Market leader, Cisco, has reached a major milestone: it has shipped its five millionth Aironet AP, which began shipping in 2000. AP #5,000,000 had the distinction of being part of the prestigious Mayo Clinic’s WLAN.
The Mayo Clinic is the largest integrated, not-for-profit group medical practice in the world, and its Wi-Fi network includes more than 3,000 Cisco APs and Cisco 4400 Series controllers, as well as the Cisco Wireless Services Module for the Catalyst 6500. It serves approximately 40,000 physicians, nurses, and staff within the Mayo Clinic’s three U.S.-based campuses.
In addition to data applications, approximately 1,000 users of the Mayo WLAN have been equipped with VoWi-Fi handsets. The Clinic has also connected a variety of medical devices and equipment to the network, including 2,000 infusion pumps, 300 patient-controlled analgesia (PCA) pumps, and 100 pulse oximeters (used to monitor patient heart rates and breathing).
“Mayo is constantly striving to improve upon its reputation as a pioneer in medical care, research, and education,” said Randy Regimbal, Mayo Clinic’s director of network services in a statement issued Tuesday. “Our Cisco Unified Wireless Network has become an essential foundation for meeting these strategic objectives and has empowered our physicians, nurses, and administrative staff to dramatically improve the quality of patient care.”
First to market with an integrated 802.11n draft 2.0 solution, Cisco was also the first vendor to ship Wi-Fi Alliance-certified 802.11n draft 2.0 products globally. To date, it has shipped more than 50,000 11n access points. Mayo will begin testing Cisco’s 802.11n Aironet 1250 Series APs soon.
Naomi Graychase is Managing Editor at Wi-FiPlanet.
