The Office of Information Technology at Auburn University recently announced their plans to replace the Wi-Fi network AU_Wi-Fi with eduroam to provide students with improved internet speed and the ability to access Auburn data beyond campus.
The new Wi-Fi, along with other improvements, will ensure students and faculty have uninterrupted and improved access to the internet, something that has not always been the case.
Brad Garnett, network manager for OIT, explained the decision to replace AU_Wi-Fi.
“Last fall we saw an increase in users during the first classes, and at the start of the second classes around 10 a.m. we started to get alerts that our wireless infrastructure was having issues,” Garnett said. “Students were calling in saying they couldn’t get connected in classes.”
While troubleshooting with Auburn’s wireless vendor, Aruba Networks, Garnett shared the issue his team discovered.
“We had overrun the capacity of the entire wireless system,” Garnett said.
To prevent the same issue from happening next fall, Garnett’s team anticipates and prepares for a similar increase in human and wireless capacity. Human capacity refers to the number of people that can fit in a room, while wireless capacity refers to the number of devices.
Garnett explains that in classrooms that fit more than 199 humans, they adjusted their profiles to better support the wireless capacity. This change will ensure that rooms with higher human capacities do not face issues with network speed.
In these classrooms, OIT plans to add newer access points that can fit close to 150 devices compared to 50 devices on older models. Starting the project now will allow OIT to get ahead of the anticipated growth for fall.
Among these changes is the removal of AU_Wi-Fi over the summer. Its successor, eduroam, will serve the same purpose for students. To log in to eduroam, students and faculty can use their auburn credentials.
Jim O’Connor, vice president of OIT, shared a new feature students should expect from eduroam.
“At any university that uses eduroam, you can use your Auburn credentials to log in to their Wi-Fi," O'Connor said.
Starting in the fall, students and staff can access eduroam using their Auburn credentials.
When it comes to financials, Garnett spends over $2 million a year to maintain the network and capacity for Auburn University. Another project he is working on is to replace older switches across campus, which will cost $1.5 million a year. These devices connect users to the backbone of the network at Auburn.
Student experience is the number one priority of OIT and is a driving force behind their commitment to the projects happening now and over the summer.
“[Student experience] is our goal, we all take that charge and run with it. I was a student here and it means something to me,” Garnett said.
Commitment to student experience is what also drives Garnett’s team out in the middle of the week and the middle of the night. The team is made of seven professionals who work to maintain wireless, wired and server infrastructure.
“If the power goes out and the dorms go down, we’re on campus trying to fight those fires," Garnett said.
The release date for eduroam is currently unknown, with Garnett explaining that the project is still in the design phase. Once the date is solidified, students should expect more information to come soon.
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