How Charité Enabled Secure, Mobile Medical Devices with Silex Wi-Fi Bridges 

About Charité

Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin Hospital relies on Silex Ethernet-to-Wi-Fi bridges to deliver secure and reliable connectivity for mobile medical devices. By standardizing on Silex Wi-Fi bridges, Charité enables modern wireless access across thousands of devices, without compromising security, mobility, or operational efficiency.

The Challenge: Reliability and Security in a Critical Environment

At Charité, wireless connectivity is mission-critical. Medical devices must meet strict requirements that go far beyond standard Wi-Fi usage:

• Frequency isolation: Medical devices operate exclusively on the 5 GHz band to avoid interference from office traffic.

• Enterprise security: IEEE 802.1X certificate-based authentication is mandatory to protect sensitive hospital systems.

• Seamless roaming: Devices must maintain stable connections while moving between rooms and wards.

• True mobility: Solutions must be self-powered, without relying on wall-connected DC cables.

Charité selected the Silex BR-500AC Wi-Fi Bridge to bridge this gap, with communication stability validated through a proof-of-concept. For power-sensitive use cases, the Silex BR-330AC-LP provides a low-power alternative.

Operational Hurdle: Managing Scale and Geography

Charité’s IT team supports more than 35,000 connected devices, including 3,000 medical devices, with just nine network IT managers.

Organizational complexity: Medical devices are selected for clinical functionality, not Wi-Fi capability, requiring IT to adapt connectivity across diverse equipment.

Geographic spread: Four campuses across Berlin make on-site troubleshooting time-consuming and expensive.

As a result, remote management and standardization are essential to maintaining efficiency.

The Solution: Standardization and Remote Management

Charité now operates 300+ Silex Wi-Fi bridges as a standardized connectivity layer for medical devices, delivering clear benefits:

• Cost & time savings: Avoids expensive OEM Wi-Fi upgrades and technician visits.

• Simplified workflows: One standardized Wi-Fi setup process instead of device-specific configurations.

• Remote monitoring: AMC Manager enables centralized status checks and troubleshooting across all campuses.

• Centralized security: Remote deployment and renewal of IEEE 802.1X certificates without physical access.

  

“Using a single Wi-Fi interface for different medical devices eliminates device-specific maintenance and saves both time and cost. Remote certificate updates via AMC Manager also remove the need for on-site intervention.”  Hendrik Claus, Network Expert, Charité

Conclusion

With Silex Wi-Fi bridges, Charité University Hospital enables secure, reliable, and mobile connectivity across thousands of medical devices, while keeping operational complexity and costs under control. Standardization and remote management allow a small IT team to support a large, multi-campus environment without compromising patient care.

Download the full case study below to explore the technical details, deployment strategy, and real-world results.