Tripalink is a co-living company based in Los Angeles, California, USA. Founded in 2016, they manage and develop properties throughout the United States to provide co-living options for students and young professionals seeking a modern, affordable, and sustainable rental property. TripaLink's mission is to become the first choice for renters looking for contemporary living. They have apartments not only in LA but in Pittsburg, Seattle, Philadelphia, Irvine, Tucson, and Tacoma. Having a reliable source of Wi-Fi to offer residents is a crucial part of their offering to students and guests.
The Need
Tripalink manages a residential building in Los Angeles that serves as a dormitory for students attending any of the many colleges and universities in the Los Angeles Metro area. This residence hall did not have any wired network infrastructure in place, so the only way to deliver reliable internet to student residents was using Wi-Fi.
A core part of Tripalink’s mission is to provide a co-living experience that enhances residents’ quality of life, therefore the network they were building had to be consistently high-speed and reliable. Their Wi-Fi solution also needed to provide enhanced security as many users would be utilizing the network on a daily basis.
The Solution
Tripalink hired Panacomm, Inc., a communications solutions integrator in Southern California, to design and install the Wi-Fi solution for their Los Angeles residence hall. After considering solutions from Ubiquiti and Grandstream, Panacomm and Tripalink chose a Grandstream Wi-Fi solution. The deployment included 18 GWN Series Wi-Fi Access Points being managed by a hybrid of GWN.Cloud and GWN Manager, Grandstream’s cloud and on-premise network management platforms. Grandstream was chosen over Ubiquiti because they provide superior technology highlighted by free cloud and on-premise management solutions, enterprise-grade security protection, advanced captive portals, detailed MESH network settings, and more. Grandstream also provided a noticeably lower price point.
Panacomm installed eight GWN7630LR Long-Range Access Points in order to cover an extended range both indoors and outdoors, as well as ten GWN7660 Wi-Fi 6 Access Points to maximize speed and supported clients. The management solution built for Tripalink utilizes a mix of GWN.Cloud, Grandstream’s free enterprise-grade network management platform, and GWN Manager, Grandstream’s free on-premise management software. The combination allows private networks to be managed locally on-site and public/common-area networks to be managed remotely. The Grandstreeam Wi-Fi solution was paired with internet service from Spectrum.
Captive Portals: Panacomm easily created and deployed captive portals across Tripalink’s entire network to protect and track the usage of public networks. Grandstream’s solution supports a wide variety of captive portal features, authentication options, and integrations.
MESH: with no wired infrastructure in place, the best way to get Wi-Fi access to the far ends of the building was to utilize the MESH networking feature of Grandstream’s Wi-Fi APs.
Separate Networks/SSIDs: As each GWN Series AP supports up to 16 SSIDs, Tripalink was able to offer guest and private residential network access all over the building. Because the GWN Series can actively facilitate roaming, users can move throughout the building and have reliable network access with no interruptions.
Advanced Security Protection: With many people regularly accessing the residence hall network, network security was critical. GWN APs include anti-hacking secure boot and critical data/control lockdown via digital signatures, allowing them to actively monitor for security concerns while encrypting all data and network settings. GWN.Cloud and GWN Manager also provides a variety of active security monitoring and alert tools.
The Solution
- Tripalink’s Los Angeles Residence Hall now provides reliable and secure high-speed Wi-Fi access throughout the entire property for both residents and guests
- The entire solution is easily managed with GWN.Cloud and GWN Manager to provide both control and security
- MESH networks allow Wi-Fi to reach far ends of the property where wired infrastructure is not available
- Captive portals, private networks, advanced data/control encryption, and active security monitoring tools keep the network safe and reliable
- Savings on labor costs as fewer staff were required for the same service to clients