Customer story: Kansas State University Pike House

The Ruckus Room recently visited Manhattan, Kansas, the home of Kansas State University. During our stay, we stopped by the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity house (aka “Pike House”) to talk Wi-Fi with Jon Puls, the Director of Sales and Marketing at Net Ability. The Pike House – a 25,000 square foot property – currently houses 74 students, although it can accommodate up to 110 residents. According to Puls, one of the primary challenges of deploying Wi-Fi at the Pike House was a large number of rooms spread across the property. [“We needed] to put an access point (AP) in a particular part of the building, while maintaining good coverage [throughout],” Puls told The Ruckus Room. “Those [and other] challenges were met with Ruckus and their engineering team. They helped us through the process to develop and design a solution that fit the needs of Pike House.” As Puls notes, Ruckus Networks was chosen for the Pike House Wi-Fi deployment because the company provides both a wireless and wired solution. “As a Ruckus partner, we focus on the multi-dwelling unit (MDU) and hospitality verticals. We know that Ruckus is a leader in that industry,” he explained. “Ruckus products allow us to deliver solutions to our customers that are cost-effective and built for growth and the future.” According to Puls, Net Ability deployed both indoor and outdoor Ruckus access points, a virtual smart zone controller as well as ICX switching fabric to support the extensive Pike House infrastructure. Indeed, the Ruckus ICX switches deployed in Pike House support the wireless network, as well as building automation infrastructure, along with security cameras and door access control (keypads) that ensure a secure environment. “Net Ability designed [the Pike House] network for growth and it’s been rock-solid from day one,” said Puls. “Move-in day was a non-event and the residents were able to get on to the network without issue. [There is] plenty of bandwidth for each resident, more than they could ever use.” Puls also noted that Net Ability considers Ruckus to be a true business partner. “Ruckus Networks makes excellent products. They help us through the engineering process and they've developed management tools that allow us to manage the systems here from several hundred miles away without issue,” he added. Interested in learning more about Ruckus Wi-Fi deployments with our partners? Check out our customer story page and our YouTube channel.