LETCHWORTH GARDEN CITY FLOURISHES WITH EXTREME NETWORKS

Published 18th September 2008

Extreme Networks today announced that Letchworth Garden City (LGC) is using its Altitude wireless access points and Summit WM2000® switches to provide wireless network access in its two managed offices, the Spirella and Nexus buildings. The Summit switches and Altitude access points provide added security to ensure that the offices are safe from rogue wireless networks, providing access to unwanted visitors.

The LGC was founded in 1903 and is situated in North Hertfordshire and comprises of a modern mix of offices, shops, factories, houses, farms and community amenities and land over its 5,500 acres. It is the world’s first Garden city and is the inspiration for the government initiative to build a further 10 garden cities by 2020.

To provide first class IT infrastructure to support the buildings, GCT was looking to deploy a centralised Wireless LAN (WLAN) to overlay the existing wired data network and support both the Letchworth Garden City Foundation staff as well as 25 business tenants in the offices. The buildings operate as fully managed business centres with an eclectic range of businesses. They provide home European Headquarters for international businesses and client-facing branch offices to companies such as IP Solutions, AMT Sybex and Groupama.

“We spoke with our service provider, Synetrix and presented it with what we wanted from the WLAN. Our aim was to provide a secure wireless network for both the occupants, the foundation employees and visitors to the offices,” says the Head of Garden City Technologies, Leon Brydges. “A key requirement was to support a multi-tenant environment, without segregating the wireless and wired networks and to provide Wi-Fi access to all the users.”

To support the WLAN, Synetrix implemented Extreme Networks’ Summit WM and Altitude® access point technologies to manage 64 separate wireless access points across the two buildings. LGCHF had already enjoyed the benefits of Extreme Networks’ switching solutions since 1997, making the Summit WM2000® an ideal choice to support the wireless network.



“We reviewed the existing solution and thought that the Summit WM2000® would be the ideal choice to support the wireless network,” says Synetrix Account Manager, Duncan Ward. “It provides the flexibility and scalability required in a fast changing wireless environment.”


“We are delighted to build on our relationship with LGC and to be providing them with a mobility solution that exceeded their requirements,” says Extreme Networks’ Regional Director for UK and Ireland, Paul Phillips. “Mobility is vital in enabling modern business’s to remain agile. Our solution clearly demonstrates that Tenants, Visitors and Foundation staff can enjoy mobility in a secure and scalable way.


Extreme Networks, Inc.

Extreme Networks designs, builds, and installs Ethernet infrastructure solutions that help solve the toughest business communications challenges. The company’s commitment to open networking sets us apart from the alternatives by delivering meaningful insight and unprecedented control to applications and services. Extreme Networks believes that openness is the best foundation for growth, freedom, flexibility and choice. The company’s focus is on enterprises and service providers who demand high performance, converged networks that support voice, video and data over a wired and wireless infrastructure. For more information, visit: http://www.extremenetworks.com.

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