Meru Education-grade Solutions for Uninterrupted Learning SOLUTION BRIEF HIGHER EDUCATION
WLAN Solutions for Higher Education Many campus networks are being crushed by the bring your own device (BYOD) phenomenon. Wi-Fi-enabled devices will grow from fewer than one billion units in 2010 to more than three billion in 2015, and a large number of these devices will end up on university campuses. What is the impact on students, faculty, staff, and guests? Unmet expectations. It s something we call Interrupted Learning. Wi-Fi-enabled devices will grow from less than 1 billion units in 2010 to over 3 billion in 2015. 1 Interrupted Learning occurs when technology gets in the way of, or fails to support, your innovative goals for technology integration. In many cases, BYOD makes it harder than ever to quickly onboard users devices and map them to IT policies. BYOD also makes it harder to connect devices to the network and users to information due to capacity crunches, coverage gaps, unfair network access, dropped calls, and RF interference. Finally, BYOD impacts teaching and learning, as digital classroom management and wireless consumer services such as screen sharing and wireless printing must deal with a diversity of client OS platforms, screen sizes, and form factors, often with different network behaviors. Meru s virtualized wireless network and identity management solutions have helped higher education institutions worldwide overcome their wireless challenges. To help you strive for Uninterrupted Learning, we offer the Meru Education-grade (MEG ) wireless platform. MEG wireless is a unique platform from Meru Networks designed to solve many of your BYOD issues and launch your learning-essential applications. Meru Education-grade Wireless Platform It starts with 3 simple steps: 1. Onboard quickly with BYOD provisioning and secure wireless access mapped to IT policies. 2. Connect all BYOD devices reliably anywhere on campus. Onboard BYOD Management Connect WLAN Solutions Learn Academic Applications 3. Learn by deploying validated learning and teaching applications on BYOD devices over a MEG wireless platform. 1 Gartner Research, Mark Hung, Market Trends: Future Platforms for Wi-Fi Growth, 2011-2015, June 29, 2011
Onboard With the crush of BYOD and the diversity of devices, is onboarding your biggest challenge? Ten thousand students move in on the same day with 3 5 devices each, and all of them expect Internet access within minutes of stepping on your campus. Will they connect to the right access point, SSID, and VLAN? Do you have a BYOD policy, and does it require 802.1X for all wireless, with wired for the rest? How do you address the challenge of configuring 802.1X and certifications, especially on Windows? Are your developers writing a home-brewed onboarding application, or are you simply paying the cost of onboarding at the help desk? BYOD challenges such as these are addressed by the Meru Education-grade wireless platform. All of this is achieved without your IT teams ever having to configure any user device or access points. It s all centrally managed, monitored, and reported. Meru Smart Connect onboarding tool automates BYOD provisioning, even 802.1X, for virtually any client. A majority of students own about a dozen technology devices ECAR National Study of Undergraduate Students and Information Technology, 2011 Meru Guest Connect for automated guest access for virtually any client on any network. Step 1 Authenticate using Web authentication Step 2 Download an applet to configure 802.1X Step 3 Automatically connect with 802.1X Encrypted Access Point Supported Platforms
Connect Students expect to be able to work, learn, and study whenever and wherever they want. 2 And in today s move-and-do campus, that often means with a mobile device like a laptop, tablet, or smartphone. As with their experience at home, students expect applications delivered over Wi-Fi to simply work. They also expect to be connected immediately, and stay connected but thousands of concurrent sessions and interference from a roommate s gaming console can spoil the party. BYOD challenges such as these are addressed by the Meru Education-grade wireless platform, which provides unprecedented flexibility at the access layer to deliver reliable and predictable connectivity in classrooms. Meru provides a comprehensive portfolio to support ubiquitous coverage: classrooms, lecture halls, libraries, stadiums, outdoors, and even teacher and staff homes for pandemic preparedness. Like other vendors, Meru supports traditional planning-intensive deployment modes, but our unique single-channel architecture simplifies deployment by eliminating extensive channel planning. Meru Virtual Cell technology provides seamless mobility and predictable voice and video performance, and our channel layering can deliver nearly twice the capacity of competing solutions in dense environments such as lecture halls, libraries, and computer labs. Meru Difference Meru manages the RF, so you can manage your network, faculty can manage their classes, and students can manage their assignments. Air Traffic Control Always connect to the best AP Airtime Fairness Each device connects to its potential Virtual Cell Provides zerohandoff seamless roaming We easily support students expectations of ubiquitous wireless access. The Meru virtualized wireless LAN works with laptops and any mobile device that anyone brings to campus, including mobile handheld devices, gaming devices, smartphones, and entertainment devices. Matt Barber, Network Manager Morrisville State College Channel Layering Stack access points for capacity, or traffic isolation. 2 Horizon Report on Higher Education, 2012
