Toronto College Upgrades Network with Gigabit Ethernet Wireless Links

• By Dian Schaffhauser
• 05/15/08

Toronto-based George Brown College has gone public about its deployment of six BridgeWave GE60 wireless links to upgrade its campus-wide network.

Maintaining adequate bandwidth presented a challenge for the three-campus college due to increased adoption of classroom video, distance learning and information sharing applications. In order to upgrade its network, the school investigated wireless technology when it became apparent that relying on fiber-optic leased lines for building-to-building connectivity on its disparate campuses would cost nearly $20,000 for monthly leasing fees.

The college used the services of Trispec Communications, a firm with expertise in broadband cable, telecommunications and wireless. Together, they determined that BridgeWave's reliable and highly economical wireless links could provide "five nines" network uptime to meet existing service level agreements while providing enough capacity for growing bandwidth requirements. Trispec installed six license-free GE60 links across the three main campuses. The school said in a statement that it achieved ROI on the technology investment in eight months.

"Had we decided to use leased lines for our networking solution, we would have easily spent a lot more and still not achieved the advantages that the GE60 links now provide," said college CIO Yves Hébert. "BridgeWave's secure and stable GE60 links have become our standard for connecting new buildings. Now we continually look for new ways to leverage BridgeWave's 'virtual fiber' to fuel our network growth."

"BridgeWave's GigE products have allowed us to enhance and expand our solution offerings to provide wireless alternatives for performance-demanding applications," added Carey Gibson, regional telecommunications manager for Trispec. "Our ability to deliver true fiber data rates over the air ensures George Brown College will enjoy reliable transmission of voice, video and data across a completely converged network."

Link range for the 60-GHz GE60--a low-end offering in the BridgeWave product set--extends up to three-quarters of a mile, according to the company.