Campus Deploys Full-Coverage Wi-Fi System w/ Fewer Wireless Access Points l University of Sussex
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The University of Sussex information technology service is responsible for computing across the campus, PCs for the students to use, staff equipment, business systems, and it of course includes the data network. A very important part of our data network is our WiFi service. Our students were using a previously installed WiFi system, which we felt was getting a little bit long in the tooth and noticed and increase in possible complaints about WiFi and obviously we wanted to improve the WiFi system to keep our students happy.
Wireless is one of those technologies that as soon as the latest standard comes out there's a new one around the corner. The original wireless solutions that came out were not easily manageable on a large scale, certainly not a scale as large as the Uni of Sussex when you're talking perhaps in the region of 1,000, 1,500 access points.
There was no upgrade that was possible for that system. The Meru single-cell architecture meant that it was so easily manageable from that respect, so that you don't have to channel planned APs, you can just pop an AP up wherever you want. It forms parts of the entire wireless LAN itself. We set Meru a challenge with it. We said "We want a new WiFi system. We haven't got a huge amount of effort to install it. Bring it along and show us it working." Meru brought down a complete system, literally built it here in a day. We run it on campus and we were very, very impressed that straight out of the box, the kit worked. Meru left the test equipment with us so that we could have a good play with it and explore the various features and we were very, very impressed, especially with the management side of the solution. We recommended to the contractors who were building our new halls of residence that they install a Meru-based system for us and that took place in our Northfield residence, serving 700 rooms. Some of the new residences have had them as part of the new build, but the older residences will also benefit from the Meru WiFi system. We've had a rolling program funded by the University to install Meru equipment throughout the University. Everywhere where students learn, where teaching occurs, or where they gather such as cafes, we're providing WiFi coverage in those areas and the students really appreciate that.
WiFi system success: Previously the library seemed to get about 30% usage, now we're literally are running at 100%. A great feature of the Meru system is of course that you can add access points without worrying about which channels are going to work, channel interference, and all the problems you get with what I like to call old-fashioned WiFi. Because it's a plug and play system it's literally just a case of supplying access points when they're ready to deploy in another area. Those access points are automatically configured by the controller so there's no real additional configuration needed. So it is literally just like popping in a light bulb where they need some more coverage. So the Meru system allowed us to add more APs and greatly increase the capacity for students to access the WiFi.
It's great to be able to actually trace users easily across various access points as they walk across campus. This is fantastic for fault finding because when students report faults it's normally very, very vague and it takes a fair bit of digging to find the relevant information. But with the easy RF management system this is fantastically easy. Some of our students have machines that were infected. The easy RF system allows us to actually track down where that person is somewhere on campus and actually disconnect them from the network to stop them infecting other machines. As this project is coming to an end we're finding our students are really much happier than they had been with WiFi in the past. It's natural for them just to use it in lecture rooms, in seminar rooms, when they're in the cafes and of course when they're working in the library. Following the roll-out of the Meru wireless equipment throughout the campus we've had very positive feedback from students. It's much improved. They can connect at much higher speeds. The throughput is much better. Everyone generally seems to be very pleased with the system.
Meru's support is fantastic. But also they have post-sale support, so the speed of response you get when you actually need to raise a ticket. The support we've had from Meru in this project has been excellent. They've helped us at every stage of the project. We've had technical folk from Meru on-site working with our team, giving us advice and guidance, helping us get the best out the system. We are really very happy with the solution we have.
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