The Challenge

To provide cost effective connectivity between all schools under the supervision of the USVI Department of Education while overcoming significant geographic obstacles. We were presented with the opportunity to provide a total communication solution to the Department of Education to this multi island based community that is subject to the threat of tropical storms and hurricanes each year along with extreme tropical heat and humidity. These physical challenges required a unique confined design approach. The end result had to be a scalable real time Network.

The Solution
Engineering group first determined viable technology to be RF that would allow for the scalability needed as well as the proper structure and flexibility to accommodate all future applications.
The Outcome
Client is extremely pleased that this project, encompassing several unrelated companies and many technologies, meshed together so well that all goals have been met. The core design was with Ethernet and RF. They turned out to be the best possible choice of substrate and protocol format. Recently this network, in operation successfully for 5 years, needed to upgrade to 11Mbps bandwidth for the original 2Mbps bandwidth with 10Mbps back haul.

The Benefits
The internal design for Ethernet allowed for scalability, and the method of connectivity, wireless, provided for real time scalable bandwidth increments while addressing cost in a positive manner, thus eliminating the direct interaction and billing of circuits from the Telco. One circuit is actually shared in a polling methodology with no degradation of bandwidth thereby reducing the overall TELCO budget by well over 50% of normal cost.
Contact information:
Dr. Clinton Stapleton
Director of Technology
USVI
1-340-775-2250

See Also: US Dept. of Justice's Island Prison 40 miles off Juneau, Alaska gets Tier 1 internet connectivity.