BROADBAND COMMUNITIES is the leading source of information on digital and broadband technologies for buildings and communities. Our editorial aims to accelerate the deployment of Fiber-To-The-Home and Fiber-To-The-Premises.
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24 | BROADBAND COMMUNITIES | www.broadbandcommunities.com | MAY/JUNE 2014 WIRELESS DEPLOYMENT STRESS TEST One of the Mart's most popular shows took place a few weeks after the network installation. Te Line Syte team tested the wireless networks extensively for three weeks prior to the show. Tey set up reporting features to collect usage data during the show and content fltering for the frewall to block pornography, video streaming and peer-to-peer sites. Everything worked well during the event. Te wireless network held up well, and the reporting system provided a wealth of information about network usage in real time. Tis helped the Line Syte team manage and monitor the network for issues and network bottlenecks – which, fortunately, the network didn't have. At one point, nearly 400 devices were connected, yet the network was still able to deliver between 30 Mbps and 50 Mbps. "Tat was stellar," Moench says. From Moench's point of view, a great advantage of the new system is that he can manage and tweak it centrally – in fact, he can manage it from anywhere in the world. In addition, the managed wireless solution gives him the ability to review trafc patterns for the entire system. Te system is also largely future proof. In its current confguration, the network is expected to meet the Mart's needs for several years, assuming the annual increase in the number of devices accessing the system is between 5 percent and 15 percent. Going forward, the network can be expanded and upgraded as needed without being entirely replaced. Te wireless controller can easily support many more access points, and the Internet connections can be upgraded to higher bandwidth or replaced with fber. Te gateway can also be upgraded to support higher throughput. Finally, the 5 GHz bandwidth channels are still largely unexplored territory. Having several diferent levers to adjust makes the system extremely fexible. "We're just scratching the surface," Moench says. v Masha Zager is the editor of BroadBand C ommunities. You can reach her at masha@bbcmag.com. The new Wi-Fi access points are unobtrusive but powerful. BBC_May14.indd 24 6/3/14 5:01 PM