Wireless LAN for K-12 SchoolsEnabling 21st Century Learning

Meru Networks Background

Global leader of 4th Generation* Wireless LAN infrastructure solutions

- Rated #1 802.11n vendor

Over 2,000 Customers in 36 Countries

Marquis Deployments- Largest Single Enterprise WLAN Deployment

- Highest Density Environment

- Biggest Dual-mode Cellular-Wi-Fi voice Deployment

- First to Announce and Deploy a campus-wide 802.11n network

Fastest growing Wireless LAN company

* 4th Generation per Gartner Classification

“#1 802.11n vendor”“Fastest Growing WLAN Company “

Comprehensive Meru Solution for Wireless in Education

Central ManagementLocation ServicesSecurity Services

Backbone

Remote APs Small remote

location

Branch office 1-5 AP’s

Large School District

1000+ APs

School50-100 APs

School DistrictIndoor / Outdoor

100-1000 APs

Wi-Fi in K-12 Increasingly Tied to Strategic Objectives

Preparing for the Future

- 21st century skills/technology literacy initiatives

- Creating new learning spaces (outdoor areas, cafeterias)

Keeping Up with Growth

- New building construction & modular classrooms (over 350,000 in use in 2005)

- Modernizing (very) old facilities—average age of US school buildings 42+ years

Responding to Need for Real-time Communications

- Focus on safety & emergency communications

- Pressure to increase administrative productivity

- Staying connected with community & schools across district

Taking Advantage of Funding Opportunities

- E-Rate

- State & local technology initiatives

Applications for Wireless LANs in K-12

Student, teacher, faculty anytime, anywhere network access

Address state and federal testing requirements (laptop carts)

Wireless phones, PDAs, projectors, tablet PCs

Interactive/collaborative instruction

Emergency communications (voice) with teachers

Student safety (video surveillance)

Reduce property damage caused by vandalism (video surveillance)

Technology Evolution of Education

• Education needs are changing• Enabling teachers, students, and staff to become mobile allows

facilities to be better utilized, • New education initiatives to be easily deployed, and costs to be

better managed• Growing use of wireless laptops in education allows computing

resources to be shared

Productivity growth drives learning• Productivity improvements raise learning standards by focusing

more resources on teaching• Wired networks don’t address mobility needs, are costly to modify• A low-overhead networking platform lowers costs by making small

IT staffs more productive

Greater Return on Investment• IT teams must squeeze higher returns from existing assets while

paving the way for new applications• Solutions must be quickly, easily to deploy, manage, and optimized

for converged toll-quality voice, video, and data

Meru’s Value Proposition for Education

Provide a seamless RF environment with attributes of wired

Support high-performance voice, video, data over wireless

Future proofs network for unforeseen applications - provides greatest ROI

Simplest wireless to deploy and manage with lowest TCO

Meru provides education organizations of all sizes and needs with a wireless network that:

K-12 Schools Trust Meru to Deliver Wireless

Cohoes: Wireless IP video surveillance

ACPS: IP voice, video streaming, laptop carts

Oregon Episcopal School: Prepared for 802.11n with software upgradeable Meru a/b/g

Several of the nation’s largest districts

World’s largest enterprise WLAN at the School District of Philadelphia

Large District-wide Deployments

One-to-One Computing Programs

Wireless Voice, Video, Data Convergence

Dozens of leading schools with one-to-one laptop programs

Best laptop cart performance- Faster log-in

- Higher density

“The simplicity of the Meru solution and the ease with which we can add access points and change the system made it the best choice for us. We can truly leverage this technology for the benefit of our teachers and students. Our students use laptops and we're using advanced applications such as video streaming across the wireless network to deliver lessons."

“Meru's Air Traffic Control Technology™ also gave us switch-like performance with no co-channel interference, even when we installed additional APs to fill coverage gaps. And because with their single-channel approach there's no need for channel planning, it's easy for the BCPS technical staff to manage."

Why are Schools Choosing Meru WLAN? Reliability, Performance, Simplicity, and Cost

"When a cart with 25 laptops rolls into the classroom, everyone expects to log on immediately. With our old system, half the class often wasn't able to authenticate and get access. Now, with Meru WLAN everyone can connect at once, and our wireless network is incredibly reliable."

Key Wireless LAN Pain Points for Educational Institutions

Students• Cannot connect or connections get dropped• Network is slow• Wireless doesn’t work well with video or real-time interactive apps

Teachers• Getting every student to boot and login cuts into limited class time• Reliability and speed needed for classroom mgmt and teaching

applications

IT Managers• Complex and costly to deploy, time consuming management• Providing wireless network access for dense populations of student

and faculty in classrooms, libraries, cafeteria, auditoriums• Providing mission critical, converged applications over the wireless

infrastructure as part of the school services

CIOs

Requires a flexible and robust network, deliver next generation education applications of voice, video, and data

Providing security and communications across a highly mobile student and faculty population

Deliver services within a dynamic academic environment with space constraints

School/District• Deliver Unreliable wireless limits ROI on school technology

investments (computer carts, labs, etc) • Funding/refresh cycles can’t keep up with technology

If only wireless was as easy wired…

Unpredictable cost and coverage

RF tuning and diagnosis is black magic, micro-cell tools ineffective - can’t tune what you can’t predict

Performance and reliability are not deterministic

Incremental capacity involves unknown and likely costly RF redesign

Simple email and web download ok, but what about other apps?

