Vendors include Cisco, CommScope, Johnson Controls
Florida’s Ave Maria University is built to withstand the 100-mile-per-hour hurricane winds that are an annual threat in the Sunshine State. Thick concrete walls are in place to protect the college’s students and faculty, but those walls can also jeopardize critical communications during an emergency.
“Cellular coverage was a safety issue,” university operations manager Wally Hedman told CommScope. Hedman turned to the distributed antenna systems vendor as none of the wireless carriers in the area wanted to install a DAS, so the university decided to purchase one itself.
Hedman said by actively distributing the signal, the DAS delivers a strong signal at every antenna no matter how far the antenna is from the signal source, even though the buildings are made of concrete. The DAS supports Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile US and Sprint.
The DAS can grow with the university, thanks to Ave Maria’s extensive fiber network. The university worked with Johnson Controls and Cisco to design and build one fiber and Ethernet network to support climate control, lighting, security cameras, fire alarms, electrical, building-access control systems, voice and data communication. Ave Maria estimates it saved more than $1 million in building costs by eliminating redundant wiring and cabling, and now efficiencies in utility usage are yielding an estimated $600,000 in annual savings.
Unified network, new digital switches
Cisco provided the switches, fiber-optic wireless and IP telephony equipment, as well as interfaces and sensors in all building systems to connect with the Cisco network. Cisco said the network was designed to scale in order to support businesses in the township of Ave Maria with high-speed data voice transfer and internet access.
All systems on the campus can be managed from the network operations center. In addition, the university’s nine buildings are all connected by fiber to the campus Wi-Fi network.
Cisco clearly sees converged networks as a cornerstone of tomorrow’s smart buildings. The company launched a new series of digital switches for smart buildings that combine lighting, security and climate control on one IP network.
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