The Challenge
The university's existing Wi-Fi infrastructure was a mix of Wi-Fi 4 and Wi-Fi 5 access points deployed over 10 years without a unified design. Lecture halls experienced chronic congestion during peak hours, and eduroam roaming was unreliable. The IT team needed a single platform that could support 65,000 concurrent devices with consistent performance across 45 buildings.
Our Approach
We conducted a full RF site survey of all 45 buildings using Ekahau, then designed a greenfield Wi-Fi 6E deployment:
- 2,800 Juniper Mist APs with tri-radio (2.4/5/6 GHz) and integrated BLE for location services
- AI-driven RF optimisation via Mist Cloud for automatic channel and power management
- 802.1X with eduroam — Students and visiting researchers authenticate seamlessly via their home institution
- Lecture hall high-density design — 1 AP per 30 seats with directional antennas and BSS coloring
- Wired backhaul upgrade — mGig switches with NBASE-T for 2.5/5 Gbps AP uplinks
The Outcome
The deployment was completed during summer break with zero disruption to academic operations. Students now experience consistent 400+ Mbps throughput even in packed lecture halls. The Mist AI engine reduced wireless support tickets by 62% in the first semester.