Surfs Up, Costs Down in Dormitory Wi-Fi Networks Thanks to Aruba Networks

Aruba Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:ARUN), a global leader in distributed enterprise network solutions, today announced that colleges and universities are passing over expensive Ethernet or coaxial cabling plants in dormitories in favor of adaptive 802.11n wireless networks. Positioned in the "Leaders” quadrant in Gartner's 2009 "Magic Quadrant for Wireless LAN Infrastructure (Global)”* report, Aruba is one of the foremost suppliers of wireless LANs to educational institutions worldwide, with best-in-class capacity, client density, security, and reliability.

Aruba’s 802.11n Wi-Fi delivers wire-like performance at speeds surpassing fast Ethernet, and is ideal for the high-speed file transfer, gaming, and multi-media applications commonly used by students. Since Aruba’s 802.11n networks can simultaneously broadcast multiple IP-based TV (IPTV) channels, they minimize the need for coaxial cable to carry video. Students gain mobility unavailable from a wired network while schools significantly reduce both capital and operating expenses.

"Today, wireless connectivity has become table stakes for higher education network connectivity,” said Tim Zimmerman, Principal Research Analyst at Gartner. "Student’s have grown up using wireless as their default connectivity method, using wired connections by exception only. The momentum of wireless growth is not expected to slow down as students are using wireless to connect not only laptops but cell phones, video games and other devices that increase both the density of devices within the coverage area but also the demand for capacity."*

St. Michael’s College

St. Michael’s College occupies a 440-acre campus in Colchester, Vermont. As a residential school, all 1,900 undergraduate students at St. Michael's are provided with housing at one of the school’s eight residence halls and apartment complexes. The school’s residences were originally equipped with wired LANs, but many students had never used a wired connection and they became increasingly vocal about wanting the mobility only a Wi-Fi network could provide – and which most students already enjoyed at home.

"All of our dorms had wired connections but technology is moving to a wireless world,” said William Anderson, CIO of St. Michael’s College. "We were getting to a point where the lack of wireless in the dorms was putting us at a competitive disadvantage, and a percentage of students were choosing to go to other schools because of it.”

An RFP was issued and authorized Aruba partner Adaptive Communications was selected to deploy an Aruba 802.11n network, managed by the AirWave Wireless Management Suite, throughout the residence facilities. Adaptive’s seven year history of selling Aruba products, its deep line-up of reference accounts in Vermont, and its reputation as a provider of complete network and security implementation services helped clinch the 270 access point project.

"Students have been very happy to have wireless in the dorms,” continued Anderson. "Students are continuously and reliably using their laptops, iPhones, iPod Touches, and gaming systems on the new Aruba network. The Aruba system has proven especially effective at handling this chaotic environment with a mix of clients and heavy usage by providing a reliable wired-like service over the air. Our staff used to go to the dorms frequently to repair broken data jacks, but since the wireless network was installed our dorm visits have dropped to just about zero because wired Ethernet is rarely used. When the time comes to replace our Ethernet switches we’ll rightsize them, replacing only the small fraction of switches now required. One added benefit of the new system is that the AirWave tool provides a level of visibility into our network we never had before. We’ve even been able to use it track stolen laptops to individual rooms on campus.”

Liberty University

The high-capacity of Aruba’s 802.11n network enabled Liberty University to deploy a system that encodes and wirelessly distributes multi-channel IP-based television (IPTV) in campus dormitories and other buildings around its 6,500 acre Lynchburg, Virginia campus. "We discarded our wired IPTV plans in favor of the wireless Aruba network because the wired approach didn’t meet the needs of our increasingly mobile user community,” said Mark Norris, Liberty University’s Director of IT Operations.

"By rightsizing the video delivery infrastructure - leveraging 802.11n Wi-Fi everywhere possible and minimizing reliance on expensive coaxial and Ethernet cabling plants - the University significantly enhanced user mobility while reducing capital and operating expenses,” continued Norris. Today the network delivers 15 live TV channels over the wireless network, and was tested to more than 30 channels.

