Going Dutch: Cisco Aids Netherlands School in Expanding Bandwidth

For such a basic idea, BYOD can turn into a complex issue. Network administrators at ROC Friese Poort, a school of 13,000 students in the Netherlands, were concerned that their wireless network’s capacity and performance wasn’t robust enough to handle the influx of devices on campus. Combating the inadequacies of their network was beginning to take a major toll on the IT team’s time.

Since it wasn’t reliable, fewer and fewer students and faculty were using the wireless network. The ROC Friese Poort IT department needed a solution fast.

ROC Friese Poort looked to Cisco for an answer to pump up their bandwidth and get their students and faculty back on the wireless network. Utilizing Cisco hardware such as: the Aironet 2700 Series Access Points, Catalyst 3650 Series Switches and the 5700 Series Wireless LAN Controllers allowed the school to create an entirely new Cisco 802.11ac Wave 1 network that revolutionized the school’s wireless network.

“There were times when staff couldn’t do an attendance check because the Wi-Fi connection was bad,” said Gerrit Haakma, Head of ICT, ROC Friese Poort. “Now, completing these routine tasks in the classroom with their iPad is simple and quick.”

As a result student and staff Wi-Fi use has increased significantly and thanks to the Cisco management (Cisco Prime Infrastructure) and services products (Cisco Smart Net Total Care services), fault reporting has dropped dramatically. This wider bandwidth also has the school looking into future to develop new ways of learning.

To learn more about this case study, click here.