Louisiana State Joins Eduroam Network

• By Dian Schaffhauser
• 01/04/10

Louisiana State University (LSU) has joined the University of Tennessee at Knoxville and Harvard University as the first institutions in the United States to enable eduroam, or education roaming.

Eduroam is a secure, world-wide wireless network roaming access service developed for the international research and education community. It allows people who are part of a participating institution to use wireless network services at any other participating institution worldwide using the same login credentials issued by their host universities. Starting in mid-December 2009, members of the Louisiana State campus community could access wireless networks and the Internet while visiting campuses around the world.

Eduroam has been widely adopted in both Europe and Asia, and efforts are underway to broaden its use in the United States at research universities.

Through eduroam, Louisiana State students, researchers, staff, and faculty will be able to use their @lsu.edu credentials to authenticate to wireless networks at universities abroad. Guests from other eduroam institutions will be able to access the Louisiana State wireless network using their own institutional credentials while visiting the university.

"Researchers at our center often collaborate on projects as part of international teams, working frequently with colleagues in Europe and Asia and traveling there often to do work at other universities and scientific laboratories," said Stephen David Beck, interim director at the Center for Computation & Technology. "Guaranteeing wireless access through eduroam will make it much easier and more convenient for LSU researchers to travel overseas to be part of international research teams, and they can focus directly on the research taking place without having to worry about accessing wireless or gaining credentials to use another university's network."

"We are proud to be in a leadership position in the [United States], offering eduroam services to our faculty, students, and staff when they visit campuses in other countries, and also enabling their colleagues who are visiting the Baton Rouge campus to similarly gain easy yet secure Internet access via wireless networking," said Brian Voss, vice chancellor for IT. "LSU has been building an excellent IT infrastructure and providing top tier services as a result of its Flagship IT Strategy. The deployment of eduroam is yet another sign that we are achieving national prominence in the provision of IT in support of the National Flagship Agenda," he said.