Educause 2016 Coverage

Morgan State Deploys Next-Generation Network to Prepare IoT

• By Sri Ravipati
• 11/02/16

Morgan State University in Maryland has undergone a major network upgrade to support Internet of Things (IoT) and other technologies.

The university has entered a 10-year contract, announced at the 2016 Educause conference, with Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise (ALE) to deploy its “Next Generation Network.” The university-wide data and voice network “takes its high regard for academics, culture and tradition into the future,” according to a statement. The ALE OmniSwitch dual core routed LAN network has improved coverage for mobile devices, both inside classrooms and across the campus – preparing Morgan State for IoT. In addition, capacity increased from 2 Gbps to 80 Gbps, enabling the university to expand online courses.

The new network has also helped achieve the following goals:

• Better safety for students, by supporting more high-res cameras for campus security personnel;
• A VoIP network for faculty and staff; and
• Overall, lower maintenance costs by unifying disparate networks and easier management for IT staff.

“This ultra-fast and scalable network will more than adequately support excellent teaching, transformative learning, and innovative research that are hallmarks at Morgan State University,” said Adebisi Oladipupo, CIO of Morgan State, in a statement.

ALE was able to deploy the network with channel support from Magothy Technology.

Further information is available on the Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise site.