Meru Networks transforms on-campus wireless connectivity

Meru Networks announced that it transforms on-campus
wireless connectivity with the industry’s only wireless solution for
network-in-control Wi-Fi access replacing unscalable client-in-control network
access approaches.

 

 

Meru has achieved record growth across the primary,
secondary and higher education markets as educational institutions make the
move to Meru to support their strategic mobile learning initiatives and address
the rigorous density, device diversity and mobility demands of today’s campus
environments.

 

 

Meru’s growth in sales in the education market since 2009
is driven by the company’s unique approach. Meru puts the network, not client
devices, in control, enabling Air Traffic Control and Airtime Fairness.

 

 

Unlike client-controlled approaches to wireless, Meru’s
System Director OS virtualizes the WLAN by pooling the access point resources,
partitioning bandwidth and customizing the experience for each user based on
device speed and application need.

 

 

Meru’s Air Traffic Control technology allocates bandwidth
across the RF spectrum based on that need, while Meru’s Airtime Fairness makes
it possible for high-demand applications and devices to have fair access to the
bandwidth they require without compromising network performance for slower
wireless devices.

 

 

Education customers move to Meru
to achieve the shared goal of pervasive, reliable, scalable and cost effective
wireless LAN solutions in an environment that is increasingly inundated with
Wi-Fi devices such as laptops, tablets, smartphones, e-readers and gaming
consoles.

 

 

Virtually all Meru customers replaced client-in-control
systems from competing vendors and switched to Meru to support essential
education services such as 1:1 laptop initiatives, video and multimedia for
modern learning, and student and teacher collaboration.

 

 

These initiatives require an increasingly higher class of
wireless network than the consumer-grade WLAN products that are commonly
installed on campuses today. Meru WLAN solutions are proven in campus
environments of every size and configuration around the globe.

 

 

Students at all levels benefit from connected learning
environments and interactive educational experiences whereby they can share
ideas and communicate with other students and teachers. For example, in K-12
and primary school classrooms 1:1 laptop initiatives and online learning have
quickly gained popularity for their ability to improve student performance.

 

 

“Our job is to provide students and faculty with
uncompromising network access — and we have to do so without incurring
additional costs or overhead. We moved to Meru because we needed to scale our
network quickly, without expanding our IT team. With Meru, we are able to
provide reliable, high-performance wireless connectivity for our students and
staff anywhere on campus,” said Robert A. Mays, director, network and
communications, Villanova University.

 

 

The explosive adoption of Wi-Fi devices by students and
teachers could not have been anticipated and cannot be underestimated. In-Stat
forecasts that 1.9 billion Wi-Fi devices will be in use by 2014 presumably,
many of these will find their way onto college campuses.

 

 

Just months after the release of the first iPhone,
Wakefield Research did a survey for the Wi-Fi Alliance, which found that 48
percent of college students would give up beer before giving up Wi-Fi.
Seventy-five percent also said that Wi-Fi access helps them get better grades.

 

 

“Wireless devices have changed the way students
live, learn and communicate,” said Ihab Abu-Hakima, CEO, Meru Networks.

 

 

Meru enables a reliable, pervasive, secure all-wireless
educational environment that automates management and easily scales to meet
escalating connectivity demands so IT staff are empowered to focus on strategic
application initiatives rather than helpdesk issues. Meru manages the spectrum,
so IT can manage the network, teachers can manage their classrooms, and
students can manage their grades,” Abu-Hakima added.

 

 

Meru Networks recently announced that it has acquired
Identity Networks, a provider of secure guest and device access management
solution.

 

 

Through the acquisition, Meru customers can provide
secure, policy based, wired and wireless network access for guests and
employees that bring their own devices (BYOD) into the enterprise.

 

 

By Telecomlead.com Team
[email protected]