SOLUTION BRIEF | HIGHER EDUCATION

Meru Education-grade Solutionsfor Uninterrupted Learning

Many campus networks are being crushed by the “bring your own device” (BYOD)

phenomenon. Wi-Fi-enabled devices will grow from fewer than one billion units in

2010 to more than three billion in 2015, and a large number of these devices will

end up on university campuses. What is the impact on students, faculty, staff, and

guests? Unmet expectations. It’s something we call “Interrupted Learning.”

WLAN Solutions for Higher EducationWi-Fi-enabled devices

will grow from less than

1 billion units in 2010 to

over 3 billion in 2015.1

WLANSolutions

ConnectAcademic

Applications

Learn

Meru Education-grade Wireless Platform

OnboardBYOD

Management

In many cases, BYOD makes it harder than ever to quickly onboard users’ devices

and map them to IT policies. BYOD also makes it harder to connect devices to the

network—and users to information—due to capacity crunches, coverage gaps, unfair

network access, dropped calls, and RF interference. Finally, BYOD impacts teaching

and learning, as digital classroom management and wireless consumer services

such as screen sharing and wireless printing must deal with a diversity of client OS

platforms, screen sizes, and form factors, often with different network behaviors.

Meru’s virtualized wireless network and identity management solutions have helped

higher education institutions worldwide overcome their wireless challenges. To help

you strive for Uninterrupted Learning, we offer the Meru Education-grade (MEG™)

wireless platform.

Interrupted Learning occurs when technology gets in the way of, or fails to support, your innovative goals for technology integration.

MEG™ wireless is a unique platform from Meru Networks designed to solve many of your BYOD issues and launch your learning-essential applications.

It starts with 3 simple steps:

1. Onboard quickly with BYOD provisioning and secure

wireless access mapped to IT policies.

2. Connect all BYOD devices reliably anywhere on campus.

3. Learn by deploying validated learning and teaching

applications on BYOD devices over a MEG wireless platform.

1 Gartner Research, Mark Hung, Market Trends: Future Platforms for Wi-Fi Growth, 2011-2015, June 29, 2011

OnboardWith the crush of BYOD and the diversity of devices, is onboarding your biggest challenge?

Ten thousand students move in on the same day with 3–5 devices each, and all of them

expect Internet access within minutes of stepping on your campus. Will they connect to

the right access point, SSID, and VLAN? Do you have a BYOD policy, and does it require

802.1X for all wireless, with wired for the rest? How do you address the challenge of

configuring 802.1X and certifications, especially on Windows? Are your developers writing

a home-brewed onboarding application, or are you simply paying the cost of onboarding at

the help desk?

BYOD challenges such as these are addressed by the Meru Education-grade wireless

platform.

All of this is achieved without your IT teams ever having to configure any user device or

access points. It’s all centrally managed, monitored, and reported.

Meru Smart Connect onboarding tool automates BYOD provisioning, even 802.1X, for virtually any client.

Meru Guest Connect for automated guest access for virtually any client on any network.

Authenticate usingWeb authentication

Step 1Download an appletto configure 802.1X

Step 2Automatically connect

with 802.1X

Step 3

Encrypted

Access Point

Supported Platforms

A majority of students own about a dozen technology devices ECAR “National Study of Undergraduate Students and Information Technology,” 2011

Connect“Students expect to be able to work, learn, and study whenever and wherever they want.”2

And in today’s “move-and-do” campus, that often means with a mobile device like a laptop,

tablet, or smartphone. As with their experience at home, students expect applications

delivered over Wi-Fi to simply work. They also expect to be connected immediately, and

stay connected—but thousands of concurrent sessions and interference from a roommate’s

gaming console can spoil the party.

BYOD challenges such as these are addressed by the Meru Education-grade wireless

platform, which provides unprecedented flexibility at the access layer to deliver reliable and

predictable connectivity in classrooms.

Meru provides a comprehensive portfolio to support ubiquitous coverage: classrooms,

lecture halls, libraries, stadiums, outdoors, and even teacher and staff homes for pandemic

preparedness. Like other vendors, Meru supports traditional planning-intensive deployment

modes, but our unique single-channel architecture simplifies deployment by eliminating

extensive channel planning. Meru Virtual Cell technology provides seamless mobility and

predictable voice and video performance, and our channel layering can deliver nearly twice

the capacity of competing solutions in dense environments such as lecture halls, libraries,

and computer labs.

Airtime Fairness® – Each device connects to its potential

Virtual Cell – Provides ‘zero-handoff’ seamless roaming

Channel Layering – Stack access points for capacity, or traffic isolation.

