International School of Monaco Builds a Wi-Fi 7 Campus Network to Light Up the Future of Education

William Butler Yeats，one of the greatest Irish poets, once coined a famous saying: Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.

Located on a beautiful coastline, the International School of Monaco (ISM) ranks among the top 15 schools in Europe and has been named one of the best schools in the world by Carfax Education. With more than 800 students split across primary to secondary schools, ISM is committed to providing an international education of excellence and inspiring individual innovation. The school is also dedicated to making students happy, confident, independent, multilingual, and responsible global citizens.

Thanks to the development of digital education and distance learning, studying is no longer limited by place and time. New technologies such as Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality (AR/VR) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) have made classrooms a lot more interesting, bringing a whole new dimension of personalized teaching and fostering innovative thinking among students. With the help of AI and big data, teachers can easily gain insight into a student’s learning progress and ensure adequate teaching methods to get the best results.

These emerging educational methods are changing the way teachers and students learn and communicate on campus, allowing students to experience a more authentic digital world with modern technology. They also bring an immersive experience to people in the physical world through digital connectivity and interaction. While acquiring knowledge, students naturally form the habit of using advanced tools such as supercomputing, AI, and big data to understand, analyze, and change the world.

ISM has been at the forefront of education excellence, with its innovative approach of a "one-to-one" device program that makes a diverse and personalized teaching experience available everywhere. Every student is equipped with a laptop or tablet, so that they can easily access all of the school's learning resources, connect to interactive whiteboards in classrooms, and enjoy educational websites for homework.

A best-in-class campus network is the cornerstone of future education. ISM is committed to using the most advanced network technologies to serve all teachers, students and staff.

To upgrade its campus network, ISM chose Huawei's High-Quality 10 Gbps CloudCampus Solution. Huawei's Wi-Fi 7 AP (AirEngine 8771-X1T) and CloudEngine S5732-H multi-GE switches, as well as modular deployment and intelligent Operations and Maintenance (O&M) features are integral to this solution.

Europe's first Wi-Fi 7 campus network

ISM built a future-proof Wi-Fi 7 wireless network across classrooms, conference rooms, and auditoriums. This is the first Wi-Fi 7 campus network in Europe, which is made possible with Huawei's first enterprise-class AirEngine Wi-Fi 7 AP and multi-GE switches.

In classrooms, Huawei AirEngine 8771-X1T Wi-Fi 7 AP provides a record-high rate of 18.67 Gbps, twice the maximum rate of Wi-Fi 6. This ultra-high speed empowers teachers and students with smooth and fast online teaching, virtualized teaching, and interactive teaching.

Huawei AirEngine 8771-X1T Wi-Fi 7 AP also makes a difference in conference rooms and auditoriums. With built-in dynamic-zoom smart antennas, this Wi-Fi 7 AP enables always-on signals for users and creates a ubiquitous wireless network featuring high-density coverage and stable connections.

Quick service rollout, intelligent and visualized O&M

ISM also deployed Huawei iMaster NCE-Campus, a next-generation autonomous driving network management and control system for campus networks. iMaster NCE-Campus enables plug-and-play devices and minute-level network provisioning. With it, ISM quickly upgraded its network and brought services online within just 2 months.

Another unique feature of iMaster NCE-Campus is the network digital map, which creates three-dimensional visibility into four levels: networks, terminals, users, and applications. This radically changes from the traditional static topology-based O&M mode to the dynamic high-definition digital map-based O&M mode. The resulting benefits include full insight into network status and higher campus network O&M efficiency.

Wi-Fi 7, the new generation of Wi-Fi technology, is set to fuel a new wave of technological change in the education industry and light up the future of education filled with innovation and possibilities. With unmatched software and hardware strengths, Huawei is committed to becoming a digital partner for global education institutions. That's why Huawei has been aspiring to bridge the "digital divide" and provide a solid digital foundation for digital transformation across the education industry.