Predictable costs and coverage

Runs all applications

Well understood “cookbooks” for management and diagnostics

Deterministic performance and reliability

Known formula for increasing capacity and scale

Wired Edge: Stackable Ethernet Wireless Edge: if using Microcell

Challenges for the Wireless Edge

Simpledeployment, planning,

analysis, changes

Predictablecoverage, performance,

mobility

Reliableconnectivity, performance,

diagnostics

Extensiblecost effective growth as

devices, apps evolve

How to make wireless work like wire?

Challenges Solutions

Virtual Cell Abstract physical

network and pool RF

resources

ScaleCapacity

PerArea

Stacked Channel SpanLinear capacity growth

Meru Innovations -Technology Cornerstones

Application Aware Network

Optimize application

Performance

Virtual PortsPort level control

Provide switch level control

over each client

Wireless LAN Virtualization: Phase I Consolidation

Virtual Cell eliminates physical resource boundaries

Seamless mobility for free;Spatial growth without disruption

Wireless Coverage like “light bulbs”

- Where there is not enough “light”, add more access points.

- No disruption of the existing network or rewiring of surrounding “lights”

- Adjacent “lights” blend together uniformly

- If one “light” goes out, the room still has some light without interruption

Meru Virtual Cell: Pooling of RF Resources into a Single Entity

Leverages Virtual Cell mobilityand predictability

Introduces “switch port” control and granularity to wireless

- One device does not bring down the others

- Eliminates uncontrolled sharing of network resources

Each client appears to get its own dedicated AP throughout the network

Virtual Port provides abstraction of network per device

Meru Virtual Port: Per-Device Extension of Virtual Cell

Wireless LAN Virtualization: Phase II Partitioning

Microcell vs Meru’s Virtual Port Analogy

Microcell: All users share the same road, no prioritization, experience

determined by other traffic

Meru Virtual Ports: Each users has their own road and their own

experience

WLAN Virtualization

• Lowers cost of operations• Grow as you go• Reliability• Seamless Mobility

•Network is in control•Highly Predictable•Increased Security•Improved Management &

Diagnostics

Network is customized per client•Port-level control•Port-level services and access

… and its benefits

Pool RF Resources

Partition RF Resources

Virtual Cell

Virtual Port

Customize RF Resources

Pre-802.11Proxim

RangeLAN

Access

Connectivity

Fat APCisco Aironet

Standardization

ConnectivitySecurity

Interoperability

MicrocellCiscoAruba

Centralization

ConnectivitySecurity

InteroperabilityManagement

Coverage

Virtual PortMeru

Virtualization

ConnectivitySecurity

InteroperabilityManagement

CoverageSeamless Mobility

DeploymentReliability

PredictabilityExtensibility

Virtual CellMeru

Coordination

ConnectivitySecurity

InteroperabilityManagement

CoverageSeamless Mobility

DeploymentReliability

Evolution of Wireless LANs

Built upon from older generationIntroduced by the generation

Legend

From Microcell to Virtual PortFrom no control to complete control

Complex RF Planning

More APs

Client control

No Port Isolation

Client finds its own AP

Microcell WLAN Virtualized WLAN

Zero RF Planning

Fewer APs

100% Network control

Port Isolation

Virtual Port follows the client

Top Reasons K-12 Schools and Districts choose Meru

Meru Feature Value

Virtual Cell Single Channel and Channel Spans

No RF channel planning or site survey Fewer APs per square foot (less wires/sw ports) Lowest TCO

Client Density per AP Exceptional user experience in dense environments (classrooms)

1 AP per 100+ Students Less hardware & cost

True Air-Time-Fairness No starved clients All students can connect and stay connected No lost class time

Best mixed mode performance No performance penalty with b/g/n clients Eliminates expense to upgrade old clients

Seamless roaming No dropped connections of roaming devices Eliminates frustration of dropped calls

Supports high quality video Enables high quality video in classrooms Enables video surveillance of students/facilities Eliminates the needs of wires and wired devices Leverages the WLAN providing greater ROI

Provides Toll quality calls Provides high quality, secure communications between administration and teachers

