Press Releases
University of Georgia's Continuing Education Center Chooses Ruckus Wireless Smart Wi-Fi to Replace Wired Network
Ruckus ZoneFlex WLAN System Delivers Range, Reliability and Capacity Throughout Huge Campus Conference and Housing Facility
SUNNYVALE, CA, April 1, 2008 – Ruckus Wireless announced today that the University of Georgia's (UGA) Center for Continuing Education Conference Center and Hotel has replaced its existing hotel wired network with Smart Wi-Fi as the sole means of network connectivity for hotel guests and visitors at the massive facility.
The move by the Georgia Center from their wired hotel network to a completely wireless infrastructure underscores two important trends: 1) the need for more ubiquitous wireless coverage to meet demands for network access by users with myriad wireless-enabled devices and 2) technical advances made in Wi-Fi technology that now allow Wi-Fi to be used as the primary means of connectivity.
Considered the world's largest and most comprehensive university-based conference center, the Georgia Center is located on the University's Athens campus and is host to thousands of visitors every year including conference and educational program participants, UGA and Athens visitors, sports fans and political dignitaries. The Georgia Center is a five-floor, 300,000-square-foot conference and housing facility that includes 200 guest rooms, two auditoriums, 18 conference rooms, five executive board rooms, a state-of-the-art computer laboratory, restaurants, exhibit space and spacious banquet facilities.
According to the Georgia Center, after an extensive search for suitable wireless solutions, the IT staff selected the Ruckus ZoneFlex system through One Media Wireless, a specialized reseller of Smart Wi-Fi systems to the hotel industry.
The Ruckus ZoneFlex system was chosen because it required fewer access points than competitive alternatives, allowed for Wi-Fi access points to be deployed without Ethernet cabling and provided longer-range and more reliable signals. In addition, the ZoneFlex system significantly reduced the support burden placed on the IT staff.
ZoneFlex-ing to Success
For the Georgia Center, the Ruckus ZoneFlex solution included only nine ZoneFlex 2942 Smart Wi-Fi 802.11g access points and a single ZoneDirector 1025 Smart Wireless LAN controller. In addition, the Georgia Center deployed 16 ZoneFlex 2925 Lite Mesh Gateways (LMGs) to provide Wi-Fi connectivity in locations where Ethernet cabling wasn't available. The ZoneFlex LMGs need only power to operate – acting as a single-hop, high-gain wireless bridge.
"We had wireless, but that wasn't the issue," said Corey Doster, the Associate Director of Information Technology at the Georgia Center. "The issue was reducing the support burden, providing a consistent user experience and getting reliable coverage in the hotel."
According to Doster, the Georgia Center IT staff was utilizing additional resources to maintain the hotel cable plant. This meant bringing in a third-party vendor to tune and repair the infrastructure. "We'd been searching for a reliable Wi-Fi system that we could use to replace our wired network in the hotel but most everything we found required hordes of access points and extensive Ethernet cabling to connect them all. The Ruckus ZoneFlex system completely changed the game."
Doster estimated that the cost of performing the necessary wiring of the building combined with the disruption to the hotel would equal roughly $50,000 – an amount far outside of their budget.
The Georgia Center's IT staff had been using the existing coaxial cable plant to provide both cable television and Internet access in all the guest rooms. Meanwhile, more and more guests were coming to the Georgia Center with Wi-Fi devices and laptops, demanding wireless access.
Additionally, UGA has strict requirements for authenticating all users regardless of the access method. Previously, the Georgia Center deployed multiple authentication methods for its wired and wireless networks thereby making the user experience inconsistent. The Ruckus ZoneFlex system seamlessly integrated with the Georgia Center's preferred authentication mechanism thereby providing users with a more uniform experience.
Another key factor in choosing ZoneFlex was the 24x7 third-party support for all troubleshooting and maintenance, explained Doster. Support and maintenance costs for the hotel's proprietary cable system ran the Georgia Center up to $3 per room each year. With the Ruckus ZoneFlex system, this cost was cut in half.
"The Ruckus ZoneFlex system was extremely simple to set up and fit perfectly into the university's security requirements. And the wireless mesh capabilities removed the need for costly Ethernet wiring to provide coverage in hard-to-reach areas. Before we found Ruckus, we weren't sure providing reliable, ubiquitous wireless access in the hotel would even be possible. Fortunately, we were wrong," said Doster.
Killer Coverage
The Georgia Center wasn't interested in providing Wi-Fi just anywhere. It needed to be everywhere. "We wanted killer coverage," said Doster. "Our guests are everywhere and expect a consistent experience with reliable connectivity. But extending Wi-Fi coverage to the hotel can be a costly proposition because to get it you must deploy an army of APs." With the Ruckus ZoneFlex system, the Georgia Center now offers guests a seamless experience from anywhere within the facility – indoors or out of doors.
"At the end of the day, the Ruckus Smart Wi-Fi system was less than half the capital cost of any other alternative, saving us tens of thousands of dollars by not having to run Ethernet everywhere while providing significant savings in annual maintenance costs. We now have a ubiquitous wireless network that can be accessed everywhere in the facility with a unified user experience, providing our guests strong and fast connections. That's what Wi-Fi is supposed to be all about."