Case Study: Rio Rancho Public Schools achieves scalable, secure, zero‑touch Wi‑Fi for 18,000 students with HPE Aruba Networking

Aruba Instant + Aruba switches and Aruba ClearPass supply streamlined, secure Wi-Fi for current & future classroom needs

Rio Rancho Public Schools, an 18,000‑student district north of Albuquerque, faced strained Wi‑Fi as mobility and online testing demands grew. Upgrades with their former vendor proved unreliable, and the district needed a more robust, centrally managed wireless infrastructure to support BYOD and future 1:1 initiatives across 21 buildings.

The district deployed 400+ Aruba Instant 802.11ac APs with HP 5400 zl switches, Aruba AirWave for management and ClearPass for secure BYOD onboarding, plus cart‑mounted APs for testing periods. The zero‑touch, controllerless design and HP integration simplified administration, dynamically connected devices to the correct ports, and now supports 3,000–5,000 district devices concurrently while providing scalable, centrally managed, secure Wi‑Fi for current and future needs.

Rio Rancho Public Schools

Scott Leppelman

Senior Network Engineer