Students wanted access to increasing amounts of online educationalcontent without being tied to a physical port, while faculty members sought thefreedom to work in the classroom, the office or at home – anywhere they couldcarry a laptop. So the university, which had previously deployed wireless only on a sporadicbasis using a mix of different vendors’ products, decided it needed anenterprise-level wireless solution. Wayne Johnson, who manages purchasing forcapital projects, undertook an extensive vendor evaluation in cooperation withthe university CIO and network engineer. They knew from the outset they would gowith a WLAN based on 802.11n, the highest-performance technology available (“wedidn’t want to have to upgrade again for 7-10 years”). Equally important wasfinding a system they could easily manage and grow.

Gardner-Webb selected Meru Networks on the basis of its virtual cell technology,which allows a single radio channel to be used by all wireless access points; ifmore capacity is needed, additional channels can be layered on top. In the microcell approach used by other WLAN vendors, no two adjacent access points can beon the same channel, and three radio channels must be expended to provide asingle layer of wireless coverage. Meru APs Broadcast at 100 Percent Power; School Gains Extended Coverage Area”With Meru you get full value for the APs,” Johnson said. “With other vendorsyou have to mitigate an AP’s signal strength because of potential interferencefrom a neighboring AP on another channel.

But a Meru AP can always bebroadcasting at 100 percent power.” The single-channel approach also makes it easy to expand the system, he added.”We just put new APs where we need more coverage and the system automaticallyhandles the new load without our having to do any channel planning. If weeventually fill up the channel we’re using, we can add one or more channellayers on top of it. This basically guarantees us triple the bandwidth for ourfuture needs – something no other vendor could offer.” Johnson said the ability to use APs at full signal strength without interferenceconcerns led to an unanticipated benefit: outdoor wireless coverage withouthaving to mount access points outdoors “We had planned two APs for our Springs Athletic Facility. By positioning themindoors and at opposite ends of the building and using directional antennasoutside, we’re not only getting full coverage inside the facility but all theway across three athletic fields to our Softball Complex – nearly 1,000 feetaway That’s major green-area coverage at a very low cost. I can have acrystal-clear conversation on my Avaya phone that whole distance.