Digitization of a school
4th December 2020 | The digitization of schools is still at the very beginning in Germany, but is of crucial importance in view of the current Corona situation. One of the first and most important tasks is to connect classrooms to the Internet. Only then can students and teachers use digital learning content and end devices sensibly. In order for a nationwide and powerful WLAN network to be created for all classrooms, the various WLAN access points must be connected by cable. Pure radio technology is not sufficient. It is an enormous challenge to install new cables. Because in addition to expensive construction measures, ongoing operations are interrupted. And new fire protection reports have to be drawn up for new cables. Existing components or cables may have to be replaced.In short, it becomes expensive and difficult to calculate. However, many schools have an unused treasure: a coaxial cable network. In the 80s and 90s it was structural standard to lay such a copper cable. A gigabit network can now be operated via this TV cable. AXING offers the technologies Ethernet-Over-Coax or DOCSIS suitable for every object size.
CMTS for Gigabit Internet via the existing TV cable
It was also realized in Großmehring near Ingolstadt by Euronics Daubmeier. The local school was able to supply 16 classrooms with fast internet in no time and without any structural activities. An AXING CMTS (Cable Modem Termination System) is used for this. The system is a professional DOCSIS solution (Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification). The same technology is used by the large cable network operators. Up to 1,000 modems can be supplied in a network.
Left: AXING CMTS in the rack with patch panel | Right: The coaxial outputs of the CMTS are fed into the cable network suitable for return channels
The modems and the CMTS are connected via the existing coaxial cables. The antenna sockets and distributors were replaced with components suitable for the return channel. Common cable routers with WiFi are connected as modems. In each classroom, 30 tablets network via WLAN with a Fritzbox 6660. Separate subnets for administration and teachers have been created. An expansion by 17 additional rooms and public WiFi are still planned.
Measurement of the back channel in the school’s technical room
Teachers and students are excited about the new opportunities. The community as a school authority is particularly pleased about the rapid implementation at a fraction of the cost of rewiring. The entire project was realized by the installer in 20 hours. The provisioning of the modems or Fritzboxen, d. H. the provision of all the mechanisms that the cable modems need to get online takes over the AXING CMTS via the integrated provisioning server in the currently very simple architecture. The system therefore works autonomously, without additional server architectures and complex software tools.
AXING was always at the side of the executing company with advice and action. In addition to the provision of the required hardware by AXING as a full-range provider, high-quality services such as measuring the RF of the network including the return channel quality as well as an acceptance and approval measurement of the system at the end of the implementation phase were also included in the project. Data rates up to 1,600 Mbps are now possible via the AXING solution. Digitization of the school was made possible in a very short time.
