Letting students and staff access to voice, data and multimedia applications anywhere on campus, the North Eastern Regional Institute of Science and Technology (NERIST), a prestigious university in India's Arunachal Pradesh state, has chosen Nortel's (News - Alert) Wireless Mesh and WiMAX solutions. This provides both indoor and outdoor wireless connectivity across its vast mountainous campus area.

 

Instead of going to a central location, like the library or computer center, the students can now access resources wherever they are. Teachers can upload the lessons and lectures and students can access them wherever they are to learn at their own pace.

 

With Nortel's WiMAX solution, the institute gets many advantages such as high-bandwidth capabilities across several kilometers. NERIST can also get this solution from Nortel in the unlicensed 5.8 GHz band. This allows the institute to save the cost of licensing as it can use the existing spectrum.

 

Providing low cost wireless broadband for outdoor or expansive indoor areas, Nortel's Wireless Mesh Network (WMN) is a secure, highly scalable solution and benefits students and staff from an always-on broadband network that gives them the flexibility to connect and work any time, from any place on the Institute's campus. They also get an uninterrupted medium for data, voice and video access with the WiMAX (News - Alert) network. Nortel is enabling NERIST to provide its 1600+ inhabitants with the high-speed, pervasive connectivity they demand.

 

Opening up opportunities for innovative educational techniques like video conferencing, tele-classrooms, Web casts of lectures for distance learning, and mobile desktop/laptop-based video conferencing, the solution provides high-bandwidth capabilities. WiMAX is used as the last-mile, high-speed broadband access technology linking the two campuses. Institute's network infrastructure can be accessed by users at both campus sites, which uses the Wireless Mesh network solution.

 

“NERIST anticipates over 70 percent savings on network operational costs by selecting Nortel's Wireless Mesh Network technology rather than a standard WiFi solution,” said Hitesh Lokhandwala, managing director, Nortel India.

 

“Key to the reliability of the solution is the mesh network's ability to dynamically and seamlessly reroute traffic across individual access points with zero disruption. Add to that, the reduced capital expenditure of not requiring network connections to each access point as WiFi (News - Alert) does. Also, the range of the mesh solution is typically around five to six times greater than standard WiFi. With all this, the combined Wireless Mesh/WiMAX solution is very beneficial,” added Lokhandwala.