Universidad del Valle de Mexico Rolls Out Wireless Across 35 Campuses
- By Dian Schaffhauser
- 01/22/09
Universidad del Valle de México, S. C. (UVM) is halfway through a deployment of Aruba Networks' adaptive wireless LANs across its 35 campuses throughout Mexico. UVM is the second largest private university in Mexico with 85,000 students and 7,000 faculty members.
The university's student body has grown roughly 25 percent a year for each of the last three years, and by 2010 is expected to have more than 100,000 students and 40 campuses. The growth in students--coupled with extensive use of digital library resources, online and collaborative learning, and team-building programs--has increased the demand for campus-wide wireless access to the Internet and UVM's digital libraries.
In a statement the university said a patchwork legacy wireless network was difficult to manage, offered limited security, and couldn't handle growing traffic volume. Following a review of options, UVM chose to work with Aruba partner IT21 S. A. in implementing the new wireless network, which consists of MMC-800 Mobility Controllers and AP-60 access points.
"We urgently needed a solution that would meet both the current and future needs of our large and growing student and faculty population, protect against unauthorized use, and reduce our maintenance, installation, and management costs," said CIO Eduardo Garcia. "Aruba was selected because its integrated security, centralized management architecture, and quality of service met our service objectives. Equally important, the design minimized the staff required to manage, maintain, modify, and upgrade the wireless infrastructure."
About the Author
Dian Schaffhauser is a former senior contributing editor for 1105 Media's education publications THE Journal, Campus Technology and Spaces4Learning.