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creating campus network solution

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  • Networking
Last response: in Business Computing
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April 17, 2014 12:47:43 PM

Within the next couple months, Google will be deploying free fiber on our schools Kansas City, KS campus. We now have a bit of a hurdle with our networking capabilities. We have never had our network connected to all four of our campuses buildings but we want to now, especially since it will be free. We want to wisely invest in a method that will allow all our buildings to utilize this free gigabit fiber service. Options that have been presented are; utilizing wifi repeaters/extenders, ditch witching cable line to each building, or beaming a satellite signal to and from every building. I dont know what our most economical options are and need some assistance. If any options mentioned before are viable what items should we look to purchase? Please help us out forum and thank you for your time.

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April 17, 2014 1:00:58 PM

if google deploying free fiber, did you ask them for suggestion?
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April 17, 2014 1:11:37 PM

Given google gigabit fiber. WiFi all over will make that mostly useless.
Bouncing off a satellite will make it completely useless.

Seriously, ask google for recommendations.
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April 17, 2014 1:11:49 PM

The contractor came to survey the grounds today and explained they will only connecting to one of our buildings for free. He suggested digging a 4 inch pipe between the buildings, but that all seems a bit too pricey and I wanted to get suggestions from the forum.
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April 17, 2014 1:14:51 PM

Quote:
...what items should we look to purchase?


A cost and performance estimate from a competent local engineer (or google) for all of the above options. And some you haven't mentioned.
Then and only then will you have a basic idea of cost v performance.
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April 17, 2014 1:17:07 PM

wifi would be slow, range would be limited, direct fiber between building is the fastest.
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April 17, 2014 1:19:13 PM

simplytechnical said:
The contractor came to survey the grounds today and explained they will only connecting to one of our buildings for free. He suggested digging a 4 inch pipe between the buildings, but that all seems a bit too pricey and I wanted to get suggestions from the forum.


With google fiber, you have a firehose size pipe coming to the campus.
Using WiFi, you are then pumping through a garden hose.
With satellite, you are then pumping it through a soda straw.

"seems a bit too pricey" is completely unknown until you get an actual quote. Good, seamless WiFi coverage is not necessarily 'cheap'.

Moving this to Business Computing. You'll likely get good answers there.
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April 17, 2014 2:00:22 PM

A consultant from Aruba networks will be contacting me soon with a sales consultant to address our networking questions and to propose a solution. I saw the Ubiquiti UAP-OUTDOOR-AC UniFi UAP-AC Outdoor 5GHz AP (3X3 MiMO) at http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=0ED-000... , this performance seems to be excellent. What type of bottleneck would I have to worry about if using an item such as this?
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April 17, 2014 2:10:27 PM

How many users/devices?
What distance are we looking at?
What building interference?

All those, and more, are answers you need to pose to the consultant.

And he should propose 'multiple' solutions at different price points. Wired fiber, wired coax, wifi, etc....
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April 17, 2014 7:35:20 PM

Hi , you can invite experts from all the major networking companies like : cisco , hp , juniper , sure they want come over and give you price quote.

but before you invite anyone make a list of your needs :
a. do you need separate servers / workstations from free internet access .
b. do you have a infrastructure currently used which you can still use.
c. what new infrastructure will you have to invest in.
d. make a site survey for wifi cover.
e. make a budget plan.

it is highly suggested you use wired solution between buildings (fiber optics) and if you can use your current infrastructure to put in the fiber optics and not have to dig.

good luck
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Best solution

April 18, 2014 7:25:56 AM

You mentioned that Google is simply going to bring their fiber to one building. For the best usability of that fiber, you will want to connect all of your buildings to the demarcation point through hard-wired connections. As others mentioned, fiber would be the best way to do this. Please note that you can run fiber underground, but you can also run fiber through aerial connections by stringing it by pole(s). Wireless connections simply don't have the bandwidth needed (although I've heard of some gigabit wireless), and they are harder to manage than hard-wired connections. These connections can either be direct through a hub/spoke layout, or you could probably daisy-chain them as well.

A bigger issue would be the infrastructure to utilize that connection. For one, you need may need to upgrade the firewall/router used currently. Not all routers can handle gigabit; you also need to see if it can do full deep packet inspection at wire-speed (which is GB in this case). That's going to be a hefty figure, especially if you're looking at Cisco/Juniper. You also make need to invest in something that can inspect & manage different traffic types.

The wireless side is also going to need a good layout. Since you have Aruba coming in, they should be able to give you good info on that. Obviously, it doesn't hurt to get another wireless vendor in as well.

Cjar had good items to consider, so keep those in mind as well.
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