Provides communications during emergencies

WLAN Virtualization Overcomes Challenges for the Wireless Edge

Simpledeployment, planning, analysis, changes

Predictable

Reliableconnectivity, performance, diagnostics

Extensible

ChallengesSolution: WLAN Virtualization

No channel/power planningNetwork looks “invariant”No RF or network tuning

Users sandboxedNetwork ControlSwitch-like experience

RF redundancyHigh reliability- channel layersSeamless Mobility, no hand-off

30% fewer APs than micro-cellCost-effective growth via poolingLayer channel to grow incrementally

coverage, performance, mobility

cost effective growth as devices, apps evolve

Case Study: St. Agnes Academy Density and New Applications

Profile Founded in 1906, St. Agnes is a high school for

women in Houston

Implemented one-laptop, one student policy – with approx 1300 laptops

Challenge Old building with chicken wire in the walls made the

signal propagation unpredictable

Could not support high density of simultaneous users with predictable connectivity and performance

Solution Implemented Meru in 2006 to support high density

and new applications

Wireless projectors

Wireless Video Cameras for Surveillance

Meru has not only given us the capacity and performance, but it has made managing the network much easier than it ever was before.

Jason Hyams, director of technology

Case Study: Baltimore County Public Schools Video Streaming, District-wide Deployment

Profile 171 Schools, 15 million square feet

105,000+ students

Challenge Support digital media instructional tools

High density of users in classrooms and labs

Support for video streaming applications

Solution Implemented Meru 5-30 APs and a controller in each

building starting in summery 2007

Over 2000 Access Points have been installed by start of 2008 school year

"Meru's Air Traffic Control technology also gave us switch-like performance with no co-channel interference, even when we installed additional APs to fill coverage gaps.

With their single-channel approach there's no need for channel planning, it's easy for the BCPS technical staff to manage."

Case Study: School District of PhiladelphiaLarge, Distributed School District

Profile Top 10 national K-12 school district with

273 schools and > 217,000 students

Challenge Establish a next generation “School of The

Future”- 100% mobile teaching and learning environment

Support secure, converged data, voice and video

High-performance, high density, everywhere

Solution Meru WLAN

- Maximum bandwidth and highest density

Application fairness — over-the air QoS

90+ Schools with approximately 30,000 radios have been deployed in 2007-8. 90+ additional schools to be deployed by September 2009

"Charged with the fundamental mission of providing our students and teachers with state-of-the-art computing capable of supporting high-bandwidth instructional applications, the District is confident that Meru Networks has established a framework for wireless networking that will comfortably scale to satisfy our educational needs as demand grows.

The entire school district now has an easy-to-manage, scalable wireless network that accommodates our high-density demands.“- Deputy CIO

“With Meru's technology and 11n's performance and reliability, I'm confident in using the wireless network not just as an adjunct to my wired network, but as the primary network for high-stakes activities such as student testing.”

- Brad Fischer, Director of Technology, Danville Public Schools

Thank You

Meru Addresses Education’s Most Challenging Wireless Issues

Meru Approach Other Approaches

Deployment • Single-channel eliminates complex and costly RF channel planning

• No need to re-plan the entire network to accommodate Moves/Adds/Changes

Traditional microcell deployment requires heavy RF channel planning and power management of access points that only last until the next move/add/change

User Density • True Air Time Fairness algorithms ensure that all clients get high-quality performance

Random access prevents large number of users from accessing the network efficiently—only a few users get desired performance while other experience delay and erratic quality. The more clients, the worse the performance

Real-time Applications Support

• Virtual Cell eliminates co-channel interference, coordinating all access points to behave as a single, distributed access point, supporting seamless roaming for real-time applications

• Supports up-stream and down-stream QoS required by wireless voice and video

• Clients make roaming decisions between APs on different channels with Microcells. Due to air time contention, roaming times are highly variable, ranging from 100ms to seconds

• No upstream QoS limits support advanced applications

Investment Protection

• Full backwards compatibility for a/b/g/n• Built-in scale with channel layering capability,

allowing customers to double/triple network capacity by simply adding APs to high-use areas

• Limited backwards compatibility—single B client can impact performance of G clients and same is true for a/b/g clients in 802.11n networks

• Difficult to scale due to inherent tradeoff between coverage and throughput—AP cells must be reduced to support greater throughput but as AP cells get smaller, channel interference among APs increases

Uncoordinated “Hub” Access Points Coordinated “Switch-like” Access Points

Unreliable Connectivity

Co-Channel interference

Client is in control: Ping-pong and sticky client issues

Performance Degrades with density

High Reliability and Performance: unique Virtual Cell™ and Virtual Port technology

Manages co-channel interference

Infrastructure control of client associations and handoff

Reliable performance even with density

Higher Complexity and Cost of Operations

Complex RF and power planning

Periodic site surveys

Constant tuning of network

Simple Deployment and Operations

No RF/channel planning

No need for periodic surveys

Wireless as a “utility”

Other WLANs Meru’s Virtualized WLAN

Meru Has Superior WLAN Architecture

X

Client is in Control

Infrastructure is in

Control