The survey, conducted in August, included a random sampling of IT departments and network administrators from colleges and universities across the United States and Canada. Participants identified extending the life of current Wi-Fi infrastructure, user and device monitoring, and management of multiple network architectures and vendors as the most important wireless management issues on their campuses.
Of particular note, the vast majority of respondents reported that they have existing networks composed of autonomous 'thick' access points, with plans to migrate to a more centralized 'thin' architecture within the next 18 to 24 months. But even while most universities will make the move toward centralized networks, nearly half of those institutions expect to maintain multi-architecture and multi-vendor wireless networks in the long term.
Highlights of the survey include:
-- 64% of respondents today have wireless networks with 100 or more access points with plans to expand; 11% have more than 1,000 APs in place today
-- 78% have autonomous 'thick' access points today; 36% use a centralized 'thin' AP architecture; and 20% use both thick and thin APs simultaneously
-- Within two years, 66% expect to use 'thin' APs and 44% expect tooperate 'multi-architecture' wireless networks
-- The number of institutions using mesh networking technology willincrease from less than 5% today to more than 20% within two years
-- 44% have multi-vendor wireless network infrastructures today
-- "User & Device Monitoring" is the top wireless management priority
"These findings confirm what AirWave has learned by working with hundreds of colleges and universities: as their wireless networks grow larger and more complex, their IT departments need flexible management solutions that enable them to control and monitor a diverse infrastructure," said AirWave Wireless CEO Gary Hegna.
