Case Study: Lamar University achieves campus-wide high-performance, high-density Wi‑Fi with RUCKUS Networks

Lamar Goes Big With Ruckus Smart Wi-Fi In Campus-Wide 802.11AC Upgrade

Lamar University, a fast‑growing doctoral institution in Beaumont, Texas with more than 14,000 students and staff across a 270‑acre campus and 64 buildings, faced exploding Wi‑Fi demand as classrooms and curriculum moved online. Its legacy best‑effort wireless could not handle high‑density classrooms, RF‑unfriendly historic buildings, widespread BYOD, streaming and LMS use, or cost‑effective backhaul and outdoor camera connectivity.

Lamar standardized on Ruckus ZoneFlex Smart Wi‑Fi—deploying 500+ 802.11ac indoor/outdoor APs, redundant ZoneDirector 5000 controllers, SmartCell Insight analytics, CloudPath BYOD onboarding and ZoneFlex bridges for long‑range links. The upgrade delivered gigabit‑class performance and campus‑wide coverage with fewer APs and cable drops, supported hundreds of concurrent clients per AP in testing, reduced total cost of ownership, and provided centralized, high‑availability management and detailed usage analytics.

Lamar University

Patrick Stewart

Director of IT