Fast Wireless LAN in C.A.R.L.

The new auditorium C.A.R.L. has recently been equipped with the newest in WLAN technology, thus supporting the expanding use of digital media in teaching.

Following a network design developed by the IT Center, a total of 90 WLAN Access Points (APs) were installed throughout the building. You will find most of them mounted on walls. Additionally, in the three big lecture theaters (H01-03), directional antennas were mounted on the ceiling in order to accomodate the large number of users.

For the techies among us, some facts:

  • 802.11ac "Wave 2" standard
  • 5 Gbps uplink for each Access Point
  • 10 Gbps building uplink to the RWTH backbone

For our number crunchers, some more info:

  • 66 WLAN APs with integrated antennas
  • 23 WLAN APs with a total of 45 external antennas:
    • 6 x 30 degree directional antennas
    • 30 x 60 degree directional antennas
    • 8 x 120 degree directional antennas
    • 1 omnidirectional antenna
  • 1 outdoor WLAN AP (4 dipole antennas)

More than 240 man-hours were needed to complete the HW installation

We look forward to good SNRs and high data throughput.

The Networks Department at the IT Center