Our Fiber WAN Advantages
When it comes to digital learning tools and hybrid or cloud based learning environments, it is not a matter of “If”. It is a matter of which tools, the speed of adoption within a given district and the resulting effect on WAN and internet bandwidth.
Some K-12 school districts are still determining how digital instructional materials fit into their pedagogical approach, and the bandwidth surge is yet to come. Other districts are already seeing bandwidth demands increasing because they have already fully embraced tools like game-based learning, real-time data analytics tools and multiple devices per teacher and student.
No matter where your school district is at on the spectrum of leveraging powerful and engaging learning content, Velocity Fiber provides the ideal network framework to enable the implementation of a student-centered learning model. Our E-rate Category 1 eligible fiber wide area networks are purposely designed for K-12 school districts and provide features to help unlock digital learning.
What Sets Us Apart
Traditional phone and cable providers offer shared fiber infrastructure, but Velocity Fiber delivers 100% dedicated fiber strands for exclusive use by the district. With shared fiber, there is more equipment involved meaning more possible points of failure, less control for the district and other organization’s issues can become your issue if maintenance is required.
Velocity Fiber’s E-rate Category 1 lit and dark fiber WANs are specifically designed to handle your district’s bandwidth requirements today and ensure you have a simple and affordable upgrade path for the future. Your district’s WAN will be able to easily scale and handle emerging technologies, streaming video and cloud learning without ever increasing your monthly bill. You can upgrade anytime mid-term without extending your contract and simply by swapping out the SFP modules in your district’s switches.
Since fiber strands are dedicated to your district, unlike most phone and cable companies, we never install equipment that allows us the ability to share fiber strands between customers and create potential points of failure on the network. The only electronics in our fiber WANs are the SFP modules necessary to light lit fiber solutions.
Besides an issue like a fiber cut with the outside plant fiber, about the only thing that can fail in our network are the SFP modules we provide to our managed leased lit fiber networks. Even then, we provide you with spare modules so that you can quickly swap out the problematic SFP. In less time than it might take to submit a trouble ticket with another service provider, Velocity Fiber can have you back up and running.
Velocity Fiber’s wide area networks (WANs) are inherently more reliable and secure because we do not run your traffic and sensitive student data through any third-party facilities besides district specified locations. In addition, thanks to dedicated fiber, your district’s network traffic is the only data being carried over any fiber strand.
Each edge school location receives 12 fibers exclusively for your school district’s use that home run back to the district’s hub site and are installed and terminated within each building at an entry location determined by you.
Velocity Fiber offers managed leased lit, leased dark, and IRU dark fiber solutions. Generally speaking, the only difference between Velocity Fiber’s lit and dark fiber is who provides the electronics to light the fiber strands. Unlike many fiber providers, Velocity Fiber’s Dark fiber solutions are actually slightly less per month than lit fiber since the customer provides the electronics to light the fiber.
Velocity Fiber’s WAN bandwidth is fully symmetric (same upload and download speeds) to improve the quality of technologies such as VoIP, multi-user collaboration technologies and virtual, augmented or mixed reality platforms. In addition, our WANs are engineered to deliver minimal packet loss, low latency and reduced jitter.
Our fiber WANs do not require any service provider equipment like routers, switches and firewalls reducing the number of potential points of failure. In addition, since our fiber WANs don’t have hundreds or thousands of customers sharing the same fibers, there is rarely a need for us to even touch your outside plant fiber infrastructure. Less hands means less headaches and more uptime.
In our opinion, no one knows your school district’s wide area network (WAN) needs better than you, which is why your school district’s IT department will have unprecedented control over your network at their fingertips. Your team will be able to choose what OSI layer they prefer, determine security measures, traffic prioritization, traffic segmentation across different fiber pairs for security or performance purposes, and set maintenance windows that are convenient for you rather than the provider. In fact, we do not even need to be notified of any of this. That’s what we mean by unprecedented control.
Each edge school site’s fiber strands terminate on their own SFP network module at your district hub site which means you’ll have a true home run connection all the way through the WAN. You’ll never have to worry about bottlenecks at the hub site and each location can transfer data at full speed at any time and all the time.
Velocity Fiber’s networks are proactively monitored by redundant NOCs 24x7x365, and in the unlikely event there is an issue, our outside fiber plant partners serve as our local presence in the market. In addition to helping keep our overhead and the district’s prices down, Velocity Fiber partners with leading OSP companies in the construction and ongoing maintenance of your network because of their local knowledge and relationships as well as our desire to put money back into the local community.
In addition, if optional services are ever desired by the school district, Velocity Fiber offers monitoring of servers, interfaces, devices and applications including support of all equipment manufacturers. Our dedicated and experienced managed services team will work to isolate, diagnose and remediate the fault. Thanks to an advanced ticket managing system (TMS), customized reporting and API integration, you’ll also receive progress tracking and notification.
Velocity Fiber vs Traditional Providers
| Features | Velocity Fiber | Traditional Providers |
|---|---|---|
|
Upgrade WAN bandwidth without increasing monthly price |
ALWAYS |
NEVER |
|
Monthly price drops significantly in renewal or extension terms |
USUALLY |
RARELY |
|
Increased security by keeping all WAN traffic out of non-district facilities |
ALWAYS |
RARELY |
|
Service Provider leaves a spare of each unique piece of in-network electronics from their maintenance inventory at district designated sites |
ALWAYS |
IMPOSSIBLE |
|
Absolute minimum Service Provider in-network electronics reducing points of failure |
DEFINITELY |
NEVER |
|
Number of fiber strands delivered to edge sites for district's exclusive use |
12 |
1 - 2 |
|
Service Provider can potentially prioritize other customer traffic over district's traffic |
NEVER |
YES |
|
District determines how much control they want over WAN circuits |
ALWAYS |
SOMETIMES |
|
District's WAN bandwidth can potentially be oversubscribed |
NEVER |
YES |
|
Network is specifically designed to maximize benefits of E-rate's Second Modernization Order for district |
ABSOLUTELY |
NEVER |
|
Entire district fiber network is eligible for E-rate Special Construction |
TYPICALLY |
RARELY |
Increasing Bandwidth Demands Don't Have to be Painful
Not when your district could have fixed monthly pricing even when you upgrade WAN speeds or light additional fiber strands.
