Key Contact: Brad Noblet, Director of Technical Services
Key vendors: Aruba, Cisco, Telesym, Vocera, Video Furnace
Key metrics: 560 Cisco 350 APs; 100 Aruba 52 11a/11b/11g APs; planning to expand to 1,500 APs during next 12 to 18 months
Dartmouth College has a long history as a pioneer in computing technologies. It was an early adopter of time-sharing systems in the 1960s, and the BASIC programming language was developed here. Not content to rest on its laurels, Dartmouth is developing a reputation as a visionary in wireless networking. Interestingly, the primary goal articulated by Brad Noblet, Dartmouth's director of technical services, was development of a converged set of digital network services that included support for voice, data and video. The main reason wireless is being pursued so aggressively is because users want it. Once you give them wireless, that's the way they connect--even if the Ethernet jack is only 5 feet away!
Dartmouth underwent an upgrade to its wired network backbone just a couple of years ago. The largely Cisco-based network is designed to support a planned migration away from a legacy Ericsson PBX and toward an IP voice infrastructure. Dartmouth also plans to replace an aging campus CATV system with IP video services. The idea is to bundle a set of voice, data and video services and deliver them cost-effectively. The savings are compelling, Noblet says, from both reduced capital and slimmer operating costs. And the beauty of it is, these savings will be invested in new technology.
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