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Education IT

China’s largest wireless campus boosts productivity

By Kelly Ng | 25 January 2010

Nanjing University of Posts and Communications (Nanjing UPT) has the largest and most resilient wireless coverage area of any higher education institution in China. FutureGov spoke to Dr Zong Ping, Director, Internet of Things and Senor Network College, to reveal why and how the network was implemented.

The legacy optical fibre network could not cover the entire campus and meet the demands for mobile working and learning. The limited number of network ports restricted areas where faculty, students and staff can access the internet. This was the case especially for new or renovated buildings within the campus which have not been cabled up to the network.

Further expansion of the physical network infrastructure, while possible, presented several problems. Besides the high cost of laying cables and installing ports, network construction takes a long time and disrupts activities around the site. The university also faced physical constraints to lay network cables at certain locations around the campus – such as laboratories, gym, theatre, playground and library.

With a vision to become an ‘Intelligent Campus’, Nanjing UPT invested in a wireless network which provided secure and rich wireless voice and data services across its 4.5 million square foot campus – including all teaching buildings, housing areas, eating places, sports venues, outdoor common areas and more.

A wireless network is instrumental in Nanjing UPT’s journey to becoming a world-class university, according to Zong. “It enables the end-users to make full use of educational resources on the campus network and the internet. More significantly, it opens a new era of awareness for collaboration and sharing within the community.”

The wireless network, deployed by Motorola, enabled multimedia internet-based teaching, distance learning and digitised office administration. The number of internet users has increased dramatically and network traffic within the campus has gone up by 30 per cent since.

Reduced network downtime enhanced user experience for the school users. The network has a self-healing feature which automatically and intelligently adapt to changes in the network. For example, if an access point powers down, the network immediately adjusts the power and channels of surrounding points to compensate.

Network availability is essential in ensuring education quality, added Zong. Previously, failures of wired network ports in classrooms would disrupt classes when faculty could not download teaching materials. Today, faculty and students can access lesson notes anytime before or during the class.

The university IT team experienced easier management of the entire network. A management system provided the team with control and oversight of the health of the network. Any issues will be immediately and automatically highlighted which meant a quicker response time. Moreover, the phasing out of physical ports around the campus meant time saved on maintenance and repairs.

Looking ahead in the next 12 months, Zong said: “We will roll out our ‘Intelligent Campus’ programme in 2010. A converged network environment will help consolidate information resources and achieve better management of users. We want to bring together education, scientific research, management and campus life into one network.”

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