The wifi challenge campuses dread

At ACUTA, Aruba’s Jeffrey Weaver discusses the logistics of overcoming campuses biggest wifi nightmare

Dallas, Texas — Massive college sporting events like the NCAA tournament — which concludes here with the Final Four this week — can be a strain on campus wifi networks and IT officials.

But it’s not just times like March Madness that can be a nightmare for campus wifi networks. Officials scramble to make sure university networks can handle all the traffic at basketball arenas and football stadiums all season.

Jeffrey Weaver, manager of large public venue system engineers at Aruba Networks, spoke Monday at the 2014 ACUTA conference about the logistics behind stadium and arena wifi networks.

“Inside Aruba,” Weaver said, “it’s one of the most difficult things we do.”

Demand for speedy wifi inside a stadium comes from many different types of users. The venue itself needs wifi for video feeds. Security uses the network to look for threats. Fans are tweeting selfies and photos of the field or court. Promotions are beamed to digital signage around the stadium.

“You can’t be thinking application by application,” Weaver said.

(Next page: Challenges you may not think of)