Founded in 1893, American University is a world-renowned student-centered research institution located in Washington, DC. The university, which is composed of eight schools and colleges, spans almost 90 acres of campus grounds in a residential setting. With close to 15,000 students and staff, the school has two neighboring campuses which include nine residential halls, a 5,000 seat arena, a law library, a public garden, and an outdoor amphitheater.
The historic American University is an intimate community nestled within an urban, culturally rich city. Students have the advantages of a traditional college setting combined with environmentally conscious grounds and state-of-the-art technology. The campus is a mixture of old and new buildings and indoor and outdoor areas, all of which provide vital Wi-Fi access for students and staff.
Recently, as part of a continual improvement process, American University transitioned to a new access point (AP) provider. The university’s Technology Operations Group beta tested the deployment in a small group of buildings. After a year with no technical complaints from students or staff, the group rolled out the new APs across campus. However, shortly thereafter, they began to receive calls about dropped connections and poor performance.
“We spent a lot of time working with our vendor and their engineers to troubleshoot the networking issues but were unable to determine the root cause,” said Bill Fleitz, Associate Director.