SCIENCE

Wireless access must be reliable so students and teachers can collaborate anywhere on campus. Thousands of mobile tablets, computers, smart phones and game consoles are able to simultaneously access Utah State University's wireless LAN across the state, without compromise. Meru Networks gives USU's 27,000 students and faculty constant and secure wireless access everywhere on its six campuses. Meru's unique network-in-control approach is the industry's most scalable and reliable WLAN platform for dense Wi-Fi environments. Built for capacity, mobility and reliability, Meru solutions put the network, rather than the client, in control of connectivity to wireless resources. This intelligence in the network makes it possible for more devices to access wireless resources simultaneously, even if they're all using bandwidth-intensive applications like video and voice over IP. With Meru, thousands of mobile devices and applications can be assured of uncompromised access as students, faculty and staff roam throughout the six campuses.

Unlike its microcell WLAN, USU achieved its goal of ubiquitous wireless for six campuses, managed from one location with Meru. With Meru, students and faculty across campuses can share a single, centralized resource for applications such as email and data libraries. Moving to Meru ends USU's past practice of needing multiple copies of wireless applications to support its students, faculty and staff.

"I fully expect our wireless network to carry the majority of traffic across our campuses within the next five years," said Eric Hawley, vice president of information technology for Utah State University. "It is essential for us to deliver seamless mobility today and set in place future capacity to accommodate our rapidly-growing student population and the vast number of different devices they'll use to access our network. After examining every solution on the market, it was clear Meru's unique approach of virtualizing WLAN access addresses our current and future needs, while helping us meet the demand cost effectively. With the Meru network-in-control architecture in place, we've expanded USU's wireless coverage by an order of magnitude and reduced our network management overhead."

The move to Meru enables USU to give students and staff statewide pervasive wireless capacity, availability and performance, and helps the university maintain one of its student-recruitment edges -- a national reputation for providing the most advanced technology-rich educational experience.

After several live comparisons between Meru WLAN solutions and those from other vendors, the USU IT team chose Meru because of its ability to manage density and device diversity, eliminate coverage problems, and efficiently and securely centralize Utah State's wireless services across academic and administrative departments.

"Unlike other approaches to wireless networking, only Meru puts the network in charge of connectivity giving all users optimal performance and reliable access," said Kamal Anand, senior vice president of product management for Meru Networks. "Meru has implemented the 802.11n standard creatively by putting much more intelligence into the network so it easily manages the vast number of smart phones, computers, tablets and other mobile devices needing secure, constant access on campus."

Powered by more than 1,000 Meru AP320i access points, USU's network supports more than 27,000 students and faculty and as many as 7,000 unique devices during any 24-hour period. It routinely supports between 1,800 to 4,000 simultaneous users and surges of demand network access for big events or when many classes begin in large lecture halls. Meru's network-in-control approach extends access to software applications housed at the main USU campus, such as subscription databases, to all six campuses saving the university the expense of multiple licensing fees. Students at all Utah State campuses now access its WLAN with the same reliability and security all day, every day.

"Forward-thinking universities like Utah State University rely on Meru to provide superior wireless access to their students and faculty members -- even as the demand for wireless capacity skyrockets," said Anand. "Working with these education thought leaders, we provide the connectivity required for advanced education experiences while optimizing limited budgets and modest IT resources."