Overview:

Waseela completes the delivery of high-speed Cisco Wi-Fi-6 Multigig Network switches – 1,200 Access Points -, Mitel IP Tel & Palo Alto Firewall – covering over 2.8 Million Sq. Ft. of retail and entertainment space at Reem Mall, done by the highest level of Cisco Certified CCIE engineers, in 2 phases.

Project delivery flow:

UAE, Abu Dhabi, AED 4.4 Billion project gathers momentum, creating a fascinating shopping and entertainment experience, aiming to provide a very unique experience for all visitors. In a very selective procedure, the Reem Mall Management team navigates, studies and carefully selects suppliers and contractors that are top-of-the-line, trustworthy and deliver within certain criteria and standards, hence, Waseela was chosen to handle the Wireless connectivity project, not only on the matter of visitors experience, but also to the mall management and how the network would be utilized to the fullest, from providing visibility of usage to gathering important marketing information, analytics and much more.

The Mall Management was requesting a top-notch Wi-Fi-5 network in-which it is up to the standards they looking for, and trusted that Waseela would deliver as wished, yet Waseela’s team had a bigger plan in mind, first of its time in the region at a mall, a brand new technology that would stretch the limits and utilization of the Wi-Fi at a completely different level; the new Wi-Fi-6 Technology, and chosen the most trusted manufacturer of this technology, Cisco, while integrating the IPERA Guest Portal tool to provide a dashboard of deeper analytics opening new horizons to the marketing department of the mall management, and not only that, but to be fully designed, supplied and installed with the same cost of the Wi-Fi-5 they’ve originally planned, henceforth, the proposal was accepted and implementation was scheduled.

The Mall Management approached the project requesting a high-quality Wi-Fi-5 network that meets their standards. However, Waseela’s team had a bigger vision; introducing a new technology in the region – at that time – “The Wi-Fi-6 Technology”. With Cisco being the trusted manufacturer for the technology the new proposition was approved and implemented, and integrated the IPERA Guest Portal tool, providing the mall’s management with in-depth analytics. Remarkably, this advanced solution was offered at the same cost as the originally planned Wi-Fi-5.

In Phase 1 of the project, a significant turning point was reached, surpassing initial plans and raising the expectations of the Mall Management team. Waseela’s team, being a prominent integrator in the region with exceptional capabilities in handling large and complex projects, proposed additional upgrades and deployment activities that were beyond the project’s original scope. This ambitious approach aimed to transform the project into a true masterpiece, showcasing Waseela’s commitment to delivering exceptional results.

The new proposal by Waseela contained a lot of activities to cover every angle of the area, starting by upgrading all of the wireless controllers’ models to support an increase in the number of concurrent visitors from 12K to 120K, and upgrading all of the Access Switches to Multi-Gigabit Switches to enhance the performance, also, designing and a generating a Heat Map that shows the prediction of the used Access Points to ensure 100% coverage, moreover, adding quantities of Wi-Fi Access points to cover the whole retail areas which lead to installing further Structured Cabling System (SCS), and at last implementing one Firepower management to manage all of the Redundant Perimeter Firewalls (With NGFW and NGIPS capabilities) for network security.

In Phase 2 of the project, Waseela implemented significant enhancements to the active network’s components, aiming to optimize function and security. This involved upgrading the Dual Data Center switches to support higher capacity and throughput in the Data-center, adding Dual L3 Core switches for modular design to improve performance and network security, and the deployment of Redundant Data Center Firewalls to secure the intra Data Center connectivity from Campus/Internet/DMZ to the Datacenter with 10G Multi-mode. As a final touch, Waseela added Two Cloud Gateway Servers and One Active Directory Server, along with “Out Of Bandwidth Management” to adhere to the best practices of network security design for device management.

The Project’s major pillars:

A unique large-complex Wi-Fi-6 implementation at an exceptional mall infrastructure and design.

Waseela was chosen to carry out a range of critical activities at the mall, ultimately enhancing the overall visitors’ experience. Waseela went above and beyond the original project expectations, surpassing simple wireless network active component handling. Instead, it mastered the entire scope of the project. This included implementing wireless controllers and switches, optimizing network density and security as well as boosting marketing output actualization. As a result, visitors now enjoy higher-speed internet, wider coverage, stronger security and greater control. The final product offers an open-ended hardware capability, which enables future upgrades to keep elevating the customer experience at Reem Mall – home of the world’s largest indoor snow play venue.

About Waseela Smart Building Unit:

Smart Building Unit is one of the three business units that supports the synergy of Waseela.

With a massive portfolio of over 6,500 Towers, Buildings and Villas in the region, 20,000+ CCTV systems deployed, 1,200,000 Structured Cabling Systems and millions of Kilometers of ISP/OSP cabling; Smart Building Unit is considered a leading entity in the physical security solutions in the UAE, that’s why only leading vendors are selected to be partners.
Currently Smart Building Unit operates with over 55 partners globally, with certified and experienced in-house team in delivering end-to-end multi-vendor projects, Smart Building Unit has successfully delivered iconic mega projects in the UAE, from world class hotels such as Millennium, Fairmont, Movenpick, Hilton, Radisson Blu, Novotel – and more – to high rise towers such as, such as to massive malls and much more.

To learn more visit our website www.waseela.com, or get in touch at Info.sbs@waseela.com

About Reem Mall:

A $1.2 billion state-of-the-art project, situated on Reem Island, right in the heart of new Abu Dhabi, Reem Mall covers nearly 2.8 million square feet of useable area and houses around 400 of the finest international and local brands. It features around 85 restaurants and cafes and a range of family-focused entertainment offerings including Vox Cinemas, Carrefour Hypermarket, and the iconic Snow Abu Dhabi. Its world-class omni-channel ecosystem and data science-based trading platform, seamlessly integrates retailers and customers, and allows innovative promotions and customised deals for every shopper. The world’s first mall with a state-of the-art, on-premises logistics hub, enables store-to-door fulfilment with a 24-hour delivery anywhere in the UAE and 72-hour delivery across the GCC. Reem Mall also has one of the biggest snow parks in the region. Learn more at www.reemmall.ae