Like many universities across the US, this California State University has a diverse and large student body, a campus covering hundreds of acres and over 100 buildings. One of the challenges facing this university and most universities is that end users roam. Because students are constantly “on-the-go” they are more likly to experience coverage issues and a poor experience.
But as it is with many campus networks there is a significant discrepancy between end-user feedback and dashboard status. Facebook and Twitter may be trending complaints about the Wi-Fi, however, network administrators lack the tools and systems to measure, identify and address Wi-Fi issues proactively. For example, this California University discovered there was poor wireless coverage in residence halls. But it had gone unreported and undiscovered for several weeks. Reason being was that the system being used to manage the network was indicating that everything was looking good and in the “green”. But after a slew of vocal complaints, network engineers were dispatched to the residence hall for a closer look, at which point, it became obvious that something was wrong.