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OSU Goes WiFi with Aruba
Associate Editor
Integrating two of today’s most widely discussed communications fields — wireless and security — Aruba Networks builds systems that allow enterprises to seamlessly introduce wireless, security, and mobility services over their existing wired networks and manage those services from a single point.
Enterprises often find themselves in a bit of a conundrum in that they have a real desire to upgrade to wireless to raise business productivity, but they neither want nor can afford to disrupt their existing wireline networks, compromise security, or spend an entire budget installing and managing a second (or third or fourth) network.
 Aruba’s system was specifically designed to cope with this dilemma and helps resolve this issue for both wireless and wireline networks. Aruba’s solution provides easy to install wireless access points (APs) that can be deployed in user space instead of in ceilings and other hard to reach places. It also requires authentication and enforces access controls per user prior to allowing network access. Aruba’s systems leverage the existing IP network as a simple transport mechanism, so no logical or physical changes are needed.
One of the most heavily permeated verticals, in terms of wireless installations, is education. Local school districts and colleges and universities all have found it highly beneficial for students and faculty alike to have wireless access system wide. The latest school to deploy an Aruba WLAN solution is Oklahoma State University (OSU), which has deployed the technology at its Tulsa (OSU-Tulsa) and Center for Health Sciences (CHS) campuses. The Aruba implementations have placed both campuses at the forefront of technologically advanced institutions and have created a natural differentiator for the entire system, whereby users have secure mobile access across the system.
OSU has deployed five Aruba 2400 mobility controllers and more than 100 Aruba AP-70 centrally managed access points (APs) to provide wireless Internet access throughout the CHS campus and to more than 2,600 students at the OSU-Tulsa campus. According to the school, Aruba’s key benefits included ease of installation and management of the system, along with the security options offered.
The Aruba 2400 mobility controller is equipped with 24 10/100 Mbps Ethernet ports and 2 Gigabit Ethernet (GBIC) uplinks. Each controller supports up to 48 APs and as many as 512 simultaneous users, delivering up to 400 Mbps of encrypted throughput via an integrated hardware-accelerated encryption engine. 
The AP 70 is a multipurpose dual-radio “hybrid” access point that provides concurrent operation of 802.11a and 802.11b/g services, as well as secure wired access through an additional Ethernet port. It also is capable of serving as an RF monitor across the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz spectrums in addition to acting as a wireless AP.
“The centralized Web-based management was one of the key components we were looking for,” explained Ricky Schultz, one of OSU-Tulsa's network specialists. “Aruba’s APs really are ‘plug and play,’ compared with our past deployments, where we had to manually configure each AP before installation.”
OSU also realized immediate cost savings by not having to buy wireline switches and pull wire to common student areas, auditoriums, and classrooms for network access. Aruba’s Mobile Edge architecture is deployed as a seamless overlay on top of the existing wired network, requiring no physical or logical reconfiguration. As a result, Aruba provides the two sites with complete mobility campus-wide while simultaneously delivering significant cost savings.
The CHS campus also plans to extend the wireless network to its medical clinics for their everyday business, such as access to electronic medical records via laptops and tablet PCs. The OSU-Tulsa campus plans to expand its wireless infrastructure to include a large research facility currently under construction.
Erik Linask is Associate Editor of INTERNET TELEPHONY. Most recently, he was Managing Editor at Global Custodian, an international securities services publication. To see more of his articles, please visit Erik Linask’s columnist page.
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