Alvin ISD | Cisco Meraki (2024)

Alvin Independent School District (ISD) covers 250 square milesin Brazoria County, Texas. Its two high schools, two alternative schools, fivejunior high schools, and fourteen elementary schools serve approximately 19,000students and utilize over 2,500 staff members.

The district initially launched a 1:1 project for junior highstudents, meaning that every sixth, seventh, and eighth grade student had ahandheld computing device in the classroom. Replacing the paper and pencilmodel, students at Alvin ISD read, write, solve problems, and get feedback fromteachers through these devices. In the 2011 school year the district upgradedits technology, offering every junior high student an HP Netbook.

That works out to 4,400 HP Netbooks across the district."We knew our wireless system wasn't going to support the demand thisinitiative would generate," said John Wilds, Alvin ISD's network manager."Last year was pretty successful with the 1:1 project, but it wasdefinitely taxing for the wireless."

Alvin ISD was running HP Procurve with approximately 530 HPaccess points (APs), one per classroom. Because most of the APs weresingle-radio 802.11b/g HP420s, the HP Netbooks were limited to 802.11g speed,and high client density across campus caused problems with connectivity.

The APs also had to be managed individually—a time consumingproject, said Jacob Stewart, Alvin ISD's wireless network technician. Beforethe 1:1 rollout, the network team spent three months manually reconfiguring allof the APs to ensure identical configurations.

To support the wireless access for the Netbooks across fivecampuses, Wilds and Stewart wanted centralized management, high speed, nointerference between closely placed APs, and a minimum capacity of 30simultaneous clients per AP. And, as a school district, cost was a "hugeconsideration," Wilds said.

Wilds and Stewart considered simply upgrading the existing HPsystem, but testing revealed band steering problems—automatically 'steering' 5GHz-capable devices to the 5 GHz spectrum—that they were unable to solve. Theyalso evaluated solutions from Motorola, Aruba, and the Cisco Meraki productline. Motorola's complexity and Aruba's expense made the Cisco Merakiplug-and-play solution immediately appealing. However, Wilds initially hadconcerns about the offsite controller.

"But once I understood that the AP continues to functioneven if it can't communicate with the cloud, that alleviated my concern,"he said. Now he says he appreciates the low-maintenance centralized managementthat the Meraki browser-based dashboard affords.

The Cisco Meraki APs’ mesh functionality also surprised Wilds—ina good way. "We could tell the Meraki line was a whole different kind ofproduct from the initial setup, when the Meraki product representative stackedten APs on top of each other and started doing the configuration. I said, 'Whatare you doing?' because I expected serious channel conflicts, but he told methey're designed to work like that."

To test the throughput of each solution, Wilds and Stewartprepared two rooms with one AP and 90 HP Netbooks in each and then imaged allthe Netbooks. "On pure density hitting back to two APs, the Meraki APswere the best performers," Wilds said. "It's nice to know it'spossible to run 180 Netbooks off two APs with no problem."

Alvin ISD purchased the cloud management licenseand 771Cisco Meraki MR14 APs—enough to replace all the existing APs, improve weakcoverage areas, and offer coverage to campuses that never had it before,including two campuses still under construction.

"Originally we planned to only provide wireless to our 1:1schools,"Wilds said. "But with the affordable pricing of Merakiproducts, we were able to do the entire district."

Deployment took less than three weeks. Once Stewart realized howeasy the AP installation was, he hired student helpers with no formal trainingto do it for him, giving him time to work on other projects. "I showedthem what I wanted, explained what wasn't right in the old system that theycould fix with this new system, and sent them out to do it," Stewart said."It was that easy."

I really think Meraki is the optimal solution for an environment with a high density of clients. John Wilds, Network Manager

Wilds said that the Cisco Meraki products’ unique self-healingarchitecture has given him new insights into his network. For example, the dayafter bringing one campus online, he noticed in the Cisco Merakidashboardthat some of the APs were working as mesh repeaters rather thanrunning in gateway mode. When he investigated the problem, he foundapproximately 50 cables that needed to be reterminated.

"The Meraki APs were diagnosing our bad cables forus," Wilds laughed. "How long were our old APs running on bad cablesand we never knew it?"

Using the easily accessible, data-rich reporting available inthe dashboard, Wilds is able to identify trends in how the network is beingused, as well as how devices are being used. He can then make changes tohow technology is incorporated into classes to maximize its full potential.“One example of this,” Wilds explained, “came from looking at the reports anddiscovering that Netbooks were utilized more when they stayed in a classroom,instead of with a student. So we altered our 1:1 plans, created Netbooksets assigned to classrooms, and consequently saw a dramatic increase inusage.”

Following the recent release of new Cisco Meraki access points,Alvin ISD has deployed over 200 MR18s and 60 MR26s in the high schools andjunior highs. Unprecedented performance designed for high capacity environmentsand a third radio dedicated to providing 24x7 wireless security built into the newAPs provided a clear solution to the growing technology demands on the AlvinISD network. “Having the latest 802.11n technology with the MR18s and MR26s allowsus to serve our increasing client load in a very challenging high-densityenvironment,” Wilds said.

As technology and education needs evolved, so did the use ofdevices in the classroom. With the idea of purchasing devices to matchparticular education purposes, Wilds has created a diverse, device-neutralenvironment. Kindles are being used for reading programs, Chromebooks forcontent formation and consumption, Android and iOS devices for mobility andmedia creation.

The introduction of BYOD into the curriculum is yet anotherbyproduct of being able to blanket the district with easy–to-manage wireless.At first, BYOD was limited to high schools, but Wilds quickly opened it down to6th grade classrooms. “With the dashboard, I can ensure network security andlimit access to appropriate content with custom rules,” he explained. “It’s afirewall, but at the AP level.” The initiative provides increased devicediversity in the classrooms and supplemental technology when needed foreducational programs.

With airtime fairness and auto RF optimization, Wilds doesn’tworry about high density areas. In fact, he encourages students to use thenetwork more. “The high schools were interested in which areas were stronglyusing BYOD and how. It became a competition to see which school couldutilize the network most,” Wilds laughed. “If network usage somehow hitsthe roof, that’s great, it means it’s being used! That’s what it’s therefor and we can always add more Meraki APs if needed.”

Wilds and Stewart say that the beginning of the school year isnormally the most stressful time in managing the wireless network—but notanymore. "We've spent no time at all on wireless issues, and we've had nocomplaints about laptops not connecting," Wilds said. "The way theAPs mesh together and coordinate to get the best signal instead of competingwith each other is a huge benefit. I really think Cisco Meraki products are theoptimal solution for an environment with a high density number ofclients."