West Chester University of Pennsylvania

For West Chester University of Pennsylvania sustainability was as much a factor as wireless capacity when the decision came to cut the cord in its dormitories. The university deployed Aruba 802.11n Wi-Fi networks at two of its newest residence halls, and intends to forgo wired LANs in future residence halls in favor of Wi-Fi.

"We closely considered the projected sustainability and monetary benefits of using Aruba’s 802.11n networks versus bringing Ethernet to the pillow, and Wi-Fi won hands down,” said Adel Barimani, WCU’s CIO and Interim Vice President of Information Services. "Our university is committed to reducing its carbon footprint and promoting sustainability. The reduced cooling and power requirements of the Wi-Fi networks lower the carbon footprint of each building by roughly 25 metric tons per year, and at the same time offers our students the flexibility of accessing Technology Services anywhere in the residence halls.”

In addition to sustainability benefits, Barimani estimates that using Wi-Fi networks in lieu of data cabling in residence halls saves West Chester University approximately $100,000 per existing building, and $250,000 for each new building. Savings come from eliminating roughly 1050 Ethernet ports and fourteen 80-port switches per seven-story residence hall.

Brandeis University

Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts, obtained similar savings when it rolled out Aruba 802.11n networks in its residence halls. On new academic buildings Brandeis had obtained better-than-Ethernet connectivity using 802.11n, while lowering the access layer budget by 30% compared with a wired Ethernet network. Similar savings were also obtained in the dormitories.

"When the time came to plan our new humanities building we cut our office wired ports in half going to four Ethernet ports per room instead of eight,” said John Turner, Director of Networks and Systems at Brandeis. "Both our switching equipment and installation costs dropped by more than 30% and we project a $130,000 annual energy savings across campus. Today more than 85% of our users are wireless-only, and this number is rising. Moving forward all new residence halls will employ all-wireless designs.”

New Revenue Opportunities

The migration to Aruba’s 802.11n wireless LANs is both a cost-cutting opportunity and a revenue-generating one, too. Aruba’s unique, user-centric architecture and policy enforcement firewall enables schools to sell tiered access services to dormitory residents and guests.

For example, a fee-based premium access subscription tied to a specific user could offer increased bandwidth and higher priority service based on time and location. With many universities struggling to recoup the revenue lost from telephone service and Ethernet port activation, a tiered service built on to a carrier subscription model could provide welcome added revenue.

To learn more about rightsizing – and how colleges and universities are lowering the cost of data, voice, and video distribution using Aruba’s adaptive 802.11n solutions – please visit http://www.arubanetworks.com/solutions/network_rightsizing.php.

About Aruba Networks

Aruba is the global leader in distributed enterprise networks. Its award-winning portfolio of campus, branch/teleworker, and mobile solutions simplify operations and secure access to all corporate applications and services – regardless of the user’s device, location, or network. This dramatically improves productivity and lowers capital and operational costs.

Listed on the NASDAQ and Russell 2000® Index, Aruba is based in Sunnyvale, California, and has operations throughout the Americas, Europe, Middle East, and Asia Pacific regions. To learn more, visit Aruba at http://www.arubanetworks.com. For real-time news updates follow Aruba on Twitter, Facebook, or the Green Island News Blog.

About the Gartner Magic Quadrant

The Magic Quadrant is copyrighted 2010 by Gartner, Inc. and is reused with permission. The Magic Quadrant is a graphical representation of a marketplace at and for a specific time period. It depicts Gartner's analysis of how certain vendors measure against criteria for that marketplace, as defined by Gartner. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in the Magic Quadrant, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors placed in the "Leaders" quadrant. The Magic Quadrant is intended solely as a research tool, and is not meant to be a specific guide to action. Gartner disclaims all warranties, express or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

© 2010 Aruba Networks, Inc. AirWave^®, Aruba Networks^®, Aruba Mobility Management System^®, Bluescanner, For Wireless That Works^®, Mobile Edge Architecture, People Move. Networks Must Follow^®, The All-Wireless Workplace Is Now Open For Business, RFprotect, Green Island, and The Mobile Edge Company^® are trademarks of Aruba Networks, Inc. All rights reserved. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

^* Gartner, Inc. "Magic Quadrant for Wireless LAN Infrastructure (Global)" by Michael J. King and Timothy Zimmerman, February 12, 2010.