School Networks That Keep Students, Staff, and Campuses Connected

Grandstream's award-winning UCM collaboration and IP PBX platform can be deployed for a single school or an entire district as a hardware device, a cloud PBX, or a software PBX, depending on the deployment's needs. Our high-end hardware UCM IP PBXs and SoftwareUCM are both strong choices for district-wide deployments. Paired with GRP desktop IP phones, WP Wi-Fi cordless phones, and GXV video phones, integrators can match the right endpoint to every classroom, office, and common space, creating a truly customized solution that is as unique as the school it is being installed in.

Key Features:

• Deployment models for every district architecture. The UCM6300 series supports up to 3,000 users and 450 concurrent calls. SoftwareUCM scales from 100 users and 32 concurrent calls up to a maximum of 5,000 users and 1,000 concurrent calls, and supports multi-tenant capabilities for segmenting a deployment across schools. CloudUCM removes on-premise hardware entirely for districts standardizing on cloud infrastructure.
• Interactive Voice Response (IVR) allows callers to route themselves to the front office, attendance line, nurse, or a specific department without receptionist intervention. Call queues improve traffic flow to administrative staff during peak periods such as morning attendance and dismissal, without overwhelming them.
• Direct Inward Dialing (DID) numbers provide dedicated lines for important departments and essential administrative staff, so parents and district personnel reach the right office directly.
• UCM RemoteConnect enables automated NAT firewall traversal for devices deployed outside the UCM's LAN. Managed through GDMS, it runs on Amazon Web Services with 99.9% reliability and offers zero-touch configuration. District IT teams can register, manage, and troubleshoot IP PBXs deployed across several schools from one central location, and connect endpoints at auxiliary facilities, stadiums, and home offices back to the district UCM.
• Multi-Purpose Keys (MPKs) on staff IP phones can be assigned line keys with multiple functions. Users can monitor extensions, use speed dial numbers, send DTMF signals during calls, and page IP intercoms — all directly from the phone screen. For a front office, a single MPK can trigger a building-wide announcement.

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A modern school campus is one of the densest wireless environments an integrator can encounter. Classrooms full of one-to-one devices, staff laptops, IP endpoints, and facility hardware all compete for airtime. Grandstream's GWN Wi-Fi access points give integrators the range of models and the depth of configuration needed to build a wireless environment that performs under real classroom load and stays under a school's control.

Key Features:

• Wi-Fi 5, Wi-Fi 6, and Wi-Fi 7 models are available depending on the deployment. GWN Wi-Fi 6 access points bring OFDMA to the wireless network, improving resource allocation and performance in high-density spaces like classrooms, libraries, and lecture halls. Wi-Fi 7 access points add Multi-Link Operation (MLO), letting compatible devices connect to two bands simultaneously for significantly higher performance.
  
• Deep SSID and bandwidth control lets schools ensure Wi-Fi is used for educational purposes. Integrators can whitelist and blacklist specific IPs such as school computers and staff devices, set upload and download limits on specific SSIDs, create hidden SSIDs so staff networks are not visible to students, apply client time policies that limit how long a device stays connected to an SSID, and schedule bandwidth rules to run on a defined timeline such as school hours only.
• Alternatively, Private Pre-Shared Key (PPSK) with VLAN mapping lets a school run a single campus-wide SSID while assigning every user group its own key and its own VLAN. Students, teachers, administrators, substitutes, and district staff connect to the same network name, but each key maps to a different VLAN with its own access rules, bandwidth policies, and filtering; enforced at the point of connection. Because each PPSK is issued and revoked individually, a compromised student key can be rotated without touching staff credentials or reconfiguring a single access point, and there's no need to broadcast a separate SSID for every role.
• Captive portals give schools control over how student and visitor devices access the network, including terms-of-use acceptance and time-limited sessions; useful for student access, parent-teacher nights, and community-attended extracurricular events.
• QoS at the wireless layer fine-tunes performance based on SSID, latency-sensitive traffic, and application category, protecting voice, intercom, and video traffic when the network is at its busiest.
• Outdoor and long-range access points extend coverage to courtyards, athletic fields, and parking areas. With IP66 or higher ratings and an operating temperature range of -30°C to 60°C (-22°F to 140°F), a single long-range GWN access point can support hundreds of clients across a 250+ meter range.
• Free flexible management through GDMS in the cloud, the on-premise GWN Manager software, or an access point's built-in controller. A complete deployment of hundreds of devices can be configured, managed, monitored, and supported from a single centralized platform.

