Thapar Institute of Engineering & Technology

RUCKUS® solutions help build a smarter campus

With a 63-year legacy, the Thapar Institute of Engineering & Technology (TIET) has contributed to many technological advancements and scientific breakthroughs within India and beyond. With the growing prevalence of multimedia in higher education and the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) trend, having seamless Wi-Fi connectivity forms the very backbone of the digital pedagogy at the campus, as well as to enhance both research efforts and activities, including improving research outcomes for both undergraduate and post-graduate programs.

THE CHALLENGE

TIET’s 250-acre campus houses 33 active sites including 14 student hostels, staff residences, academic buildings, a library, a dining area and the director’s office. As the hub of activity for 8500 students and 900 staff members, the institute wanted to revamp the network infrastructure as the Wi-Fi experience was inconsistent. This was due to an increasingly burgeoning digital footprint, which lead to the existing Wi-Fi infrastructure not being able to keep up with the demands of an agile 24x7 student body. IT staff also spent significant time onboarding new devices on the network, as well as to upgrade or replace access points (APs) as they failed.

Requirements
  • A scalable WLAN infrastructure
  • Campus-wide Wi-Fi connectivity
  • Secure and fast network on-boarding for staff members
  • Seamless network management
Solutions
  • SmartMesh networking to optimize AP performance
  • 1,267 indoor and outdoor APs were deployed to offer campus-wide Wi-Fi connectivity
  • Dynamic Pre-Shared Keys (DPSK) ensured secure on-boarding for students and staff members
  • ZoneDirector 3000 and SmartZone controller simplified management of APs
Benefits
  • Campus network accommodates over 7000 devices concurrently with seamless Wi-Fi
  • Self-organizing SmartMesh networking facilitated seamless connectivity over architectural hurdles of the campus.
  • DPSK ensured real time network onboarding for students, freeing IT staff to focus on other more important tasks
  • The ZoneDirector and SmartZone controllers simplified complexity by scaling and managing both wired switches APs through a unified interface
To learn more about this project:

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