The new landmark project follows a previously successful high-density Wi-Fi deployment by O2 and Ruckus Wireless, deployed last summer ahead of the 2012 Olympics, to provide reliable Wi-Fi access within high-density locations across the boroughs of Westminster, Kensington and Chelsea—a deployment that ultimately became Europe’s largest free Wi-Fi zone.
O2 will be offering free Wi-Fi access in all Canary Wharf public areas, including four shopping malls that house over 240 cafés, bars and restaurants, and leading retailers, plus 20 acres of outdoor parks and plazas.
For indoor coverage, O2 has selected Ruckus ZoneFlex 7363 indoor 802.11n Smart Wi-Fi access points (APs). These are sleek, low-profile APs offering dual-band (5 GHz/2.4 GHz) support and automatic prioritization of VoIP and video traffic. O2 also chose them because they are aesthetically pleasing – an important consideration in order for them to blend in discreetly across Canary Wharf’s many stylishly designed buildings.
For the outdoor Ruckus Smart Wi-Fi deployments at Canary Wharf, O2 will deploy the Ruckus ZoneFlex 7782-N, a compact and lightweight outdoor AP that combines Ruckus specialized smart sector antenna technology that narrowly focuses Wi-Fi signals within a 30-degree beam width with advanced software capabilities that optimize capacity and minimize interference, including predictive channel selection. The ZoneFlex 7782-N was designed with high-density outdoor deployments like Canary Wharf in mind.
“O2 sees Ruckus Smart Wi-Fi as one of the essential access technologies within our portfolio needed to increase subscribers’ satisfaction and deepen the relationship between our business customers and their clients,” said Gavin Franks, managing director at O2 Wi-Fi. “The selection of Ruckus for the Canary Wharf project is a logical extension of our public Wi-Fi infrastructure throughout London. The addition of the Ruckus SmartCell Gateway system gives us a scalable platform for this high-density environment, where capacity and coverage demands will keep growing.”