Tellabs, a provider of passive optical network (PON) platforms, recently announced at the FETC 2015 educational technology tradeshow that New Mexico's Santa Fe Public Schools (SFPS) system has deployed the company's fiber-based Optical LAN network solution in seven additional schools, bringing the number of schools that benefit from Tellabs' optical LAN technology to eight. By switching to fiber from traditional copper network connectivity options, Tellabs contends that the school system's students and teachers benefit from high-speed Internet and the flexibility they need to take full advantage of digital learning technologies.
Located in Santa Fe, NM, Santa Fe Public Schools were established in 1896 and currently serves an area covering 1,016 miles in Northern New Mexico. SFPS provides a quality learning experience for about 14,000 K-12 students across 35 schools. At each school in the new fiber network deployment, Tellabs says its Optical LAN converges voice/VoIP, data, video, Wi-Fi, security, and other services onto a single fiber and centralizes all network management functions. This gives teaching staff the flexibility to tailor the classroom and learning tools to evolving student needs and provides students with high-speed access to digital learning tools, including e-learning apps, Wi-Fi and cloud-based networking, via their desktop computers, laptops and smartphones.
“With Tellabs Optical LAN, we built a network infrastructure that has it all – it’s simple, flexible, sustainable and cost effective,” said Elias Bernardino, executive director of the SFPS technology department. “Tellabs Optical LAN enabled us to leverage existing IT resources and reduce costs, and then apply those savings to investments in other areas of education."
The flexibility of the Tellabs Optical LAN infrastructure also enables the SFPS IT staff to easily react to individual needs of each school, adds the company. Tellabs notes that its technology is easy to use, and doesn’t require any additional outsourced IT resources. Because fiber offers nearly unlimited speed and capacity, this infrastructure can easily meet the evolving connectivity needs in the future, making it a more scalable option as well. All of these benefits translate to significant cost savings that schools can use elsewhere. In one school alone, Tellabs contends that its Optical LAN cost $60,000 less than the copper-based solution. SFPS also realized cost savings in square footage as well by eliminating the need for seven communications closets that would have otherwise been required. This enabled the district to instead build out a new classroom. Over a 10-year period, SFPS expects to save almost $2.1 million at one school alone, resulting in 80 percent lower TCO.
At each school, the Tellabs Optical LAN was installed by IT system integrator IT Connect.
“As the demand for higher Internet speeds and overall better digital learning experience rises, Tellabs answers with Optical LAN,” said Charlie Stone, vice president of North American sales at Tellabs. “Our innovative solution is simple, flexible and scalable. It gives students fast access to school resources over a future-proof fiber-based infrastructure and schools the confidence in knowing that they are deploying an established technology that improves the overall educational experience.”
