Universidad Peruana Unión (UPEU)

Students and Teachers Stay Connected to Access Digital Content in the Classroom

Many classrooms are using high definition video content and collaboration applications. In addition, students are bringing new and ever evolving devices capable of downloading, uploading and streaming via wireless connections. That takes more bandwidth which demands a high capacity wireless infrastructure. Higher education institutions must be ready to support the technological needs of their users with a scalable wireless solution that can keep pace with future demand.

Challenge

The Universidad Peruana Unión (UPEU) serves more than 11,000 students in Peru. UPEU is surrounded on one side by buildings and on the other side there is a populous neighborhood. As a result, the university was experiencing interference problems that made it impossible to provide wireless connections throughout the campus.

The university had some wireless equipment with autonomous management but these were stand alone. They had an access point (AP) for 50 users wanting to connect but it could only support 15 users. This caused many complaints. UPEU couldn’t provide quality wireless service and teachers couldn’t use Internet applications in their classes.