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DHBW - Baden-Württemberg Cooperative State University
DHBW brings their WLAN to high-speed level with Aruba
The Baden-Württemberg Cooperative State University (DHBW) is the leading university for dual, practice-integrated training in Germany. With over 34,000 students and more than 125,000 alumni, the DHBW is the largest university in the state. The university cooperates with renowned companies and social institutions to offer (inter)nationally accredited Bachelor's degree programs in business, technology and social work. Experience a unique combination of theory and practice at the DHBW in order to be optimally prepared for professional challenges.
The Baden-Württemberg Cooperative State University (DHBW) has nine locations and three campuses. The DHBW has been offering comprehensive wireless LAN (WLAN) at all locations for several years. It is used both by students on site and by the administration and enables remote connection and working from home. "Students now take WLAN for granted," explains Dipl.-Ing. Hardy Lau, the IT engineer responsible at the Friedrichshafen campus. "Quite a few use the network with several devices. To ensure the best possible performance at all times, we keep an eye on the Wi-Fi market and make adjustments where necessary."
As part of this drive for innovation, those responsible decided to upgrade to the new 802.11ac WLAN standard at the Friedrichshafen site. Previously, 802.11n solutions from Aruba Networks had been installed since 2009. The many years of experience with these products and their perceived excellent performance meant that Aruba was once again chosen for 802.11ac. The manufacturer thus prevailed against numerous competitors, including Cisco.
In order to expand the existing network to 802.11ac, the IT staff at the DHBW site in Friedrichshafen installed 58 access points (APs). At the heart of the installation is an Aruba 3600 controller with AP licenses, PEFNG firewall and RFP wireless intrusion detection, protection and containment. Students can also log into the university network remotely via VPN connections using the Aruba Via client for remote connection and thus authorize themselves to use the online library, for example. No other new technical installations were required.
The extended installation is based on early adopter software for which the old access points are not compatible. The environment therefore had to be completely relocated as quickly as possible. The changeover took place during ongoing operations, with the support teams from aeroaccess and Aruba providing assistance. After just a few days, all the work was completed and the network for around 1,800 users was set up in a stable and comprehensive manner.
"Aruba is the most scalable product ever for us," comments Hardy Lau. "With the current controller, we could expand the network almost indefinitely. We very rarely receive queries regarding WLAN usage because the Aruba solution is very user-friendly. The construction of a new building is planned for the coming year, which will of course also be equipped with WLAN. Other locations, such as Ravensburg, are also likely to be converted to 802.11ac as soon as we have gained sufficient experience with the current network in Friedrichshafen."
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DHBW
The Baden-Württemberg Cooperative State University (DHBW) was founded on March 1, 2009 as the first dual, practice-integrated university in Germany. The dual study concept of the DHBW is characterized by alternating theoretical and practical phases and the close cooperation between the university and partner companies.
At the Friedrichshafen campus, which is home to DHBW Ravensburg's technical degree courses leading to an engineering degree, the university has its own EMC test laboratory. This laboratory is often used for beta testing. Here, the WLAN can be tested under controlled conditions, including analysis of the effective throughput values in the air, comparison with theoretical values, RF behavior and roaming.