Grandstream's GWN networking devices provide schools with an affordable, feature-rich backbone. Our managed switch portfolio spans Layer 2 Lite, Layer 2++, Layer 3, and Layer 3 Aggregation devices, giving integrators the right switch for every tier of a school network, from a wiring closet serving a single hallway and companion classrooms to a district data center aggregating multiple buildings.

Key Features:

• VLAN segmentation isolates student, staff, and facility traffic. Public student networks and SSIDs can be separated from secured staff networks and devices. This increases the security of the deployment and lets integrators apply QoS to guarantee performance for essential devices such as staff computers, phones, intercoms, and facility access hardware.
• Layer 3 switching performs full hardware-based inter-VLAN routing, supports dynamic routing protocols, and acts as the IP gateway for every VLAN segment. IP-based routing, improved network segmentation, and IPv4/IPv6 support let a single school or district network scale without introducing a separate router at every tier.
• Layer 3 Aggregation switches sit at the distribution layer, connecting access-level switches via 10G SFP+ uplinks. This architecture is ideal for larger campuses or even multi-building layouts with intensive data throughput.
• QoS across the wired layer through Port Priority, Priority Mapping, Queue Scheduling, Traffic Shaping, and Rate Limiting. Traffic enforcement and application priority are set at the port and VLAN level, before packets ever reach the wireless layer, directly working with the QoS capabilities of GWN Wi-Fi access points.
• Security features including access control lists (ACLs), DHCP snooping, ARP inspection, IGMP/MLD snooping, and port security protect the network in an environment where hundreds of devices are connected for both staff, student, and facility use.
• PoE-out capability powers Wi-Fi access points, IP phones, intercoms, and cameras directly from the switch, drastically reducing cabling infrastructure and delivering a cleaner, more cost-effective installation.

School safety and daily operations depend on the same infrastructure. Grandstream's GSC and GDS series integrate directly with the UCM platform, so bell schedules, routine announcements, emergency notifications, door entry, and visitor management all run on one system that an integrator deploys and a district manages, without adding a second vendor or a separate management console. 

Key Features:

• GSC IP speakers and intercoms allow staff to make announcements, page teachers and students one-way or two-way, and keep an entire campus informed during emergency events. Administrative devices can use MPKs to page specific rooms or groups of speakers, and multicast paging supports district-wide or building-wide broadcasts across all GSC devices simultaneously.
• Outdoor paging coverage extends announcements to athletic fields, playgrounds, bus loops, and parking areas with weather-rated horn speakers built for outdoor campus environments. A single GSC horn speaker can cover an expansive, noisy area. 
• GDS smart facility access and video door stations act as a high-definition IP surveillance camera, IP intercom, and access control device in one. Front office staff can see and speak with a visitor before releasing the door, and a variety of door-opening methods can be configured to match district policy.
• Alarm-port integrations extend GDS devices to work with auxiliary IoT devices and GSC speakers and intercoms, letting integrators tie door events, alarms, and audio notification together in a single, deeply customized response.
• Facility control stations give front offices and security desks a dedicated device for viewing door video, answering entry calls, and triggering door relays without tying up a workstation. Facility control stations can also be deployed into staff breakrooms, classrooms, lunchrooms, and other areas for staff use, while being passcode-protected to prevent student tampering.