School Management

Local Area Networks in Schools

A Local Area Network (LAN) is the term for linking a number of computers that are distributed between classrooms or school buildings to enable sharing of equipment such as printers, access to data that is held in common storage areas or to access the Internet.

Policies and Standards - Installation Requirements

Schools may need to employ companies to extend, update or improve their Local Area Networks. It is school's responsibility to ensure that technicians they employ are licensed/registered.

It is required by legislation that all cabling in Australia be installed by an ACA (Australian Communications Authority) Registered Cabler. (This includes the creation of fly and patch leads).

Registered cablers can be authenticated via registration cards issued by Licensed Registrars of the ACA. However, it should be noted that an ACA Registered Cabler does not necessarily have the required endorsements for data cabling. Endorsements are usually indicated on the Cablers licence. (Specific endorsements are required for Fibre optic and Cat5E installations).

Schools should verify all of this information before they contract a Cabler to work on their Local Area Network.
Any cabling work installed in schools must comply with the following:

  • Networking Standards
  • Configuration
  • Testing and Certification Requirements

 

Policies and Standards - Networking standards

All cabling services installed in schools are required to meet the current cabling standard for the Department.

As at July 2001, the standard to be used is Category 5E (enhanced) (AS/NZ CLASS D 2000) standards or greater in order to comply with future Gigabit transmission requirements. Coaxial cabled networks are no longer considered suitable for the fast speeds required by 100 Mega-bit (Mb) or Giga-bit (Gb) transmissions.

Category 6 Cabling standards have now been approved by the Cabling Standards Authority and are able to be installed in schools. Category 6 cable has a larger usable bandwidth of 250 mHz compared to 100 mHz of Category 5E. All components used with Category 6 cable must be from the same manufacturer (including patch and fly leads).

All networking completed in schools must employ the current Standards endorsed by the Australian Communications Authority and adopted by the Department which include but are not limited to:

Standard

Title

AS/ACIF S008:2001

Technical Standard 008 Requirements for Authorised Cabling Products.

AS/ACIF S009:2001

Technical Standard 009 Installation Requirements for Customer Cabling (Wiring Rules).

AS/NZS 3080 : 2002

Telecommunications Installations - Integrated Telecommunications Cabling Systems for Commercial Premises.

AS 3084 : 1993

Telecommunications Installations - Telecommunications Pathways and Spaces for Commercial Buildings.

AS/NZS 3085.1 : 1995

Telecommunications Installations - Administration of Communications Cabling Systems.

HB 243 : 2000

Australian Regulatory Arrangements Communications Cabling Manual Module 1.

HB29-2000

Communications Cabling Manual.

AS/NZS 3087 : 2000

Telecommunications Installations - Generic Cabling Systems - (Specification for the testing of balanced communication cabling in accordance with values set out in AS/NZS 3080:2000).

AS/NZS 3086 : 1996

Telecommunications Installations - Integrated Telecommunications Cabling Systems For Small Office/Home Office (SOHO).

 

Policies and Standards - Configuration requirements

School's Local Area Networks must meet the following requirements:

  • All cabling is required to be generated from a patch panel located in a lockable cabinet
  • Centralised switches are required to manage school networks. Switches should be a minimum of 10 Mb with the standard being a 10/100Mb switch.
  • All school LAN's are to be arranged in a star configuration with one cable per allocated computer.
  • All copper cables should be 4 pair UTP (unshielded twisted pair) as a minimum.
  • The maximum length of cable is 90 metres. A 90 metre cable may have up to a further 10 metres of patch or fly leads.
  • Any cables over 100 metres require a fibre optic installation.
  • Fibre optic cables should include 6 fibre cores as a minimum. This provides transmit and receive fibres for 3 separate network connections. As an example, a total of 6 fibres would be required to facilitate separate connections to the Curriculum Network, the Administration Network and a spare network for future contingencies.
  • All cabling must be concealed and protected from vandalism and weather.
  • Underground cable links must be installed in White telecommunications conduit.
  • Each building / wing / or group of portables should have its own lockable centralised networking equipment cabinet for local distribution, which then feeds back to the main communications cabinet. The main communications cabinet can be identified by its connection to the VicOne router.
  • Cabinets should be connected by a minimum of 2 UTP tie cables or a 6 core fibre optic cable.

