PMFORUM Breaking News
Breaking News in the Project Management World
Wednesday, September 01, 2010
Thailand's Largest Buddhist Temple Goes Wireless
Ruckus
Wireless, a US-based wireless technology provider, has announced the
completion of a project to deploy wireless technology at Thailand's
largest Buddhist Temple, Wat Phra Dhammakaya. The deployment of Ruckus
Smart Wi-Fi products and technology throughout the massive 80-acre
facility was completed in August 2010.
Situated
at Tambol Klongsam, Klonglaung District, Pathumthani Province, Wat Phra
Dhammakaya serves the congregation on Sundays and also hosts major
religious festivals that attract over 100,000 devotees to the temple.
These festivals created the need to set up service booths and video
surveillance systems for crowd control, driving Wat Phra Dhammakaya to
look for an effective solution for supporting all these important
applications by a robust Wi-Fi network.
The Ruckus Smart Wi-Fi system now supports operations and communications systems used for worship services by over 100,000 devotees, especially during major festival events. To cover its facilities, the temple has deployed a centrally managed wireless LAN (WLAN) system that includes 56 Ruckus ZoneFlex outdoor Smart Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n access points (APs) managed by a single ZoneDirector WLAN controller.
"Cost, performance and ongoing operation support were all major concerns for the temple," said K. Kanokphoom Kantachai, Project Manager of Pantex Computer, which was appointed by the temple to offer all computer and network systems. "Providing Wi-Fi coverage across an 80-acre temple campus was unprecedented. Wat Phra Dhammakaya temple needed wireless network equipment that could go beyond just providing basic Internet access, offering stable wireless connections for its point-of-sale terminals and IP phone systems."
"We picked several major brands' Wi-Fi equipment and conducted trials of the POS terminals and phones during a devotees' gathering. Throughput, range and stability of the WLAN equipment were then tested. With its high-gain directional antenna array, Ruckus gave us the furthest range of coverage, therefore requiring fewer APs and Ethernet cable drops," Kantachai said.
In
Maharattana Viharnkata, which occupies 1,000 square meters of floor
area for worship, 15 Ruckus ZoneFlex 2942 outdoor APs have been
deployed. Across the Sabhadhammakaya Sakol, which serves as a
functional area, 39 units of Ruckus ZoneFlex 2741 outdoor APs and two
Ruckus ZoneFlex 7762 dual-band outdoor APs are deployed. These APs are
centrally controlled by Ruckus Wireless' ZoneDirector 3000 WLAN
Controller.
"We conducted the trials at festival events so that we could more accurately predict any possible problems," added Kantachai.
"A large percentage of a person's body is comprised of water, which Wi-Fi signals can't penetrate," said Victor Shtrom, co-founder and chief RF architect at Ruckus Wireless. "This causes problems for conventional Wi-Fi systems that have no way to steer signals around such obstacles. With massive numbers of people this presents big problems for standard Wi-Fi."
Going forward, the temple envisages that the Wi-Fi network will support Wi-Fi phones for in-house communication, RFID badges and wireless panel displays for directional signage and monitoring vehicle traffic and parking availability.
"Using cables is expensive and inflexible to support such a massive campus. Setting up service booths and surveillance cameras for large scale worship festivities is too tedious and usually takes days or even weeks to test, configure and set up," said Kantachai. "Only Ruckus offers cable-like reliability for integrating the myriad of network applications seamlessly, quickly and cost effectively."
Headquartered in Silicon Valley in California, Ruckus Wireless is supplier of advanced wireless systems for the mobile networking market. The company markets and manufactures a wide range of indoor and outdoor "Smart Wi-Fi" products for mobile operators, broadband service providers and corporate enterprises. For more information, visit Ruckus Wireless at http://www.ruckuswireless.com.
The Ruckus Smart Wi-Fi system now supports operations and communications systems used for worship services by over 100,000 devotees, especially during major festival events. To cover its facilities, the temple has deployed a centrally managed wireless LAN (WLAN) system that includes 56 Ruckus ZoneFlex outdoor Smart Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n access points (APs) managed by a single ZoneDirector WLAN controller.
"Cost, performance and ongoing operation support were all major concerns for the temple," said K. Kanokphoom Kantachai, Project Manager of Pantex Computer, which was appointed by the temple to offer all computer and network systems. "Providing Wi-Fi coverage across an 80-acre temple campus was unprecedented. Wat Phra Dhammakaya temple needed wireless network equipment that could go beyond just providing basic Internet access, offering stable wireless connections for its point-of-sale terminals and IP phone systems."
"We picked several major brands' Wi-Fi equipment and conducted trials of the POS terminals and phones during a devotees' gathering. Throughput, range and stability of the WLAN equipment were then tested. With its high-gain directional antenna array, Ruckus gave us the furthest range of coverage, therefore requiring fewer APs and Ethernet cable drops," Kantachai said.
"We conducted the trials at festival events so that we could more accurately predict any possible problems," added Kantachai.
"A large percentage of a person's body is comprised of water, which Wi-Fi signals can't penetrate," said Victor Shtrom, co-founder and chief RF architect at Ruckus Wireless. "This causes problems for conventional Wi-Fi systems that have no way to steer signals around such obstacles. With massive numbers of people this presents big problems for standard Wi-Fi."
Going forward, the temple envisages that the Wi-Fi network will support Wi-Fi phones for in-house communication, RFID badges and wireless panel displays for directional signage and monitoring vehicle traffic and parking availability.
"Using cables is expensive and inflexible to support such a massive campus. Setting up service booths and surveillance cameras for large scale worship festivities is too tedious and usually takes days or even weeks to test, configure and set up," said Kantachai. "Only Ruckus offers cable-like reliability for integrating the myriad of network applications seamlessly, quickly and cost effectively."
Headquartered in Silicon Valley in California, Ruckus Wireless is supplier of advanced wireless systems for the mobile networking market. The company markets and manufactures a wide range of indoor and outdoor "Smart Wi-Fi" products for mobile operators, broadband service providers and corporate enterprises. For more information, visit Ruckus Wireless at http://www.ruckuswireless.com.