How Would You Design A Primary School's Network

[boolyn]

I am working in a 3 form entry school. Recently we got the money to re- do the old staggering network infrastructure.

I would love your input on how you would design a school's network infrastructure if you were starting from scratch. I realize this is a very open ended question but I'm looking for you to get as specific as you would like.

We are going to have three mobile laptop (30) trolleys for each floor instead of our ICT room. And 3 iPads trolleys (30 for each floor)

And we got the money to replace all the IWB. We also intend to install a surveillance system.

 

I'm looking for things from the back end server setup all the way to what hardware should be attached to each teacher's PC’s such as an IWB.

 

Funding is from our LA. So, assume there is funding for implementing a good solution with a reasonable price. This shouldn't be considered a project where money is no object but one where technology will be a big part of the children's education like it would be at most modern schools.

 

Many thanks in advance.

[dhicks]

I would love your input on how you would design a school's network infrastructure if you were starting from scratch.

 

We went through pretty much this exercise last summer (by the sounds of it we're about the same size of school as you, in a similar-sized, multi-floor building). We rewired the school for networking - multiple fiber connections between switch cabinets, at least two Cat5e connections to each classroom (one for phone, one for PC). We bought new switches, PoE-capable HP ones, to power both phone handsets and a Ruckus wireless system. We also set some space aside for a proper server cupboard with air conditioning and upgraded some server hardware, although most server-end stuff we already had. Just as a guidline, this cost in the £100,000 area, which we considered quite good for the amount we got done.

 

If doing it again now, I'd put put the physical wiring in just the same, but I'm wondering if an on-site server room cupboard is actually neccesary. I'd be tempted to look at hosting everything offsite in a datacenter at the other end of a fiber connection. We've got a couple of quotes in the region of around £1,000 a month for a fiber connection to a data center and co-location of servers, and that includes a 30 megabit Internet connection from the data center.

[spadam]

Duplicate Thread of http://www.edugeek.net/forums/wireless-networks/137315-how-would-you-design-primary-schools-network.html