Schools building new networks should consider the installation of a structured network which combines voice and data networks, thereby reducing the volume of cable and requiring only one contractor to service both systems.

Policies and Standards - Wireless

Wireless technology is a broad category that includes Bluetooth, WiFi and Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs). The potential of wireless technologies in schools rests in the ability to offer freedom of learning location, flexible access to the curriculum network and specific benefits such as a single sign-in between locations (eg. classrooms).

Wireless technology is converging, and in the not too distant future it is anticipated that telephones, Personal Digital Assistants (PDA)s and notebook computers will communicate seamlessly with one another. In Victorian government schools, only the curriculum network may be wireless. Access Points must not be connected to the Administrative network.

What is a wireless LAN (WLAN)?

Wireless LANs are local area networks that communicate using radio technology. They are data communication systems implemented as extensions to wired LANs within a building or a campus. WLANs, commonly provide the last hundred meters of connectivity between the backbone network and the PC.

WLAN using Access points

Wireless networks with a reasonable transmission speed are now a cost effective alternative for Notebook and PC users. Currently, costs range from $80 to $150 for wireless cards and $150 to $800 for Access Points (APs), making the price per point (average 20 points) approximately the same as cabled costs.

The technology is changing quickly and often, and there is a variety of suppliers in the market that schools can choose from. The current rollout of IBM and Apple notebooks have 802.11b wireless functionality built into them. This will continue with the next rollout with the possibility of a 54Mb 802.11b/g functionality available in 2005 rollouts. Some schools have started to implement Wireless Access Points or hubs to allow multiple users to be connected at one time whilst other schools have no connection as yet.

Applications / capability

Wireless solutions are used effectively in heritage style buildings and areas that are difficult to access with cable, but with multiple users connected, they are generally slower and less reliable than standard wired networks. Eventually, all schools will have some level of wireless access.

Architecture

There are three international wireless standards in place as of November, 2003 that differ from each other in speed and frequency:

  • 802.11b - 11 Mb/sec speed in the 2.4Ghz frequency range (most common at present)
  • 802.11g - 54 Mb/sec speed in the 2.4Ghz frequency range (backward compatible to 802.11b)
  • 802.11a - 54 Mb/sec speed in the 5.8Ghz frequency range (smaller range but more suitable if a lot of 2.4Mb interference is causing transmission issues).

It is important to note that there are regulations preventing the use of the 802.11a frequency outside because of potential interference issues (see diagram below).

Most school networks are running 100Mb/sec speed to the desktop, which is much faster than any of the above wireless standards.

At present, a variety of combinations of the three standards are available.

The Department recommends a 802.11 b/g style Access Point to future proof the requirements.

Network design

Design of the network is critical for effective wireless installation. Access Points are provided with software to perform a "site survey" where the best position with the strongest signal can be located and documented. Considerations when locating APs include such things as mounting APs high enough to cover up to three floors in buildings with wooden floors, installing APs away from steel surroundings such as portables or filing cabinets and selecting the correct wireless channels to enable roaming profiles and load share.

Security

Security is a major issue with wireless networking technology, with a risk of intrusion to the school's LAN and VicSmart network along with unauthorised access to the Internet. Wireless products are not provided "secure by default" and vendors offer different ways of securing them. Third party solutions are also available. The Department recommends that the following minimum steps are taken to ensure security.

  1. Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) is turned on
  2. Service Set Identifiers (SSIDs) are turned on
  3. Media Access Control (MAC) addresses of only approved notebooks are enabled in the Access Point.

Correct configuration of wireless technology will minimize this risk. Guidelines for securing wireless technology in a school environment (https://www.eduweb.vic.gov.au/intranet/policies/ictsecurity/bpractice.htm).

Computers can be configured in "peer to peer" or "Infrastructure" mode where they can communicate wirelessly. Peer-to-peer is not a recommended method of connection as files on the computers are not secured from unauthorised access. The most common method is to connect via an Access Point.

Recommended: Infrastructure method

Performance

Performance is another issue with the current technology. Where there are few users, or the wireless device is close to an access point, performance can be as good as standard connection. However, network speed is governed by the Access Point processor speed, RAM, ROM and the slowest wireless device connected to the Access Point.