlex R710. APs are
installed in classrooms and offices, as well as stadiums, parking lots and sports fields. For AP and user management the district is using
Ruckus ZoneDirector
controllers.
"We realized that with the growth in end-user devices and in-class applications, our network needed to support a very high user density in
addition to providing fence-to-fence coverage," said John Vincent, director of technology, in a press release. "With Ruckus, we are able to
fully meet user requirements using one AP for every two classrooms."
The implementation also included Brocade
ICX
6450, ICX
7750 and ICX
6610 switches.
The first big test of the network came when the schools tried out the Smarter Balanced online assessments earlier this year. "The network
performance was flawless," said Patrick Bossetti, network analyst at Chico USD. "In fact, one of our schools has taken out all their wired
devices and has gone 100 percent wireless."
About the Author
Dian Schaffhauser is a former senior contributing editor for 1105 Media's education publications THE Journal, Campus Technology and Spaces4Learning.