Air Traffic Control® – Always connect to the best AP

Meru manages the RF,

so you can manage your

network, faculty can

manage their classes, and

students can manage their

assignments.

2 Horizon Report on Higher Education, 2012

“We easily support students’ expectations of ubiquitous wireless access. The Meru virtualized wireless LAN works with laptops and any mobile device that anyone brings to campus, including mobile handheld devices, gaming devices, smartphones, and entertainment devices.” Matt Barber, Network Manager Morrisville State College

Meru Difference

Learn“21st century skills” may be open to interpretation, but it is generally agreed that teaching

and learning must transform to prepare today’s students for lifelong learning in a digital,

interconnected, always-on world built on communication and collaboration.

Most IT projects implemented by schools have some dependency on mobile devices, often

brought by users themselves as part of the BYOD phenomenon. In turn, these devices, which

connect users to information and each other, depend on a reliable WLAN.

A reliable Meru Education-grade wireless platform enables learning-essential applications such as:

iTunes U audio and video downloads: 700 million

edudemic

Apple Learning EnvironmentsSome teachers will use a flipped classroom concept, putting their

lessons and resources online, where students can access them

anytime with their iPads. As a result, students take responsibility for

their own learning, and teachers are able to increase their interactions

and personalize content time.

Unified Communications & CollaborationSchools are looking for integrated productivity tools that enable students

and faculty to communicate from anywhere in a cost-effective and secure

manner. Many have chosen Microsoft Lync because it delivers a mobile

and seamless user experience. The Meru Networks Virtualized Wireless

LAN was designed from the ground up for voice. Unlike other WLAN

solutions where clients must re-associate on every roam, clients stay

connected at the 802.11 layer and at the IP layer. With Meru, they can

achieve up to 100X faster roaming.

Digital Classroom ManagementA LanSchool classroom management system can facilitate learning

and collaboration by allowing instructors to show their screen to the

students, share video and files, administer polls and exams, and assist

students with remote control and chat. With LanSchool, instructors

can keep students on task by monitoring the classroom in real time.

LanSchool removes digital distractions and gives teachers the tools

and confidence to teach in a 21st century classroom. Meru Smart

Connect enables faster class starts, and a reliable WLAN with RF

virtualization allows instructors to stick to the digital lesson plan and

avoid moonlighting as IT help desk.

Federated Access with eduroam eduroam (education roaming) is the secure, worldwide roaming access

service developed for the international research and education community.

eduroam allows students, researchers, and staff from participating

institutions to obtain Internet connectivity across campus and when visiting

other participating institutions by simply opening their laptop. eduroam is

a RADIUS-based solution that requires 802.1X client authentication. Your

participating campus can create an onramp to eduroam by deploying

Meru’s Identity Manager suite for flexible and easy guest access and

automated 802.1X BYOD device provisioning.

“We started issuing iPads to freshmen two years ago, and will now include nearly all full-time students as of this year. Information access using mobile devices is both ubiquitous and simple, so the idea of the ‘sage on the stage’ delivering basic ‘data’ to students isn’t a good model anymore. The focus is now on collaboration and digital discussion. Using AppleTV and AirPlay in the classroom for both faculty and students is a perfect adjunct to the use of the iPad as a mobile teaching tool in higher education.” Peter Harvin, CIO Anderson University

RemoteCampus

Medium Campus

MC155050 AccessPoints

MC4200500 Access Points

Large Campus

MC60005000 Access Points

DormitoryAP1014

Home(Teacher/Staff)

AP110

Lecture Hall/Library/Stadium

AP332OutdoorsOAP433e

Large Classroom>25 Students

AP332

Small-MediumClassroom

<25 StudentsAP1020

Remote Location

Flexible Wi-Fi deployment on campus

Corporate Headquarters894 Ross Drive, Sunnyvale, CA 94089T +1.408.215.5300F +1.408.215.5301E info@merunetworks.com

Meru delivers an all-wireless network that fully supports the enterprise, delivering a consistent, interactive experience for all users. No matter what applications they are running. No matter how many other users are on the network.

For more information, visit www.merunetworks.com or email your questions to: info@merunetworks.com

Meru Networks | Copyright © 2012 Meru Networks, Inc. All rights reserved worldwide. Meru Networks is a registered trademark of Meru Networks, Inc. All other trademarks, trade names, or service marks mentioned in this document are the property of their respective owners. Meru Networks assumes no responsibility for any inaccuracies in this document. Meru Networks reserves the right to change, modify, transfer, or otherwise revise this publication without notice. 11.12 SB1002.US