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Preston College launch state of the art Wireless Network.

By Anonymous

August 23, 2004 -- Preston and Cardinal Newman Colleges wanted to pool their resources to provide high-speed connectivity to the Local Community and College Outreach sites, such as village Halls, Drop-in Centres, Youth Centres and Adult Learning Centres.

The colleges were currently using 2Mbps-leased lines to connect some of their outreach centres that were proving to be a very high ongoing expense.

Preston College approached Teksys Educational Services looking for a more cost-effective alternative. Having worked closely with Wireless CNP, Teksys were aware of the benefits of suggesting a wireless solution.

Wireless CNP and Teksys proposed a solution using the Alvarion BreezeACCESS VL equipment transmitting in the 5.8GHz Band C frequency. Alvarion’s BreezeACCESS VL was specified due to a number of factors. Many of the Outreach centres are up to 15Km away from the Guild Centre, the proposed site for the Base Stations, so equipment that could achieve these distances was essential both with Clear Line of Sight and with Obstructed Line of Sight.

Preston College reached an agreement with the Preston Guild Centre and Orange to use the Orange Array on the roof of the Guild Centre to install the 3 Alvarion BreezeACCESS VL 120 antennas. A BreezeACCESS VL Base Station supported each antenna – this set up delivers a 360 coverage area across the Lancashire plain, with each base station capable of supporting up to 512 subscribers and 120Mbps maximum capacity.

As part of this agreement with the Guild Centre both Preston College and Cardinal Newman College are installing 10 Mb Fibre Lan Extension Services provided by Telewest to the Guild Centre roof to provide backbone connectivity to college LAN’s

The Alvarion BreezeACCESS VL system specified offers a carrier class service and is compliant with the UK interface regulation as stipulated by Ofcom for using the 5.8GHz band c frequency. The network was designed on a Point-to-Multipoint cellular architecture offering a high spectral efficiency and decreasing over all costs.

The Alvarion BreezeACCESS VL subscriber units consist of an Outdoor Unit with an integrated antenna and a wall or desk mountable indoor unit, these subscriber units are fully ruggedized and manufactured for outdoor use and can be installed in a number of hours, rather than days or weeks that is common with the installation of traditional wired alternatives. Due to the Non Line of Sight capabilities of the BreezeACCESS VL equipment, the subscriber units are ideal for temporary installation in outreach centres, for example when the college is hosting an off site course in a local village hall where connectivity is required for the duration of the course only. This added mobility of the VL solution specified by Wireless CNP and Teksys was an added benefit of the system and the future proofing of the Preston College network.

Preston College decided on the wireless solution, specified by Wireless CNP and Teksys, as it represented a one off capital expenditure that could be covered by a Local Government grant, unlike leased lines that incur and ongoing expense, for which no grants are available. Financially this project “will save approximately £30K per annum in telecommunications cost for Preston College alone and approximately £10K to Cardinal Newman” Director of Community Mike McCusker of Preston College was pleased to mention.

“The project brings together former competing education providers into collaboration - allowing the sharing of costs and resources. It will increase the viability of widening participation work in deprived communities and with community groups. It will develop the use of ILT in Adult and Continuing Learning work - working to support the three-year ILT strategy to provide JANET access to community outreach work in this area. It will allow short term activities in community venues that otherwise would have been unviable and allow providers to 'move on' when one training need has been satisfied to another area
It will allow the development of bandwidth intensive services to support e-learning, such as through the development of IP/TV and the use of Cisco content delivery engines .” continues Mike.

This network has helped integrate the Colleges with the local community sharing the connectivity to the mutual benefit of all residents of Preston and South Lancashire.

In addition Mike was pleased that this network “will contribute to the City Council’s plans to develop Preston as an ‘E-City’, paving the way for an extension of the network to meet the needs of the rural areas north of the city.”

About Wireless CNP
Wireless CNP provides specialist, innovative, leading edge solutions for wireless data and voice applications. As the UK’s first Specialist Wireless distributor we have gained invaluable experience in an expanding market place that is second to none. As wireless applications have increased in both complexity and size, the
company has focused on designing, installing and supporting systems that often comprise a number of different wireless technologies.

Each solution provided by Wireless CNP is unique, devised closely with our partners and implemented to meet our customer’s needs. Wireless CNP is there conception of the solution, through site survey to date of installation. Wireless CNP also offers optional maintenance agreements on all of its solutions.

Wireless CNP has been a leading figure in wireless networking for the last decade, helping launch many of the names now synonymous with secure wireless products. We are dedicated and highly trained in providing the correct solution for each customer, maintaining a hands on approach throughout the sales process, installation
and client training.

Contact for further information:
Helen Honisett
Marketing Manager
Wireless CNP
events@wirelesscnp.com
08456 44 66 03

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