Gloucestershire NHS rolls out new Wi-Fi network to improve reliability, scalability, and coverage

Aruba's 802.11n high-speed networks have also been deployed in the administrative offices of NHS Gloucestershire to support data access, wireless Voice over IP and guest connectivity. Prior to selecting a vendor for these sites, the Trust conducted an extensive technical review of single and multi-channel wireless LANs. Aruba's adaptive multi-channel Wi-Fi was more scalable, its Adaptive Radio Management (ARM) easier to deploy, and the network was more easily managed than competing systems. The network is supplied, installed and supported by Aruba Platinum Partner, Vanix.

'Our priority is to deliver an infrastructure that enables improvement in clinical care,' said Steve Edwards, head of IT development services at Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. 'It is generally recognised that mobile access to applications and services improves efficiency in a clinical environment – saving several hours a week of clinical time. That equates to clinicians seeing more patients, spending more time with patients, and patients spending less time waiting for treatment. The Aruba network is the cornerstone of a flexible IT infrastructure that allows us to deploy mobile applications whether it is based on imaging (PACS), data (administration applications) or voice over IP.'

Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has found Aruba's solution to be straight-forward to deploy, reliable, easy to use. Adaptive Radio Management (ARM) technology lowers deployment and maintenance costs by automating site surveys and using infrastructure-based controls to optimise the performance of Wi-Fi clients in real-time. This feature simplifies the work of the Trust's IT team; installation of access points is done by a single technician, and the automated RF management feature ensures faultless performance despite a plethora of neighbouring consumer wireless networks.

'Aruba won our technical evaluation on all points,' continued Edwards. 'In practice, the Aruba equipment is ‘self contained'; it goes in and works the first time. It doesn't need any tweaking by our staff, and as a result has a low total cost of ownership. From an architectural viewpoint, ARM is a better solution than a single channel model, both with regard to interference mitigation and because it's standards based and not proprietary. The proof is in the deployment results – our implementation team find the Aruba wireless LAN easy to deploy, highly reliable, and readily scalable.'

'Gloucestershire Hospitals' experience is proof positive that Aruba can lower the IT overhead, and the life cycle cost, of a wireless LAN,' said Bob Vickers, sales director for Aruba Networks UK and Ireland. 'New access points can be added as and wherever needed, and the network infrastructure will automatically ensure that they work optimally. This frees the IT staff to work on other projects, and the wireless network looks after itself.'