Campus Connectivity Solutions from TESSCO

Wireless technology has become an increasingly viable option to connect buildings in campus environments. TESSCO's design expertise and technical support complement our wireless point-to-point, point-to-multipoint, Wi-Fi and In-Building Broadband over Power Line products.

Many organizations across the spectrum of business, education and government need to facilitate voice, video and data communications between buildings. Many college and high school campuses, hospitals, hospitality groups, public transportation area, apartment complexes and corporate grounds share the need to transfer data quickly and reliably. They may need to do some or all of the following functions:

Internet connectivity
Campus surveillance
Voice over IP (VoIP)
Backhaul
Send and receive large files such as videos or patient records
Facilities monitoring

When you're considering a wireless campus project, TESSCO recommends you assess the following areas. TESSCO is available to help qualified customers determine your system needs and develop the design that best meets your needs.

Network Design and Management

Once you've determined your strategy for connecting your buildings, you'll need to select the optimal wireless technology to build your network. TESSCO offers you the choice of a wide range of technologies and vendors:

Point-to-Multipoint radios are often the best solution when communicating between one central point, such as your network operations center, and many other buildings. They're very cost-effective for systems with relatively low bandwidth requirements and have great flexibility to handle add-ons such as surveillance cameras.
Mesh Networks connect many buildings in an integrated network and offer the advantages of "self-healing" when a link breaks. They are also very fast to configure and implement, and are the best application when cabling is a problem. Mesh systems are also very good for adding access points, printers and servers.
Point-to-Point systems are your best solution when you have only small numbers of buildings to connect and need very high bandwidth between them. Hospital systems must be designed to securely handle patient records, X-Rays, video and more. They are also most commonly-used for backhauling large volumes of traffic from one data center to a major distribution point.

Managing Backhaul

Once you've figured out the best design to move data among your campus buildings, you'll need to determine the best way to backhaul it. In the past, backhaul was seen primarily as a way to cut T1 costs, e.g. between a cell site and a MTSO. As networks evolve, wireless backhaul is emerging as a versatile and integral component of sending data from one point to another, where it can be distributed to many points of access. Now the high data rates, ease of installation and scalability allow transmission of up 1.25 Gbps!

While most backhaul uses point-to-point technology, there are many cases where point-to-multipoint is the better choice. An example would be campus dorms connecting back to a network office center. Learn more about wireless backhaul technology.

Distributing The Data to and within Remote Destinations

Another piece to the campus connectivity puzzle is how you move the signals once you've delivered them to their destination. Whether your end users are in an office environment, on a school campus, in a hospital or in an apartment, there are several ways to get the voice or data to them:

Wireless LAN or WiFi technology
In-Building Broadband over Power Line
Connection to an existing cable system
Connection to an existing DSL

Network Security and Bandwidth Management

Within your data center or network operations center, there are several other critical functions that will keep your system running well and your users well-protected. Some network security and management systems let you control billing functions, time tracking, content filtering, user account setup, and more. Others offer powerful bandwidth management options for your enterprise or residential customers. You will also want to think through your need for routers and switches within your data center.

Featured Products

Redundant Wireless Rings Ensure Your Network Is Always Up

Many carriers, cities and towns,college campuses, schools and health care organizations are concerned about the reliability of their integrated networks. They know many two-way systems become complex to manage as they incorporate more vendors, and they are more prone to breaking down, putting critical communications at risk. Even those with fiber rings recognize the need to have redundant rings that can re-route disrupted traffic and deliver extra capacity.

TESSCO offers you a choice of wireless redundant ring solutions:

Licensed: Nera

NERA's Evolution series product provides one wireless pipe for Ethernet and TDM traffic along with a flexible and scalable SDH/SONET frame, to help you handle the deployment of next-generation networks such as 3G, UMTS, and WiMax. They offer hot-swappable IDU cards and the redundant ODU configurations (1+1) and can be managed by a standard web browser.

Take a look at a broad set of solutions from Nera.

Unlicensed: RAD Airmux

RAD's Megaplex -2100 multi-service platform consolidates various communications services and aids in troubleshooting. It puts four-wire E&M for two-way radio, video streams, LAN traffic and low-speed data onto a common inter-facility link.

Ready to save big money by replacing your T1 connections completely? Look at the wide range of options from Airmux, including their Airmux-200 family.

TESSCO looks forward to assisting qualified customers with your next campus connectivity project: contact us today!

For more information contact TESSCO
at 888-256-9220 or e-mail us today.