Wifi Revolution

Liberty University has reportedly has upgraded their Wi-Fi network at its campus in Lynchburg, Virginia with an Aruba 802.11n solution and AirWave (News - Alert) Wireless Management Suite.

 

The University wanted to upgrade its Wi-Fi network for its 5000-acre campus and before picking a vendor, staged a 36 access point Aruba network at a remote site. The new networks from its incumbent supplier were also tested at two residence halls.

 

Liberty University found Aruba's solution to be technically superior, and decided to purchase an Aruba 802.11n Wi-Fi network and AirWave Wireless Management Suite.

 

Before the deployment, the University was challenged by limited wireless performance and restricted user mobility. Authorities also faced security issues and had to struggle with a system that required a new log-in each time a student accessed the network, and provided limited control over guest access.

 

Aruba's Adaptive Radio Management (ARM (News - Alert)) software conducts automatic site surveys and uses infrastructure-based controls to optimize the performance of Wi-Fi clients in real-time.

 

The University is now assured of their network security, thanks to Aruba’s policy-enforcement firewall (PEF), which provides identity-based security, Quality of Service (QoS) control, and traffic management capabilities.

 

Also, tasks such as threat assessment, policy decision making, and corralling of unmanaged devices are accomplished by Aruba's Endpoint Compliance System (ECS).

 

Liberty University's Wireless Network Engineer, Bruce Osborne, is happy with Aruba’s system and said that Wi-Fi performance and security improved significantly as a direct result of ARM, PEF, and ECS.

 

The University also said it intends to deploy VideoFurnace multicast IP television on its new 802.11n network.

 

"With our legacy network we were locked into the same vendor for switches, NAC, Wi-Fi, and support," said Osborne. "This limited our options with respect to features, performance, and price. In contrast, the Aruba gear is interoperable with infrastructure products on the market, freeing us to select switches and other devices based on criteria defined by Liberty University. The resulting network is tailored to our exact needs."

 

 

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