Case Study: EDUCAUSE achieves reliable high-density Wi‑Fi and AirPlay support for 4,000+ attendees with HPE Aruba Networking

AirPlay and High-Density Wi-Fi at EDUCAUSE 2012

Aruba Networks was chosen to provide the high-density Wi‑Fi for Educause 2012 at the Denver Convention Center, meeting a BYOD environment of ~4,000 attendees (up to 6,000 concurrent devices). The challenge was to deliver scalable, secure, low-latency wireless across a theater, 68 session rooms, common areas and exhibit spaces with Eduroam (802.1X) and DHCP passthrough support, while guaranteeing 1–3 Mbps per client and completing deployment in two days.

Aruba deployed 130 dual‑band AP‑134/135s, an Aruba 6000 controller, ClearPass, AirWave and AirGroup, using ARM to band‑steer clients to 5 GHz, balance load and minimize interference. The network supported 2,500–3,000 daily connections, >363 GB/day traffic, peaks >125 Mbps and individual client usage over 10 GB, delivering the required performance with only minor 2.4 GHz congestion; Eduroam and AirGroup worked reliably and attendee feedback was positive.

EDUCAUSE