Extreme Networks deployed four Wi-Fi 6E access points in a 1,400-square-meter venue on the campus
The Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA) revealed today that a recent proof-of-concept trial that tested both Wi-Fi 6E and OpenRoaming achieved an impressive maximum download speed of 1.7 Gbps. The trial, which took place at the Polytechnic Institute of Viseu (IPV) in Portugal, utilized the Extreme Networks AP4000 Wi-Fi 6E access point (AP) to enable “immersive, interactive learning experiences” such as 8K video.
The WBA claimed that this trial represents the first-ever demonstration of a Wi-Fi 6E network connected to OpenRoaming. OpenRoaming, developed by Cisco and now controlled by WBA, allows seamless Wi-Fi onboarding from location to location without the need for logins or passwords.
“The trial is a milestone toward a full deployment that will give faculty and students new options for interacting with online resources like video, both in classroom and remotely,” the WBA said. Some of the bandwidth-intensive and latency-sensitive video use cases explored were an 8K video feed across the Wi-Fi 6E network, fast handover for roaming between mobile and Wi-Fi networks and access to online classroom resources for remote learning.
Extreme deployed four of its AP4000 access points in a 1,400-square-meter venue that IPV uses to host events on campus. Broadcom, Intel and Samsung provided laptops, smartphones and tablets enabled with 6E chipsets.
Luís Almeida, the senior network administrator at the Instituto Politécnico de Viseu, said the Wi-Fi 6E network will “open the door” for the campus to increase its usage of “emerging technolog[ies] in the classroom.” He added that the advance Wi-Fi network will leads to more immersion in its labs and increase online resources for students.
“As soon as we are able to roll Wi-Fi 6E out across our entire campus, we know our students, educators, and all who connect to our network will immediately see the benefits of being able to connect in a new, clean spectrum,” he said.