Learn 21 st century skills may be open to interpretation, but it is generally agreed that teaching and learning must transform to prepare today s students for lifelong learning in a digital, interconnected, always-on world built on communication and collaboration. Most IT projects implemented by schools have some dependency on mobile devices, often brought by users themselves as part of the BYOD phenomenon. In turn, these devices, which connect users to information and each other, depend on a reliable WLAN. A reliable Meru Education-grade wireless platform enables learning-essential applications such as: Apple Learning Environments Some teachers will use a flipped classroom concept, putting their lessons and resources online, where students can access them anytime with their ipads. As a result, students take responsibility for their own learning, and teachers are able to increase their interactions and personalize content time. Unified Communications & Collaboration Schools are looking for integrated productivity tools that enable students and faculty to communicate from anywhere in a cost-effective and secure manner. Many have chosen Microsoft Lync because it delivers a mobile and seamless user experience. The Meru Networks Virtualized Wireless LAN was designed from the ground up for voice. Unlike other WLAN solutions where clients must re-associate on every roam, clients stay connected at the 802.11 layer and at the IP layer. With Meru, they can achieve up to 100X faster roaming. Digital Classroom Management A LanSchool classroom management system can facilitate learning and collaboration by allowing instructors to show their screen to the students, share video and files, administer polls and exams, and assist students with remote control and chat. With LanSchool, instructors can keep students on task by monitoring the classroom in real time. LanSchool removes digital distractions and gives teachers the tools and confidence to teach in a 21 st century classroom. Meru Smart Connect enables faster class starts, and a reliable WLAN with RF virtualization allows instructors to stick to the digital lesson plan and avoid moonlighting as IT help desk. Federated Access with eduroam eduroam (education roaming) is the secure, worldwide roaming access service developed for the international research and education community. eduroam allows students, researchers, and staff from participating institutions to obtain Internet connectivity across campus and when visiting other participating institutions by simply opening their laptop. eduroam is a RADIUS-based solution that requires 802.1X client authentication. Your participating campus can create an onramp to eduroam by deploying Meru s Identity Manager suite for flexible and easy guest access and automated 802.1X BYOD device provisioning. We started issuing ipads to freshmen two years ago, and will now include nearly all full-time students as of this year. Information access using mobile devices is both ubiquitous and simple, so the idea of the sage on the stage delivering basic data to students isn t a good model anymore. The focus is now on collaboration and digital discussion. Using AppleTV and AirPlay in the classroom for both faculty and students is a perfect adjunct to the use of the ipad as a mobile teaching tool in higher education. Peter Harvin, CIO Anderson University itunes U audio and video downloads: 700 million edudemic
Flexible Wi-Fi deployment on campus Large Campus MC6000 5000 Access Points Medium Campus MC4200 500 Access Points Remote Campus MC1550 50 Access Points Home (Teacher/Staff) AP110 Dormitory AP1014 Outdoors OAP433e Lecture Hall/ Library/Stadium AP332 Small-Medium Classroom <25 Students AP1020 Large Classroom >25 Students AP332 Remote Location
Meru delivers an all-wireless network that fully supports the enterprise, delivering a consistent, interactive experience for all users. No matter what applications they are running. No matter how many other users are on the network. For more information, visit www.merunetworks.com or email your questions to: info@merunetworks.com Meru Networks Copyright 2012 Meru Networks, Inc. All rights reserved worldwide. Meru Networks is a registered trademark of Meru Networks, Inc. All other trademarks, trade names, or service marks mentioned in this document are the property of their respective owners. Meru Networks assumes no responsibility for any inaccuracies in this document. Meru Networks reserves the right to change, modify, transfer, or otherwise revise this publication without notice. 11.12 SB1002.US Corporate Headquarters 894 Ross Drive, Sunnyvale, CA 94089 T +1.408.215.5300 F +1.408.215.5301 E info@merunetworks.com