Recently, the Tibet Autonomous Region’s Ali District Education Bureau and Huawei signed a cooperation agreement. Huawei will deploy all-optical campus networks for the six county-level middle schools in Geji, Zada, Tsaoqin, Nichitu, Gaize, and Puland in the Ali region to form the Ali region, forming the foundation and important components of the Digital Campus project. After the network is completed, the optical fiber can directly reach school classrooms, desks, dormitories and canteens. It provides high-speed network experiences of wired and wireless access for teachers and students at school, and supports innovative teaching such as remote teaching, collaborative learning, and immersive learning activities and support collaborative and efficient management of educational resources.

“Digital Campus” is an important education platform in the Ali region. We hope to break through natural conditions and regional restrictions through network connections, and allow advanced education concepts, rich education resources, and more outstanding educators to “walk into” Tibetan areas and let our children in the plateau enjoy the same educational opportunities. We hope to deepen cooperation with Huawei in the future, explore the deep integration and innovation of digital technology and education environment on the basis of the all-optical campus network, and jointly promote the education information reform in Ali.” Zun Zhujiacuo, Engineer of Digital Campus Project in Ali District said.

“Huawei is committed to bringing the digital world to everyone, every family, every organization, and building a smart world where everything is connected. Education is the foundation of the country. We are honored to participate in the construction of the digital campus in the Ali region.  In the future, we will continue to take root in Tibetan areas, cover more optical connections to more campuses, and provide a leading ICT infrastructure for general education in the Tibetan area.” Jin Zhiguo, President of Huawei’s Enterprise Transmission and Access Field said.

Ali area is located on the western border of the Tibet Autonomous Region. The average altitude is over 4,500 meters, the annual average temperature is only 0 degrees, and the temperature difference between day and night is extremely great. Due to extreme natural conditions and transportation restrictions, for a long time in the past, the school’s overall information infrastructure was weak, educational resources were insufficient, the teaching model was single, and resources could not be shared. In order to change this situation, in recent years, the Ali District Education Bureau has increased its investment in information, and has launched a series of initiatives, including a series of innovative initiatives.

In order to support modern teaching methods such as distance education, online learning, e-classroom, and electronic whiteboard, building a high-speed and stable campus network has become a primary requirement. When choosing a network construction plan, the Education Bureau pays most attention to three factors:

First of all, it is necessary to achieve Wi-Fi wireless signals to cover every corner of the campus, meet mobile office, support learning experience anytime, anywhere;

Second, the bandwidth of the park should meet the needs of information-based teaching, speed up and increase intelligence, and support the future evolution of smart education;

Last but not least, the Ali region has poor natural conditions, frequent power outages, and the lack of professional technicians. Once the equipment fails, network operation and maintenance become difficult. Therefore, schools need to choose stable and reliable, simple operation and maintenance to build network scheme.

After research and testing, the Ali District Education Bureau decided to adopt Huawei’s all-optical campus solution. Based on a minimalist POL (passive optical local area network) architecture, the all-optical network directly connects WiFi terminals and core switches; at the same time, through Huawei eSight (network management software) intelligently manages network devices in different forms, greatly reducing the difficulty of operation and maintenance. The main value of the solution:

The long service life of optical fiber and the ability to evolve and upgrade the all-optical network will enable schools to develop rich teaching activities in the future with strong network support.

The network architecture is simple, with only two layers, and the optical fiber is directly connected to the classroom and dormitory from the core computer room of the school; and passive equipment replaces powered equipment, which can reduce 80% of weak electricity, save a lot of wiring and power costs, and reduce equipment failure nodes.

Operation and maintenance is simple. An ordinary faculty member without IT expertise can also maintain the entire campus network. Facing the complexity of the business, the school does not have to worry about the increase in operation and maintenance costs.