The higher education landscape in America is getting increasingly more competitive for faculty, students, and finding funding. This article discusses how building a robust network will benefit your school and give you the most for your budget.

How Networks Can Help

Networks can be a surprisingly effective selling tool for prospective students who are trying to choose which university to attend. A robust network with strong coverage throughout campus can improve the quality of life and give prospective students an excellent first impression.

If the university has on-campus housing, a strong network connection in these buildings will increase student satisfaction for both educational and leisure pursuits. Students will be satisfied with their living facilities, ensuring a fixed revenue stream for the university.

Additionally, a strong network can help students outside the campus. More students are now drawn to the flexibility and convenience of fully online education. A strong network core will enable you to enrich their virtual learning experience. Offering a strong online curriculum can help expand and diversify the student base with little cost.

How WDM Can Help

As shown here, passive WDM can help add bandwidth to networks without increasing additional fiber. For example, if there is a 10G link between two key locations on campus, a simple set of filters can increase the effective bandwidth of this link to 40G, 80G, or even 400G.

WDM offers smaller colleges and universities the following benefits:

• Customization: Regardless of how many channels are needed, there is a filter set that is exactly right for your needs.
• Reliability: Small campuses have limited capacity IT departments (sometimes just one person), which means time is of the essence. Passives require little to no maintenance once they are deployed. Their simple design means there is no need to worry about compatibility with your existing network equipment. Their durable construction also makes them built to last.
• Affordability: Compared to upgrading your entire network, introducing active WDM (or adding additional fiber) or passive WDM products is a more budget-friendly solution.

Ready to start finding the right WDM solution for you? Let’s get started with a preliminary consultation.