Unified School Network

Problem

A long-standing school client needed to connect three separate buildings into one reliable campus network. Their requirements were clear:

• Secure connectivity between buildings (no exposed traffic)

• High throughput to support daily operations (Wi-Fi, staff systems, VoIP, cameras)

• Network segmentation to separate student, staff, guest, voice, and security traffic

• Centralized routing and easier management to simplify support and future growth

Solution

Drensys designed and deployed a campus backbone using:

• Ubiquiti point-to-point dish links to interconnect the three buildings with encrypted wireless transport

• Outdoor-rated TOUGHCable for weatherproof, long-term stable cabling between devices and network closets

• A Cisco Catalyst core to implement VLANs + subnetting for security and clean traffic separation

• Native VLAN trunking across the Ubiquiti links, allowing all networks to extend campus-wide without workarounds

Why It Works (Compatibility + Manageability)

• Ubiquiti handles transport (fast, secure building-to-building connectivity)

• Cisco handles enterprise switching (VLAN structure, segmentation, scalability)

• VLANs pass across the wireless backbone like fiber, enabling centralized routing and consistent policies everywhere.

Result

• Three buildings operating as one unified network

• Encrypted inter-building connectivity with high performance

• Campus-wide VLAN segmentation for stronger security and better control

• Centralized routing and simpler management, reducing support time and making expansion easier