GEC NEWS WIREUniversity of Bahrain has implemented a state-of-the-art wireless network infrastructure from Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company, that provides high performance connectivity for over 26,000 students and 1,800 staff. Kanoo IT, Aruba’s integration partner in Bahrain carried out the implementation.
Eng. Attiya, Director of IT Center, University of Bahrain says, “We wanted our staff and students to take advantage of the mobility revolution as our goal is to transform into a digital university. A high performance Wi-Fi network would be fundamental to this vision. As smartphone penetration in Bahrain exploded, we began to see these devices become much more prevalent in our campus. We were presented with an opportunity to introduce new mobile services but needed to upgrade our wireless infrastructure.”
One of the biggest challenges during deployment was the sheer scale of the project. Over 80 buildings had to be included for coverage and access to these could be hampered by security policies, university operational hours and other such factors.
Mr. Alabdi, Head of Information Networks Division – IT Center, University of Bahrain said, “We offer a unique mobile app for student registration and during this period of the academic year, we have up to 600 students in one particular area. But since each Aruba AP can handle 100-120 simultaneous connections, we manage this peak volume with a minimal number of APs.”
