FS Education WiFi Solution: WiFi For Schools, Universities, Colleges

With the advent of the internet and mobile devices, our learning spaces have changed dramatically over the past decade. Educational institutions need to adopt new learning methods to keep students abreast of technological and scientific changes. They need to upgrade their existing web infrastructure to make digital literacy easily accessible to everyone. WiFi enabled campuses are becoming more common, which allows students and teachers to access a wealth of information over the Internet. It also allows them to easily collaborate and automate traditional learning methods.

Why Do Schools, Universities, or Colleges Provide Free WiFi for Students?

Untethered Agile Learning

In education, WiFi should facilitate immediate, unlimited access to online learning resources and applications from anywhere on the school, college or university premises. Using Wi-Fi at school, students can quickly and easily share documents, edit presentations in real-time, store project files in the cloud, and improve their teamwork skills. Educators are rapidly adopting laptops, tablets, and cloud-based apps/resources to teach classes, with numbers rising dramatically since the COVID-19 pandemic began. All of these tools rely on wireless connectivity, making your IT network the cornerstone of your entire educational strategy.

Support 1:1 devices for personalized learning

Teachers can encourage students to learn independently, both in and out of the classroom, while developing creative teaching methods. WiFi and the use of 1:1 devices also enable the use of software that monitors student progress in real time and allows teachers to intervene to help students when necessary – before students show obvious signs of falling behind, such as poor exam results. The same early interventions can be done for issues like bullying or poor mental health. This immediate feedback mechanism requires the use of wireless technology in the classroom to allow for 1:1 learning.

Improving communication between teachers, students and staff

WiFi in educational institutions also breaks down communication barriers as its portability collaboration between students and students and teachers and inspires parental involvement by enhancing the home-school interface. Many students find it easier to engage through digital devices, so losing this opportunity is losing an opportunity to improve student well-being and education.

Benefits of FS WiFi Solution for Schools, Universities, or Colleges

Reliability

Given how heavy data traffic can get at schools, reliable Wi-Fi that will not break under pressure is a must. FS offers Wi-Fi access points that support 60–80 concurrent clients per device without compromise to the quality of the connection.

Simplicity

Simplify how you use Wi-Fi at your school, university, or college. FS Wi-Fi access points are made with an easy-to-use all-in-one design, requiring next to no setup or upkeep—ideal for educational institutions on a budget.

Security

Data protection is key, especially in educational institutions with high network activity. That is why FS has implemented encryption mechanisms and credential-based protection to ensure the data safety of your school, university, or college.

Cost-Efficiency

FS.com's expert engineering team can offer personalized solutions according to the school's or university's requirements, such as merging multiple wireless APs into one independent AP to improve signal stability and fault tolerance, integrating firewalls, controllers and switches, building a unified, highly secure, and easy-to-manage network environment that provides the best cost-effective Wi-Fi solution for schools, universities, and colleges with limited budgets.

What are the WiFi Challenges Facing Schools, Universities, or Colleges?

Capacity

As the number of connected devices continues to grow, it gets more difficult for your wireless network to support them all. It is the need to ensure devices connected to an access point can use their applications without noticing considerable degradation of performance.

Coverage

This is the most obvious and often the most immediate challenge that schools, universities, or colleges have to deal with when designing wireless networks. Where does wireless access generally need to be provided? This may include academic buildings, residence halls, athletic facilities and numerous outdoor spaces. It is imperative to understand where the mission-critical areas are on campus and plan for them accordingly to ensure you have proper coverage.

High Density

Schools, universities, or colleges have to be able to support many different, highly dense areas, containing hundreds or even thousands of users who are all simultaneously connecting to the network. Hundreds of students in a large auditorium, large lecture halls, stadiums, and interactive applications. High density has a large impact on wireless networks due to the large volume of devices and the capacity requirements that follow it. Largely, the goal is to provide coverage to many devices with a specific amount of access points. This number depends on how many devices need to be serviced.

Security

This is the most obvious and typically most straightforward challenge that schools, universities, or colleges have to deal with when designing their wireless networks. The more data there is the more data needs security and with the increase of wireless usage in classrooms and everyday life, there’s a lot more data that needs to be protected. Groups and services must also be isolated from one another to ensure quality of service as well as properly authorized access to resources. The Wi-Fi airwaves are public, making them an easy target for hackers.

Cost

The effective lifespan of today's wireless platforms is between 3 and 4 years, that's it. Beyond the 3-4 year range, it becomes challenging to maintain needed wifi performance levels and the required reliability you and your end-users have become accustomed to. 802.11ax (WiFi 6) is the latest standard and we're now in the realm of gigabit switching, SDN, NAC and security standards like next-gen firewalls. The reality is that if you want to get the most out of each "wave of technology" you have to ensure your infrastructure is up to date as well. Check things like your cabling, switches, access points, your pipe (bandwidth), your core, firewalls, software, etc.

Conclusion

WiFi enabled campuses are becoming common place which allows students and teachers to access a wealth of information over the Internet. It also allows them to easily collaborate and automate traditional learning methods. FS provides education WiFi solutions for schools, universities, and colleges. We provide all the necessary hardware and software required for setting up a reliable and scalable wireless infrastructure within the campus. If you are also facing similar business challenges, please contact our team to learn how FS.com can help you achieve network success.