SUNNYVALE, Calif., Jan. 11 /PRNewswire/ -- Meru Networks, the global leader in converged voice and data WLANs, today announced that it has been selected by the University of Miami Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine to provide leading-edge mobility infrastructure to its clinical, research and educational staff, medical students, and visitors of University of Miami Medical Center and its network of clinical facilities throughout South Florida.
Not only will the Meru WLAN infrastructure enable wireless access to e-mail and Internet, it will also support real-time access, to patient data, streaming video and voice communications, facilities and support services programs, and a number of other applications mobilizing the work force. Within the next two years, the network will be scaled to support an estimated 700 to 2200 concurrent wireless connections throughout the medical center, remote clinics, and its affiliated facilities.
"We have a very diverse and dynamic technological environment to support. Our IT team evaluated a number of wireless solutions with an eye toward the future; developing a service available for an entire community comprised of staff, faculty, students, patients and visitors," said John Deeley, Vice President for Administration, Operations and Planning at the UM Miller School of Medicine.
"With coverage requirements of more than 2.5 million square feet and a high degree of application diversity at the Medical Center and remote clinics, we need a WLAN system that is easy to deploy, easy to manage, and can keep up with the dynamic aspects of our leading-edge institution," observed Chris Bogue, Director, Information Technology & Information Security Officer at the Miller School of Medicine.
Why the UM Miller School of Medicine Chose Meru for its interior wireless deployment
The IT staff at the Miller School of Medicine began to execute on its pervasive wireless vision in 2002, when it first deployed wireless access points for student use in classrooms, for mobile access to clinical information systems in hospital operating rooms at the University's Bascom Palmer Eye Institute and University of Miami Hospitals and Clinics / Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center.
However, as the wireless network was expanded for broader coverage and greater breadth of applications, the existing WLAN system could not support the growing user demand. Additionally, when the IT staff deployed indoor access points following a traditional three channel model, changing density requirements and co-channel interference issues required continuous monitoring and readjustment of AP placement, signal strength, and channel selection.
Eventually, the Miller School of Medicine chose the Meru WLAN System -- consisting of Meru's standards-compliant Access Points, the Meru Controller, a centralized gateway that configures, manages, and enforces policies across the entire wireless LAN, and the Meru System Director, an embedded software suite that manages all WLAN system features -- because of its ability to provide reliable service in crowded user environments and because it was the only system that could support single channel operations. With these unique Meru offerings, the Miller School of Medicine was able to eliminate the need for costly site surveys, recurring AP configurations, and on-going channel allocations, resulting in optimal network performance at a far lower cost.
"Meru delivered an easily managed, future-proof system at a significant cost savings," said Bogue. "Its standards-compliant solution supports Quality of Service for real-time applications, single channel operations for co-channel interference mitigation, and the ability to seamlessly integrate with our existing backend infrastructure and security processes."
"Visionary customers such as the UM Miller School of Medicine understand the full potential of the Meru solution in the delivery of mission-critical applications," said Kamal Anand, VP of Marketing at Meru Networks. "By providing the best performance converged WLAN infrastructure, Meru is enabling healthcare and educational organizations to turn mobile computing into a reality."
Visit Meru Networks (Booth #48) at the 2005 Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) Annual Conference and Exhibition.
About Meru Networks, Inc.
Meru Networks is the wireless LAN performance leader, and makes the only enterprise WLAN infrastructure that delivers the service reliability, scalability, security, and ease of use that are essential for pervasive wireless deployments. Offering superior voice performance and subscriber density, Meru's Wireless LAN System is deployed in major Fortune 500 accounts, universities, and healthcare organizations. Meru's unique Air Traffic Control technology provides predictable bandwidth and over-the-air, application-specific QoS to support a wide range of current and future wireless applications. Meru, founded in 2002, is based in Sunnyvale, California. For more information on Meru Networks and its products, visit http://www.merunetworks.com/ or call 408-215-5300.
About the University of Miami Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine
The University Of Miami School Of Medicine is an internationally renowned academic medical center that serves approximately 1,000,000 patients annually in more than 30 specialties. Clinical facilities are located at Jackson Memorial Hospital, University of Miami Hospital and Clinics, Anne Bates Leach Eye Hospital, the Miami Veterans Affairs Medical Center, five primary care centers throughout Miami-Dade County, and a half-dozen area hospitals. The School of Medicine employs almost 6,000 full-time faculty and staff members.
Meru Networks, Inc.CONTACT: Sarah Kim of Meru Networks, +1-408-215-5357, orskim@merunetworks.com; or Michael Schoolnik of Story Communications,+1-415-674-3816, or michael@storypr.com, for Meru Networks
Web site: http://www.merunetworks.com/