Cisco Cisco Wireless Control System Version 4.0 Leaflet
Customer Case Study
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Canadian University Deploys Cisco Unified
Wireless Network
Wireless Network
Laval University deploys a Unified Wireless Network to serve its students, faculty,
and security staff.
Business Challenge
As the oldest educational facility in Canada and the
first institution in North America to offer a higher
education entirely in French, Université Laval is one
of Canada’s leading universities. In addition to a
comprehensive liberal arts undergraduate program,
the university offers postgraduate programs in
professional areas including medicine, dentistry,
and actuarial studies.
Laval’s main campus in Quebec City covers 1.2
square kilometers (0.76 square miles). There are 30
buildings on the campus, all linked by 10 kilometers
(6.2 miles) of heated underground tunnels—a
welcome feature during Quebec’s frigid winters.
A few years ago, Laval started seeing a growing
number of notebook computers on campus, among
both faculty members and students. This led to a
demand for wireless Internet access. Late in 2003,
the university deployed a small wireless LAN in two
engineering and science buildings—a logical
location for a technology pilot—in order to
determine whether such a network would be
utilized. The small network proved to be so popular that “the university decided to deploy wireless
all over the campus,” says Mario Bruneau, associate director of infrastructure at Laval.
Meanwhile, the university was looking to replace the antiquated walkie talkie system that the
campus security staff used as its main means of communication. That system was neither secure
nor reliable. Outsiders could intercept walkie talkie messages simply by tuning into the right radio
frequency, and the radios did not always work inside the underground tunnels.
The campus IT staff knew that an ideal solution would address the Internet access needs of the
students and faculty as well as the wireless voice communication needs of the mobile security
staff.
“We wanted to converge these two needs into one network,” says Bruneau. To that end, the
university decided to replace the walkie talkie system with a wireless IP telephony system that
could run over a wireless LAN.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
LAVAL UNIVERSITY
●
Education
●
Quebec City
●
5657 employees
●
38,219 students
BUSINESS CHALLENGE
●
Provide ubiquitous wireless network access to
students and faculty
●
Find a reliable, cost-effective replacement for
an aging walkie talkie-based security system
SOLUTION
●
Installed a campus-wide Cisco Unified
Wireless Network
●
Uses Cognio Spectrum Expert to detect and
eliminate RF interference in the wireless
network
network
●
Replaced obsolete campus security system
with wireless IP telephony
BUSINESS RESULTS
●
Remote management of the wireless network
saves maintenance time for the IT staff
●
Supporting both Internet access and IP phones
with one wireless network results in significant
cost savings
cost savings
●
University receives revenue from nominal
student network access fees
●
Security staff has a reliable means of
communication