Reliable and Secure Digital Learning Environment Elevates the Student Experience

Beijing, China — January 15, 2018 — Ruckus Networks, an ARRIS company, a leader in wired and wireless networking technology, today announced the completion of a network upgrade and reconstruction program at Dalian Neusoft University of Information. The network upgrade allows the educational institute to offer expanded high-speed wireless Internet access across its entire campus and paves the way for a variety of new applications and big data analysis of traffic on the system in order to improve the learning experience.

Dalian Neusoft University of Information is a private university founded by Neusoft Holdings in the year 2000 in Liaoning Province, North East China, with a gross floor area of 399,000 square meters. The university focuses on engineering as a core discipline and is located on the main section of Dalian Software Park and comprises 14 teaching institutions with over 14,000 students. The network upgrades covers the area of all 25 dormitory buildings and some public spaces, including classrooms, the library and dining halls.

As an independent university, and a model of innovation and entrepreneurship, expectations were high for a quality experience to access computer networks, Internet research and use of collaborative technologies and for mobile access to campus services without interruption or hassles. The previous network suffered from slow download speeds, recurring login problems and frequent outages, bringing inconvenience to users. Student complaints might affect the reputation of the university, especially given its engineering focus.

“We had an urgent need to improve our network services for our teachers and students, and support our university to implement more value-added services, run analysis on big data, and provide vital reference for the management of the university,” said Zou Xiang, director of network and information center of Dalian Neusoft University of Information.

Ruckus completed the first phase of the network upgrades in just 20 days – from confirmation of deployment location, installation and configuration of access points, PoE switches and controllers.

The upgrade covered 25 dormitory buildings and some public areas such as classrooms, the library and dining halls. A total of 1,330 Ruckus R310 access points (APs) and 200 R510 APs were deployed, managed by a Ruckus SmartZone virtual WLAN Controller, powered by 65 Ruckus ICX7150 wired Ethernet switches. The campus users access the network with 802.1x authentication to achieve a more secure campus wireless network.

The low-latency, non-blocking architecture of the Ruckus ICX 7150 family switches helps ensure the needed throughput for the most demanding classes of service such as videos, unified communications and VDI, as well as high bandwidth mobile applications. The combination of Ruckus ICX 7150 switches and Ruckus smart Wi-Fi access points achieves not only gigabit data transmission speeds, but also powerful and stable network performance for teachers and students.

The university first deployed its wireless network several years ago. Due to limited budget, the network only provided fundamental wireless network access at the 802.11n/g standard. One to two access points were shared by over 180 mobile devices, serving 60-90 users from 15 dormitory rooms on the same floor. Network availability, stability and speed never met the requirements of those students.

Ruckus has a solid configuration experience in campus network upgrades. It has successfully deployed innovative wireless and wired solutions in more than 60 universities in China, including Capital Normal University, Jinan University, Sun Yat-sen University, Xi’an University of Posts & Telecommunications and Southwest University of Political Science and Law, acquiring a remarkable reputation in the industry. The successful configuration by Ruckus at Dalian Neusoft University of Information has set another standout example and the result was highly appreciated by the IT team.

Lei Tao, minister of operation and maintenance department, network and information center, also request differentiated access strategies for effective operation and management. The Ruckus Cloudpath Enrollment System will be deployed in the second phase of network update to easily and reliably secure connection of wired and wireless devices from users and visitors, regardless of the harsh environment, and liberate users and IT staff from tedious password authentication. Separately, Cloudpath security and policy management software enables the IT department to assign each device to each user and apply access policies for both to eliminate unauthorized access and bad surfing habits of individuals.

The Ruckus SPoT real-time Wi-Fi location engine and analytics software enables IT administrators to visualize the students’ traffic flow according to the heat maps of different regions, floors and sites, thus monitoring students’ direction and whereabouts and even analyze the students’ behavior. Introducing this technology to the school's attendance system makes it more convenient to record attendance.

"Wi-Fi networks have become a fundamental infrastructure in the higher education sector,” said William Ho, Vice President, Asia Pacific & Japan, Ruckus Networks. “Ruckus is constantly innovating wireless and wired technology to meet users’ new demands for networks and develop more data applications and value-added services solutions for customers, making further management and operation more convenient while enabling users to enjoy simple and excellent networks."

About Dalian Neusoft University of Information

Dalian Neusoft University of Information is a private university approved by the Ministry of Education and invested and founded by Neusoft Holdings. The university is located at the core region of Dalian Software Park in Dalian, charming costal city. Covering a gross floor area of 399,000 square meters, Dalian Neusoft University of Information is a university focusing on engineering, with 14 teaching institutions and over 14,000 students majoring in four discipline fields — Engineering, Management, Art and Literature.