The wireless network will cover 66 buildings across three square miles. It will include over 1,300 Access Points and cater for 30,000 students, 5,000 staff and visiting guests. The goals of the University are to ensure maximum wireless coverage by expanding the existing wireless capability for the whole Cathays campus and outlying peripheral sites. In addition, it has to help realise the goals of the Modern Working Environment project that is the core of the university’s Information Services Strategy for the future.
“We want to enhance the wireless networking service as much as possible, to improve the users experience and to ensure the service is as robust, resilient as possible with the least amount of Man effort for ongoing management.” said Anthony Cope IT Manager Cardiff University.
“We are delighted to be working with the IT team at Cardiff University to provide a comprehensive networking solution” Said Brian Andrews of RM. “The complexity of the site means we had to design and build a wireless network for buildings of diverse design and structure that would be world class and fully scalable and provide networking services to wireless devices of varying types”.
The need for a university to plan for full capacity at times when the campus is densely populated and empty at others, as well as maintaining a high quality of service, by tailoring the network response to application requirements, means that the university had to deploy a centrally managed management platform that does not take up too much time for the IT staff.
The platform chosen was Ringmaster from Trapeze because of the ease of use.
The ease of support and troubleshooting were major consideration when designing the network.
“Building such a large wireless network demonstrates that the demand for fully scalable wireless networks is out there and showcases our technology,” said Alistair Mutch Director of UK and Ireland for Trapeze networks.
“Ringmaster is clearly the product that pulls everything that this wireless network service offers together. It allows the administrator to configure, control and monitor all the devices and users on the network at the click of a button.”