Case Study: St John’s College, Cambridge achieves seamless, secure campus-wide Wi‑Fi and granular access control with HPE Aruba Networking

Aruba delivers secure, controlled connectivity throughout one of University of Cambridge’s largest colleges

St John’s College, one of the largest colleges at the University of Cambridge, needed a reliable, campus‑wide wireless experience that felt like a home network for students while still supporting eduroam, segregating user groups (students, fellows, staff, guests) and providing secure guest access and MDNS control. Operating within the University’s federated model, the college required a solution that enabled pervasive mobility, consistent connectivity indoors and outdoors, and easy management across wired and wireless domains.

St John’s deployed Aruba 802.11ac access points, Aruba 7210 controllers, ClearPass Policy Manager (with OnGuard), AirWave network management and HPE switches in a phased rollout. The result was seamless indoor/outdoor Wi‑Fi for ~800–900 concurrent devices, granular role‑based access and device “bubbles” for personal device sharing, self‑service guest access, unified network visibility for IT, and smooth integration with Palo Alto firewalls—leaving students satisfied and providing a platform for future digital services.

St John’s College, Cambridge

Simon Mallows

Assistant Computer Systems Manager – Network Systems