Case Study: Hautes études d'ingénieur (HEI) achieves reliable high-density WiFi in challenging buildings with Cisco Meraki

How an easily-configured wireless network overcame a densely-constructed building

Hautes études d'ingénieur (HEI) in Lille, a French engineering school serving about 2,000 students and hundreds of staff, faced severe Wi‑Fi strain from high‑density usage and a physically complex, densely constructed building. With a small IT team of two, the school needed an easy‑to‑manage, high‑performance wireless solution; they chose Cisco Meraki’s Wireless LAN and Security & SD‑WAN products, deploying Meraki MR26 access points and MX60W Security Appliances.

Cisco Meraki installed 152 MR26 APs and 3 MX60W appliances (including a warm spare), configured site‑to‑site VPNs across multiple sites and teleworkers, set up VLANs and three custom SSIDs with RADIUS/walled‑garden controls, and used the Meraki cloud dashboard for remote management. The deployment took two months and enabled the two‑person IT team to monitor and scale the network quickly, benefit from automatic RF optimization and firmware updates, control SSID scheduling by AP tags, and restore reliable high‑density performance across the campus.

Hautes études d'ingénieur

Fournel Yannick

Technical Project Manager