Case Study: Douglas County School District achieves reliable, district-wide 802.11n Wi-Fi with RUCKUS Networks

Douglas County Discovers How to Migrate School District to 802.11n Without Going Broke or Crazy

Douglas County School District (Nevada) — 11 schools, ~6,400 students and a seven‑person IT team — needed a cost‑effective way to migrate from an unreliable 802.11g WLAN (80+ APs) to a district‑wide 802.11n network to reliably support MAP testing and growing demands from staff, guests and classroom devices. Their existing wireless suffered from unstable connections, poor coverage in buildings with RF‑unfriendly construction, and limited centralized management, creating unacceptable latency and administrative overhead.

DCSD standardized on a Ruckus ZoneFlex 802.11n solution: 65 dual‑band APs, 14 ZoneDirector controllers and FlexMaster for centralized management and troubleshooting. The deployment halved the number of APs required, delivered complete coverage and stable client connectivity (including mesh backhaul for remote areas), simplified administration, and provided a platform to add guest access, VoIP and video services.

Douglas County School District

Eric Ristine

IT Director, Douglas County School District