Benedict College Deploys Wi-Fi Network Across Campus

Benedict College in Columbia, S. C., has deployed a wireless network to give its 3,000 students and 500+ faculty and staff high speed access to the Internet and to the school's various resources and services. In addition, the new wireless network provides easy and cost-effective year-round network access to support the school's ongoing activities including registration, long-distance learning and graduation.

Prior to deploying the wireless network, Benedict College's small IT staff struggled with set-up for the school's numerous events, such as long-distance presentations and registration. These events typically require Internet, satellite or basic network access for large numbers of faculty, students and constituents. To deliver this access, Benedict's IT staff had to bring in special equipment and pull wires, a process that was expensive and time- consuming. The set-up for Benedict's registration, for example, typically took at least a full week. By deploying Proxim's ORiNOCO AP-4000 and AP-600 Wi-Fi access points, the college achieved year-round, wireless access for its students and faculty. Registration set-up time was cut in half, and students' waiting time during the registration process was greatly reduced.

The college also deployed Wi-Fi access points throughout its campus to give students high-speed access to the Internet and to library materials, resources and services. With access points located in the college library and gym, students and faculty can easily and conveniently access the Internet, send and receive e-mail, and retrieve articles, notes and books regardless of their location on campus.

In addition, Benedict has connected between a campus dorm and off-site administration buildings. Benedict had an existing fiber network in place, but using fiber or leased lines to extend connectivity to additional off-site buildings would have been cost-prohibitive. Using Wi-Fi access points allows Benedict to extend this high-speed connectivity cost-effectively to remote sites as the college grows and adds more locations.

"Working with our local broadband wireless service provider, we evaluated various solutions that might help us achieve our goals and reduce the burden on our relatively small IT staff," said Katrina Damon, network administrator for Benedict College. "The fact that Proxim could provide a combined indoor-outdoor solution that was robust and scalable and more importantly for our staff, easy to configure, re-configure and maintain, made our decision quite easy." Added Damon, "The time and expense previously required to manage our college's important events such as registration and graduation, have been dramatically reduced, and our students and faculty are now benefiting from reliable, convenient wireless access."

Benedict College is now evaluating several ways to expand on the initial success of the wireless network including the deployment of additional Wi-Fi hot spots around the campus, particularly in the library basement to facilitate Spring registration and in a park near the library where many events are held. In addition, the college is considering deployment of an additional point-to-point system to link the college's new stadium, currently under construction, to the rest of the campus.