The use of mobile computing devices such as smartphones and tablets as tools for smart learning is on the rise in the Middle East. Recognising this, Holy Spirit University of Kaslik (USEK) in Lebanon has implemented ubiquitous high speed Wi-Fi connectivity across its campus with technologies from Aruba Networks, an HP company.
The solution serves as a platform for collaboration, supports voice services for students and faculty, and is being leveraged to increase engagement and satisfaction of guests and visitors who attend the many events, seminars and conferences held at the University.
“Wi-Fi opens up a range of possibilities to increase productivity and learning and is imperative to continuous access of information, applications, people and other resources. Our ambitious plan was to make fast, secure and resilient wireless connectivity available across the entire campus, whilst providing our students and staff the very best infrastructure,” said Ziad Eid, IT Director at USEK. “With over 8500 students, 1200 instructors, 400 staff and thousands of visitors and guests dependent on this deployment, we knew that we needed the industry leader’s support.”
As a customer with a six year long business relationship with Aruba, USEK was aware that the vendor had a clearly defined product roadmap that accommodated scalability and future-proofing. Guided by Triple C, an Aruba partner, the University selected Aruba access points (APs) that could support high user density without performance degradation, and extend coverage across large areas such as the auditorium, theatre, cafeteria and outdoor areas.
Smart features of the Aruba solution such as the ability to prioritise voice traffic from Microsoft Skype for Business, a business-critical communications application and ClientMatch – the automatic and seamless transitioning of users to the best AP for connectivity, particularly impressed Eid and his team.
USEK decided to use Aruba’s 802.11ac products, as these conform to the latest and highest performance international Wi-Fi standard. The large scale project involved the deployment of 570 Aruba AP205 access points for indoor areas, 20 Aruba AP225 access points for the high density common areas, and 10 Aruba AP275 access points for the outdoor areas.
USEK also utilised two Aruba 7220 Mobility Controllers for simplified management of its entire wireless infrastructure. The controllers added a wealth of features including remote management, configuration, reporting, and upgrade from a single pane of glass.
Abdo Karaki, Network and Security Manager at USEK said “We have been very satisfied with Aruba Networks solution. It is constantly reliable and easy to manage. The ClientMatch technology is fantastic and the voice roaming has been significantly enhanced.”
Owing to the USEK IT team’s familiarity with Aruba technologies, and the professional implementation services from Triple C, the project was expertly executed in under a month. “The ease of deployment was a crucial factor from a business perspective as it did not cause any disruption to our users. Also, the solution has been designed to provide high scalability supporting thousands of concurrent users from centralized management,” said Bernard Rizk, CEO, Triple C.
He added, “With Aruba’s wireless infrastructure, we were able to build a true mobility environment with identity-based access where users can seamlessly and securely roam anywhere. Moreover, they offered an outstanding voice quality and provided rich features, especially in voice prioritisation.”
It is important to note that USEK has also invested in HP wired networking solutions and has successfully deployed a core-to-edge wired network that is able to carry out cloud and virtualized applications as well as supporting a BYOD policy. The network was designed to be open standards based and integrated with the university’s existing virtualised HP Converged Infrastructure and hardware.
The HP wired network solution included dual redundant HP 10508 switches at the core, HP 5500 Switches in the aggregation layer, and HP 5120 switches at the access layer, with all switches consolidated into virtualized communities with HP’s Intelligent Resilient Framework (IRF) virtualization technology.
USEK has also plans to be an early adopter to wave 2 of 802.11ac Wi-Fi technology, and will deploy in the short term Access Points from Aruba Networks at selected locations. Mr. Eid and his team also plan to deploy Aruba ClearPass in the near future to enable access management and control of the University’s both wired and wireless systems from a single platform.
“We are extremely happy to see that USEK, a University famous for deploying cutting edge technologies at its campus, is upgrading their existing six-year old Aruba infrastructure to an 802.11ac capable one with us being the best match to their strict mobility requirements. Our patented client match technology, our tight integration with Microsoft Skype for Business, and our Access Points’ high performance in high density venues provided the premium mobility experience USEK was looking to deliver to their students, Faculty, staff and guests. Retaining a highly demanding customer like USEK requires a vendor with ‘Customer first, Customer last’ culture, a culture that Aruba is very well-known of being able to deliver,” said Rabih Itani, Technical Manager, Aruba Networks, an HP Company.
