In support of its BYOD policy, one of Philadelphia’s top ranking institutions, Arcadia University, has successfully implemented a campus-wide wireless LAN solution from Aruba Networks (News - Alert).

The newly implemented wireless LAN solution will allow the university to deliver campus-wide Internet access to the institution’s 4,000+ students, staff, faculty and guests.  

The university was on the lookout for a wireless solution that would increase coverage and reliability across the campus, Aruba explained in a recent statement. The new WLAN is expected to improve coverage, reliability and performance across the university’s academic buildings, residence halls and outdoor areas.

Aruba partnered with Malvern, PA-based integration company, Comm Solutions, to deploy the Wireless LAN.  The deployment includes Aruba’s M3 mobility controllers, and 200 Aruba access points including AP-105s, AP-125s, AP-124s and AP-135s, as well as the Aruba RAP-2s, which provide access for Arcadia’s remote users.

In addition, Arcadia is using Aruba AirWave (News - Alert) to manage the network and ClearPass Guest Access to enable the guest network.

With this new LAN deployment, the university hopes to address the networking problems of spotty, unreliable coverage, particularly in some residence halls and academic buildings wherein connections were frequently dropped.

The investment will also enable Arcadia to extend wireless coverage to a brand new campus building called the Commons, where students congregate and many of the executive offices are housed.

The new networking solution will also allow Arcadia to expand its outdoor wireless footprint to cover the main campus.

“It was crucial for us to build a wireless network that could address the needs of our entire population of students, faculty, staff and administrators,” said Steven Alter, VP and CIO at Arcadia University. “Working with Comm Solutions and Aruba Networks, we were able to design a wireless network that increased both coverage and reliability across campus. We’ve expanded our outdoor footprint so that the main campus footprint has wireless coverage and simultaneously, we’ve experienced 100 percent up-time on the network since deploying in mid-January.”

The implementation of an advanced networking system will allow Arcadia to implement an effective BYOD strategy for its student community as well. Using the new Aruba wireless LAN, Arcadia can offer innovative, new programs such as bringing its reference library directly to students.

Once a week, Reference Librarians bring their laptops to the Commons area to provide immediate, on-site assistance, as an alternative service point.

The new network has also allowed Arcadia to host a variety of academic conferences.

 “We worked closely with Arcadia University’s IT department to evaluate coverage models and provide the best possible design for their needs,” said chief mobility architect at Comm Solutions, Bill Carr. “Together, we were able to deliver a solution designed for resiliency and recovery in the event of network incidents, but more importantly, ensured no negative impact for users – Arcadia’s students, staff and faculty. This is an excellent example of how proper network design translates into a better user experience.”

Recently, Aruba Networks released a new WLAN solution that boasts a unique resilience. The new ArubaOS 6.1.3.4 for Aruba mobility controllers ensures high performance and minimum downtime for large-scale mobility networks that must accommodate a growing number of mobile devices and real-time mobile applications, such as voice and video.

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