DUBAI Silicon Oasis Authority (DSOA), the regulatory body for Dubai Silicon Oasis (DSO), the integrated free zone technology park, has announced the completion of construction work on a 10,000 square meters student accommodation complex built at a total investment value of AED56 million. Comprising four buildings with fully furnished units of varying sizes, the complex can accommodate up to 432 students. The faculty will welcome students from the DSO-based Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT-Dubai), as well as the neighboring Dubai International Academic City. The student accommodation complex is the result of a careful analysis of the prevailing housing options for university students in the emirate which shows a definite shortage in supply. This has often posed a challenge for universities with regard to attracting international students and their families. The new complex has been conceptualized to offer students an ideal environment to live in and study. The modern and advanced housing facility complies with the latest, best-in-class international standards and meets the personal and academic needs of students across Dubai. The ground floor of the buildings will include retail shops, F&B outlets, recreational common areas, and study halls for the students. The entire facility will offer free Wi-Fi access, through a campus-wide secure wireless network by Avaya. Dubai has 57 academic institutions offering programs in higher education. Of these, 26 are international universities, with total numbers exceeding 50,000 students. Although tuition fees for universities and colleges in the UAE are lower than those in similar institutions abroad, the high cost of housing is an important concern for parents and has adversely impacted the admission of such students to Dubai's colleges. Dubai Silicon Oasis Authority's ICT department has implemented an advanced and feature-rich wireless solution, to cover each room and the entire hostel premises. The campus, with four buildings of three floors each, includes cabling to each room, connecting all buildings with fiber, procuring active network components, and wireless access points. Building on existing relationships and implementations, Avaya was selected as the preferred technology provider for this project. Avaya has implemented indoor routers, with expandable range for maximum coverage and quality of service. These will be connected via the new released Avaya Access Switches ERS4900 Series with high-performance and Fabric attach capability. This site is connected to the main Avaya SDN Fabric Network in the DSOA datacentre with a simple, flexible, and secure Entire end-to-end Fabric deployment. This makes it easy for DSO to deploy solutions and applications across campuses quickly and securely. A wholly-owned entity of the government of Dubai, DSO operates as a free zone technology park for large enterprises, medium and small companies looking to set up their offices in Dubai.
