Nara Institute of Science and Technology (NAIST) renews campus-wide Wi-Fi infrastructure - RUCKUS's "BeamFlex+®" and AI platform reduce connection trouble complaints drastically

Ruckus Networks (Japan branch: Minato-ku, Tokyo, hereafter RUCKUS) announced that Nara Institute of Science and Technology (Location: Ikoma City, Nara Prefecture, President: Kazuhiro Shiozaki, hereafter NAIST) has introduced RUCKUS's Wi-Fi 6E compatible access points and network analysis platform "RUCKUS AI™" in a full renewal of the Wi-Fi wireless environment covering the entire campus.

Background and Challenges: "Lack of Coverage" and "Authentication Instability" accompanying the spread of the 5GHz band NAIST is a graduate university conducting advanced research integrating information science, biological sciences, and materials science. Traditionally, Wi-Fi has been provided across the campus, but in recent years, it faced the following challenges: Decreased radio coverage: With the increase in devices using the 5GHz band, places where connection was impossible occurred due to its vulnerability to obstacles. Saturation in high-density environments: In lecture halls gathering around 300 people, the processing power of existing access points was insufficient. Authentication trouble: An increasing number of devices adopted "random MAC addresses" for privacy protection, making conventional authentication processing unstable.

Reason for Adopting RUCKUS: Smart antenna "BeamFlex+®" and operational efficiency improvement by AI Through a competitive bidding process, NAIST highly evaluated RUCKUS's unique technology and decided to adopt it. BeamFlex+® (Smart Antenna Technology): Selects the optimal antenna pattern on a per-frame basis. Achieves campus-wide coverage with no blind spots using a minimum number of installed units. RUCKUS AI™: Constantly monitors the network, with AI conducting early incident detection and suggesting improvements. Automation of operations enabled stable operation with limited human resources. Cloudpath®: Centralized certificate management and distribution realize secure 802.1X authentication through a user-driven workflow.

Effects of Introduction: Toward an environment that can be "used as a matter of course" like water and electricity Since the full renewal in April 2024, network-related complaints from users have decreased drastically. Realization of high-speed communication: Utilizing Wi-Fi 6E (6GHz band) achieved high-speed transmission up to 2.4Gbps.