...WORK IN PROGRESS ...
The scope of this document is to provide a detailed analysis of the network requirements of the project and the availability of eduroam at the initial pilot schools and other locations in the schools’ neighbourhood. To this end, network connectivity at the schools is examined, and an impact of the Up2U ecosystem services on the underlying network is considered.
1. Schools - overview on Internet connectivity
This section summarises results of Up2U surveys filled up by the initial pilot schools. The surveying activity was a result of common efforts and cooperation of Work Packages no. 3, 5, 6. Information on school's connectivity and policies has been provided by 29 initial pilot schools from 6 different countries (Greece, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Poland, and Spain).
1.1 Bandwidth and connection
More than half (55%) of the schools who responded in the survey access internet thanks to NRENs. The bandwidth of at least 80 Mb/s is present in 40% of schools for downstream and 30% of schools for upstream.
1.2 Internal network arrangement
Most of the initial pilot schools have an internal wired network in all (52%) or some (28%) classrooms. WiFi coverage is very high - 65% of schools who responded in the survey has 100% coverage in classrooms. Only 7% of schools declare that there is no WiFi at school at all.
1.3 Security and policies
Hardware firewalls, as well as UTM (Unified Threat Management) devices, are present in many of the initial pilot schools, although in a significant amount of answers school principals were not sure about the availability of these solutions at their schools. In all the cases of presence of an UTM device at school, the most important features like the spam filter, antivirus filter, and content filter were turned on. Only 1 of 19 schools who responded to the question concerning BYOD (bring your own device) policy disallow to use students' mobile devices at school but is willing to change policy if there is a good reason.
2. Eduroam
2.1. General overview of eduroam
Eduroam (education roaming) is the secure, world-wide roaming access service developed for the international research and education community.
Having started in Europe, eduroam has gained momentum throughout the research and education community and is now available in 89 territories worldwide (https://www.eduroam.org/where/).