CCNP SWITCH/Preparing the Campus Infrastructure for Advanced Services

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Planning for Wireless, Voice, and Video Application in the Campus Network

The Purpose of Wireless Network Implementations in the Campus Network

The motivation behind implementing wireless in the campus network is straightforward: productivity. End users who can access network resources without a physical connection in a meeting, conference room, at lunch, and so on are more productive.

• Productivity: Users gain productivity through the ability to access resources while in meetings, training, presentations, at lunch, and so on.
• Mobility: Users on the go within the campus can be mobile with access to campus resource, such as e-mail.
• Enhanced collaboration: Wireless networks enable enhanced user collaboration through the benefit of a network without wires.
• Campus interconnectivity: Wireless networks have the capability to interconnect remote offices, offsite networks, and so on that cannot interconnect to the campus network over traditional physical network cable.

Wireless network access points usually connect to the access layer of the campus network. However, certain cable plant or physical requirements might require these devices to be connected to the distribution or core layers. Nevertheless, an access point is considered an edge device from a campus networking point of view.

The Purpose of Voice in the Campus Network

The overlying purposes for using voice in a campus network is simple: cost-savings and increased productivity. Most enterprises have jumped onto the VoIP bandwagon and are successfully deploying this technology.