For Immediate Release: 27-Nov-2007
PHILADELPHIA - The School District of Philadelphia (SDP), the eighth largest school district in the U.S., is now providing wireless Internet access at every school in the district in one of the world's largest installations of wireless local area networks (WLAN) in production today. As announced today by Meru Networks, the leader in workplace mobility infrastructure, and Avaya Inc., a global leader in business communications applications, software and services, the school district's WLAN provides access to secure converged data, voice and video application services in nearly 268 schools for more than 166,000 students and 10,000 teachers. The project is a joint effort of Avaya and Meru Networks, which deployed more than 7,000 Meru Networks Radio Switches – the equivalent of 14,000 wireless access points and more than 28,000 radios. Avaya provides SDP with communications applications and services and was the system integrator for the project, along with H. J. Heinz Company. Using Wi-Fi-ready laptops, teachers wirelessly access online resources to support curriculum development and delivery, as well as advanced educational applications for benchmark testing and data-driven decision-making. Meru's 4th generation technology has enabled the district to future-proof the connectivity needs of students and faculty accessing converged voice, video and data applications simultaneously. The entire wireless network is conveniently and easily managed by the District's network administrators. "Charged with the fundamental mission of providing our students and teachers with state-of-the-art computing capable of supporting high-bandwidth instructional applications, digital curriculum, electronic benchmark assessments and on-line remedial tools, 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," said Bob Westall, deputy chief information officer, The School District of Philadelphia. "With the support of Avaya and Meru, the entire school district now has an easy-to-manage, scalable wireless network that accommodates our high-density demands." "The new wireless network at the Philadelphia School District offers significant value for educational delivery and for preparing students for the future," said Kevin Cook, vice president, North America, Avaya. "This large-scale WLAN deployment supports the city-wide re-engineering of a K-12 educational experience. Avaya is very focused on providing solutions to educational institutions that enable and enhance the student and teacher experience. We are excited that our partnership with Meru is delivering on that commitment." Meru Networks' wireless technology was initially chosen to provide the wireless infrastructure for the "School of the Future" project, a 2005 initiative led by Microsoft and the School District of Philadelphia. Using technology to transform education, the School of the Future has become a global educational showcase for schools worldwide to better prepare students for college and joining today's modern mobile workforce. Meru's WLAN delivers a high capacity network for pervasive access to multimedia learning applications, online curriculum and instructional content. The Meru Radio Switch, RS4000, is based on Meru's award-winning Air Traffic Control Technology and is an ideal platform for high density environments requiring full Quality of Service (QoS), secure access to converged applications such as video streaming, toll-quality voice and data and multiple channel spans for high capacity. Using Meru's patent-pending wideband omni-directional antenna technology, RS4000 is able to securely serve 802.11a/b/g channel bands and increase the total WLAN capacity by up to 400 percent in any given area. "The School District of Philadelphia's visionary initiative to transform its educational environment required a reliable, secure, high performance solution that delivers scalability and quality of service, with rapid, easy deployment and operation," said Kamal Anand, senior vice president of marketing, Meru Networks. "Not only does Meru's Mobile SCALE solution resolve the problems and challenges inherent in legacy WLAN architectures, it provides unmatched total cost of ownership for wireless networks that are increasingly supporting converged mission-critical applications." About Meru NetworksMeru Networks is the global leader in wireless infrastructure solutions that enable the All-Wireless Enterprise. Its industry-leading innovations deliver pervasive, wireless service fidelity for business-critical applications to major Fortune 500 enterprises, universities, healthcare organizations and local, state and federal government agencies. Meru's award-winning Air Traffic Control technology brings the benefits of the cellular world to the wireless LAN environment, and its WLAN System is the only solution on the market that delivers predictable bandwidth and over-the-air Quality of Service with the reliability, scalability, and security necessary to deliver converged voice and data services over a single WLAN infrastructure. Founded in 2002, Meru is based in Sunnyvale, California. For more information, visit www.merunetworks.com or call (408) 215-5300. About Avaya
Avaya delivers Intelligent Communications solutions that help companies transform their businesses to achieve marketplace advantage. More than 1 million businesses worldwide, including more than 90 percent of the FORTUNE 500®, use Avaya solutions for IP Telephony, Unified Communications, Contact Centers and Communications-Enabled Business Processes. Avaya Global Services provides comprehensive service and support for companies, small to large. For more information visit the Avaya Web site: http://www.avaya.com. # # # | 
