3 WiFi Planning Tips for a Better School Wireless Experience

Both students and their parents expect the wireless experience at school to be fast, secure and reliable. If you don't deliver on this expectation don't be surprised to be on the receiving end of some pretty harsh complaints (social media has given everyone a voice). In this week's episode, we outline three critical WiFi planning tips to help you improve the school wireless experience.

Video Transcription

What's going on everybody? My name is Danny, welcome To the WiFi Minute. Today's topic: Three WiFi planning tips for a better school wireless experience. All right, let's put 60 seconds up on the clock, and let's go. 

Planning for Capacity

Today's K12 schools typically will see two to three devices per student. This means your network today needs to be designed for capacity to add a layer of much needed context to your wireless system. This means planning for things like how many devices will your network need to support, what types of devices and applications will be in use, and what's the device mix?

You Can't Ignore Your Wired Infrastructure.

Remember, good wireless means having good wired infrastructure too, specifically your network switches. It doesn't matter how powerful your new wireless solution is if your WiFi switches aren't compatible or equally as capable for your school's needs, you're gonna run into a lot of WiFi problems. We recommend having at least 1 gigabit at your edge switches and 10 gigabits at your core, as well as making sure they're all PoE+. 

Network Access Control

Your school's network security strategy has to go beyond content. It's about knowing and defining what the devices and end users at your school can do and what they can access or where they can go, both in your school's network as well as the internet. NAC  enables you to do three things: identify, assign, and enforce.

Your school's wireless system isn't based on one component or one feature alone, rather the right combination of many components. At the end of the day, your wireless network needs to support a fun, productive, and safe learning environment for both administrators, teachers, students, and guests. 

Down in the description below, I've included a link to our wireless network design kit, which will provide you with everything you need to know before you deploy a large-scale wireless network. If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to leave them down below. You guys have been great. I've been Danny. Thanks for watching, and we'll see you next time.