Benedict College Selects Ruckus Wireless for Super Multimedia 802.11n Wi-Fi Network to Blanket 100-Acre Campus

Smart Wi-Fi Technology Gives Benedict College Better Wi-Fi Range and Reliability at a Fraction of the Cost of Traditional Solutions

SUNNYVALE, CA, June 8, 2009 – Ruckus Wireless™ today announced that it has been selected by Benedict College (Benedict) in Columbia, South Carolina, to supply advanced “Smart Wi-Fi” products and technology for an immense, campus-wide, indoor/outdoor 802.l1n network.

Benedict is among the first college in the country to deploy a pervasive dual-band 802.11n infrastructure that uses Ruckus' patented Smart Wi-Fi technology to uniquely support streaming video, voice and data applications. The college is deploying 168 dual-band 802.11n Zone-Flex 7962 Smart Wi-Fi access points along with the Zone-Director 3250 smart WLAN controller.

Dr. Stacey Franklin Jones, Vice President for Institutional Effectiveness/Sponsored Programs and Research said that Benedict College’s Wi-Fi Network will be redesigned to incorporate the newest dual-band 802.11n Smart Wi-Fi technology with dynamic beamforming to support a wide range of applications from the most basic data transfers, management and manipulation via the Internet; to state-of-the-art research, instruction and campus operations support for virtualization, IP radio, television and security video surveillance.

Dynamic beamforming is one of the newest breakthroughs in Wi-Fi technology that constantly forms and directs Wi-Fi signals over the best performing signal path, continually steering signals around obstacles and interference that can degrade performance. Dynamic beamforming uses constant feedback from the client to ensure that the path selected is performing properly using standard acknowledgements built into the standard 802.11 protocol. The result is an adaptive system that provides better performance and longer range, and automatically adapts to environmental changes without IT staff having to perform any manual tuning.

"The advances that Ruckus has made in the area of dynamic beamforming are beneficial to the college environment,” said Dr. Jones. “This technology enables Benedict to implement a campus-wide 802.11n network with fewer APs, better reliability and inherent multimedia support at a fraction of the cost and maintenance of conventional wireless LAN systems.”

Benedict is deploying dual-band 802.11n APs using standard 802.3af power over Ethernet (PoE) connections. The Ruckus ZoneFlex 7962 AP is one of the only dual-band 802.11n devices on the market to support standard PoE using two simultaneous Wi-Fi radios. This eliminates significant cost and time needed to upgrade wiring of closet PoE switches.

Previously Benedict had deployed Cisco Wi-Fi access points on a limited basis throughout some administrative buildings, but had not made a strategic commitment to the technology.

"The vision extends far beyond the obvious improvement of campus-wide connectivity for students, faculty and staff,” said Dr. Jones. “The deployment and use of dynamic beamforming technology establishes the Benedict as a pioneer in providing the greater campus community with reliable broadband access. It’s just the beginning. We’re excited and have a number of multimedia applications on the drawing board that push the envelope of virtualization, surveillance and other services that will serve our campus and surrounding communities.”

Due to the scope and breadth of the project, Benedict management information staff spent significant time surveying the best Wi-Fi practices of more than 20 universities. Four major issues with the deployment of Wi-Fi within the higher education market were noted: 1) poor signal coverage, 2) dropped connections, 3) inconsistent, erratic performance and 4) complex configuration and management.

“The Benedict College deployment is especially important to us as it our survived the rigor of the selection process of Dr. Stacey Franklin Jones, a noted and award winning expert in the area of electronically agile/dynamic beamforming technologies,” said David Callisch, VP of Marketing at Ruckus Wireless.