Newark Campus Joins OSU Wireless Networks

The Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO) has been ramping up Wi-Fi coverage across regional campuses. The team expanded Wi-Fi at Mansfield in the past few years, even reaching some outdoor locations. This summer they have added access points in Marion and Lima in preparation for the Digital Flagship iPad deployment. At Newark, the OCIO tackled a new network challenge: establishing Wi-Fi services and turning off an existing wireless system.

The Ohio State University at Newark has been utilizing a non-osuwireless network for their Wi-Fi needs, and we did not build this network with the intention of supporting the volume of traffic that Digital Flagship will bring. To boost capacity and coverage, the OCIO brought the Newark campus on to Ohio State’s Wi-Fi networks—and added nearly 300 access points in the process!

“This project was a highly coordinated effort,” said Senior Project Manager Brady Dodson. “It takes considerable amounts of planning and communication to retire an existing network while simultaneously moving to a new one.”

The conversion plan involved various waves of Wi-Fi migrations. This allowed key buildings to move to new networks at the same time, while also giving OCIO the opportunity to help users with setup as they gradually connected to their new Wi-Fi.

Moving Newark to Ohio State’s Wi-Fi gave the campus more coverage, greater capacity for wireless devices and more modern infrastructure—resulting in better Wi-Fi performance overall.

“One of the largest benefits is getting Newark aligned with the rest of Wi-Fi services offered by Ohio State, giving students, faculty and staff uniformity as it relates to network access,” said Ryan Holland, Manager of Network Access.

Senior Relationship Manager Anne Groves said, “All our regional campuses are excited about their wireless upgrades, and we're happy to have Newark on board with our Wi-Fi services.”