Innovate the education environment by deploying Cisco BYOD Solutions for K-12 to facilitate teaching innovation and emergency  safety . 

Small, medium, and large school districts across the country are utilizing Cisco technology to provide pervasive wireless coverage for their schools.  Wireless coverage can not only provide an enhanced teaching and learning resource, but it can also be utilized as a tool for public safety.

The K-12 Education (PT III): Using Wireless Technologies in Public Safety webcast will take place on May 22^nd, 2013 from 10:00 – 11:00 am (PST).  To register for the webcast please click here.

Here’s a sneak preview:

There is nothing more alarming then the event of a lockdown occurring during school for the protection of the students, public safety is a huge concern for parents and teachers alike.  Leveraging Cisco BYOD Solutions for K-12 Education  real-time location tracking in schools becomes a reality in order to determine the whereabouts of mobile device users throughout the campus.  Read More »

Tags: 1:N, analytic, bring your own device, byod, children, Cisco, device, devices, email, K-12, K12, kid, kids, laptop, location, location-based, mobile, mobility, network, networking, police, public, responder, safety, solution, technologies, technology, webinar, wi-fi, wifi, wireless

The next generation of Wi-Fi, 802.11ac couples the freedom of wireless with the speed of gigabit Ethernet. This also translates in additional load on the backbone of the network, which has to deliver at least 3 times the capacity of the current gold standard, the 802.11n based network.

Cisco launched the Unified Access architecture  to scale linearly with the increased load on the network with 60 Gbps Wi-Fi throughput on the Cisco 5760 Wireless LAN Controller and 40 Gbps Wi-Fi throughput on the Catalyst 3850 Series Switch with a built-in wireless controller.  Both these platforms are based on the Cisco Unified Access Data Plane (UADP) programmable ASIC, which provides high performance and scale, common open APIs, and enables consistent QoS policies for both wired and wireless networks.

Aruba recently launched the 7240 series controllers with a throughput of up to 40Gbps claimed, with the same goal of delivering 802.11ac capable performance across the network. This controller is based on a generic network processor and not a purpose built ASIC like the Cisco controller.

Miercom performed a third-party evaluation to benchmark these products  using  IMIX (Internet Mix) packet traffic and test QoS traffic for high priority application.  IMIX is traffic pattern consisting of a preset mixture of small, medium and large frame sizes used to emulate real-world traffic scenarios in a testing environment. We wanted to give you a sneak peek at some of the results.

Performance

Cisco 5760 is six times faster and Catalyst 3850 is 4 times faster as compared to Aruba 7240

The Cisco 5760, 3850 and the Aruba 7240 were tested for throughput using RFC 2544 and IMIX Traffic.  The Cisco 5760 and 3850 performed extremely well by achieving 50 Gbps and 37 Gbps, whereas Aruba 7240 fell short by just achieving 8 Gbps, which is 20% of its advertised throughput.

Read More »

Tags: 802.11ac, aruba, Cisco, controller, Miercom, network, performance, QoS, technology, wireless

Coming off a busy week at Interop Las Vegas, we have recorded another info-packed podcast with the popular wireless networking podcast group “No Strings Attached Show”. The topic for this podcast covers the gigabit wireless technology, 802.11ac which if you attended Interop, you know this is a very hot topic (“I’ll take enormous understatements for $600, Alex”).

However, it is not just a discussion on what is included in the standard. Blake Krone and Sam Clements from No Strings Attached interview our Mark Denny and Brian Hart as they discuss a number of topics related to 802.11ac technology including the following:

-          The 802.11ac Wave 1 Radio Module for the 3600 Access Point, the availability and best practices for upgrading the 3600 AP with the 802.11ac Module

-          Segments of the enterprise market where 802.11ac technology is generating the most interest Read More »

Tags: #80211ac, 3600 access point, 802.11, 802.11ac, CCIE, CCNA, Cisco, discussion, information, interop, Interop Las Vegas, learn, network, networking, no strings attached, podcast, popular, radio module, technology, WAN, wi-fi, wifi, wireless, wlan

When natural disasters strike, our first instincts are to phone or text loved ones; check news and social media sites; and go online to lend support. These connections become our lifelines. In the process, mobile devices become paramount in connecting people to people and people to data.

That’s why the Internet of Everything (IoE) is so critical. In the moments immediately following a disaster popular social media networks, like Facebook and Twitter, serve as quick ways to locate loved ones. At the same time, social media allows those affected to inform multiple people at once that they are okay, with a simple tweet or post.

In a recent Forbes article titled “Everything Changes with the Internet of Everything,” Kevin Maney discusses how the Internet of Everything changes the way we respond in time of crisis. For example, the Google Person Finder (launched during the 2010 earthquake in Haiti) shows how the Internet can make a big difference during emergencies. People can access the site via mobile device or computer and enter into one of two portals to exchange information: “I’m looking for someone” or “I have information about someone.”

Similarly, a networked power grid can pinpoint outages, enabling faster trouble shooting and allowing fellow citizens to lend support (or even power strips, as seen during Superstorm Sandy) where needed. These connections bring communities back together.

We often talk about the power of IoE to connect the unconnected. For disaster recovery, that power is amplified. Through the Internet of Everything we can help expedite recovery and create a more efficient disaster-response effort by connecting processes, data, things and, most importantly, people. When that happens, we’re able to improve the human experience.

Follow Marie on twitter @MarieHattar

Tags: connecting, disaster preparedness, disaster recovery, disaster response, Internet of Everything, internet of things, IoE, IoT, natural disaster, network, network effects

It’s no surprise that student safety is the upmost priority to educators, administration, and parents. I would know because I have two daughters in K-12. The topic of safety in K-12 schools strikes particularly close to home since one of my daughters has already been in a lockdown due to police activity in the area.   A lockdown is where children are placed in the corners of the classrooms, away from windows and clear from the classroom door windows: lights off, doors locked, and no chatter.  My daughter took it in stride since she thought it was a game. I, on the other hand, was extremely uneasy when I received the email bearing the news and was not relieved until I received the “clear” email notification.

Given some of the latest developments that Cisco has been working on with location-based analytics using wireless technologies, it didn’t take long for us to start talking about how Wi-Fi could be used to help in the case of public safety in K-12 schools.  The intersection of K-12 public safety and Wi-Fi technologies stirred up such a discussion amongst ourselves that we wanted to open up the discussion with an external webinar. I hope you can join me for the discussion on May 22^nd (Click to register), but just in case you need some convincing, here’s a teaser.  Read More »

Tags: 1:N, analytic, bring your own device, byod, children, Cisco, device, devices, email, K-12, K12, kid, kids, laptop, location, location-based, mobile, mobility, network, networking, police, public, responder, safety, solution, technologies, technology, webinar, wi-fi, wifi, wireless