08 Aug 2016 Curve IT and Purdicom are excited to announce the first, of many, RG Nets deployments in the UK at the British Airways i360 in Brighton
As well as providing support throughout the South East region, Curve IT are now proud to be able to supply RG Nets to their network of customers.
Curve IT were faced with a major task of supplying an end-to-end networking solution to a newly established, multi-million-pound landmark, British Airways i360. With the need to meet a high specification and numerous technical demands, Curve IT needed to project manage the installation of the site-wide WiFi and also, provide IT Support for the entire network.
After already delivering a quick and successful install of critical, high speed internet to the venue, the original remit expanded incessantly. Curve IT eventually became responsible for managing the entirety of the project – not only the technology, but looking after the various contractors involved in the build.
Why RG Nets?
Tasked with setting up a network for a new, major UK based attraction, Curve IT needed a robust, cutting-edge solution that would achieve the following:
- Internet Gateway – capable of supplying dynamic addressing
- Account Management Platform
- Captive Portal
- Guest and Staff Onboarding
- Security Device containing firewalling, threat detection and mitigation, and VPN functionality
- A Single Wireless Network with multiple functions – allowing for different environments
- Bandwidth management
- Ability to gather customer data and analytics
After installing a technology leading WiFi vendor, Ruckus Wireless, and having a requirement for 2000 concurrent users, the RG Nets RS4 device was the best fitting solution. The RS4 felt limitless in what it could offer the customer. Not only acting as the internet gateway for the venue but also serving public WiFi, office access and acting as the venue payment gateway. Also with the use of dynamic VLANs, users and/or devices are all segregated into their own virtual private network.
Guest and staff access is primarily managed via a fully customisable captive portal. The RS4 allows alternative service options such as free public WiFi access, paid for access, or authenticated login for staff & corporate users.
Each network has a policy tied to it, allowing individual splash and landing portals as required, as well as individual traffic shaping options (either limiting available bandwidth, or guaranteeing a minimum bandwidth to individual users, devices and even device types).
RG Nets security features allowed for simple configuration of an IPSec VPN required for some payment operations. In addition, RG Nets’ firewalling features and functionality enable policies to counteract the threat of impact to the site from viruses, malware and DoS attacks. The dynamic VLAN and subnet feature also allows us to place individual public WiFi users in their own network so that they are isolated from one another, both protecting users from attack, and limiting attacks launched by users of this WiFi.
The final challenge was to block access to inappropriate sites. RG Nets allows you to set internal blocks on key words, but also has the capability to incorporate external lists and software to increase content filtering effectiveness.
Curve IT, who were already working with Purdicom prior to this opportunity, were able to utilise the Value Add services Purdicom provided in order to make the RG Nets installation seamless and successful. With our technical engineers able to do the pre-configuration of the RG Nets unit and assist with the installation, everyone was extremely happy with the results and far surpassed expectations. With Purdicom’s help and in-house expertise, Curve IT have completed the RG Nets accreditation at Purdicom’s offices in Oxfordshire.
With the successful implementation of RG Nets for Curve IT in Brighton – they are excited at the prospect of developing and continuing the relationship moving forward.