International Grammar School opened in Randwick in 1984 with the unique educational objective of providing bilingual education from preschool onwards, coupled with the promotion of internationalism, music and racial tolerance. In 1997 the School relocated to new premises in Ultimo.
Situation
The increasing demand for networked educational resources from students and teachers was limited by an insufficient and poorly implemented systems infrastructure. The school’s employees and students were becoming sceptical about whether technology could truly enhance education in school or whether it might always remain a source of frustration and disappointment.
The Missing Link was initially engaged to investigate the cause of poor network performance across the campus, particularly in new classrooms in the recently refurbished east and west school wings. It was found that network stability across the whole school was extremely poor and the new classrooms experienced continuous communication loss with the core network.
A review of the physical infrastructure found that the network poorly planned, with a mix of unmanaged switches and hubs. Additionally, the outer classrooms were being supplied by copper infrastructure despite being well outside the maximum transmission distance.
Solution
The Missing Link engaged with Cisco Systems to design, supply and implement new network switching infrastructure to provide reliable and stable access to network based information resources. Additionally, additional fibre and CAT5 cabling was implemented to extend the reach of the network throughout the three wings of the campus.
