Chapman University To Deploy Campus-wide WiFi

• By Dian Schaffhauser
• 08/13/08

Chapman University in California has announced plans to deploy Xirrus WiFi Arrays across its campus. The implementation started in Chapman's film school and then will move to student housing, which consists of five three-story buildings. Following that, wireless will be added to classroom, student and administration buildings campus-wide.

"We looked at several wi-fi vendors, searching for a solution that could provide a pervasive and reliable connection for our more than 6,000 students in lecture halls, across open spaces, and in their living quarters--also one that could grow with us as we deployed VoIP phones and upgraded to 802.11n," said Dave Young, director of IT. "We tested and were amazed at the capabilities of the Xirrus Wi-Fi Array: It provided the coverage, user density, and bandwidth we needed along with a simplified central management system and was completely upgradeable to 802.11n. Traditional access points couldn't come close."

The Xirrus WiFi Array integrates multiple radios and high-gain directional antennas into a single device along with an onboard gigabit switch, wi-fi controller, firewall, dedicated WiFi threat sensor, and embedded spectrum analyzer.

Recently, Pepperdine University in Malibu announced its deployment of Xirrus wireless equipment too.