Networking & Wireless | News

Arizona District Upgrades Wireless Network To Support BYOD Surveillance

• By Joshua Bolkan
• 02/27/14

Arizona's Dysart Unified School District (DUSD) has recently upgraded it's district-wide local area network (LAN) in an effort to support mobile devices in the classroom and an expansion of its video surveillance system.

Serving more than 25,000 students, "Dysart is leveraging district-owned laptops, student- and teacher-owned mobile devices, Google Apps, videoconferencing and other tools to create an engaging classroom environment," according to a news release.

"We encourage teachers and students to use any available technology for instruction — it's built into our culture," said John Andrews, CIO at DUSD, in a prepared statement. "But with the introduction of Bring Your Own Device, we had the daily concern of students not being able to connect because of limitations in our legacy wireless network."

The district decided to deploy Mobility Controllers from Aruba Networks, as well as the company's AirWave Network Management System and its ClearPass Access Management System.

"AirWave helps the district manage the user experience through visibility into which devices are accessing the network, how much bandwidth is being consumed and other important metrics," according to a company release. "ClearPass enables end-to-end device management through granular policy enforcement across mobile users, devices and apps coupled with scalable and secure guest access."

"Now, with the implementation of Aruba's solutions, all we hear is praise," added Andrews. "Our students and teachers are using technology more than ever. And we have the infrastructure we need to support online assessment testing as well as enhance safety and security."

The district plans to expand the network into all 26 of its locations and possibly to add wireless service to its 150 buses, where some students spend as much as three hours a day as they go to and from school.

"The success we've had so far gives us the confidence to think big," Andrews said. "The network performance has exceeded our expectations and we look forward to the new opportunities it presents for our district."