Farnham Castle deploys self-adjusting wireless internet access

Staff at Farnham Castle Conference Centre in Surrey have overcome challenges at the 900-year-old site by implementing a self-regulating wireless network for visitors.

The challenge was providing a local area network with reliable connectivity despite stone walls of up to three metres thick in places, and at the same time using as few wireless access points as possible to meet strict English Heritage guidelines, said Matthew MacLachlan, IT support manager at Farnham Castle.

The Aruba system secures traffic between the access points and the core switch and between laptop computers and the access points. It includes adaptive radio management software, which automatically adjusts the frequency and power of the access points.

"This feature is particularly good at delivering a quality signal in what we thought would be a very difficult environment," said MacLachlan.