The ENSEEIHT institution has implemented their Mobility project with Aruba Wireless Networks
Paris, the 3rd November 2004 - Aruba Wireless Networks announced today that the ENSEEIHT institution (Ecole Nationale Supérieure d'Electrotechnique, d'Electronique, d'Informatique, d'Hydraulique et de Télécommunications) has deployed their wireless network with Aruba's systems in order to offer a seamless and secure mobility service to students and staff from the school. One of the top engineering schools in France, well-known for its high-level curriculum and the quality of its graduated students, the ENSEEIHT is part of the INPT group (Institut National Polytechnique de Toulouse) that encompasses three engineering schools, research laboratories, as well as central services. Always at the forefront of innovation, the ENSEEIHT had decided to deploy a secured wireless infrastructure in order to implement the new concept of "mobile classroom" and to offer a total freedom of mobility for both the students and the teachers while enabling them access to online resources from any location.
The initial pilot deployed by ENSEEIHT will then be extended to the other schools and laboratories of the INPT group. The implementation of a collaborative authentification method, by relaying the various Radius systems to enable seamless mobility between the different institutions, will also take place in the months to come as part of this project.
"The majority of our students already have today either desktops or laptops, which enable them to work remotely from home. In another hand, the ENSEEIHT and the other schools of the INPT group are very attractive to foreign students so it is very frequent to have such students for a given period of time," mentioned Brigitte SOR, the IT director at the ENSEEIHT, and lead manager for the mobility project across the INPT group. "Therefore, we were looking for a wireless solution that would enable us to manage our important needs for these remote users, in one single fashion."
Beside this specific project, the ENSEEIHT also needed to equip the classrooms, the libraries and the lecture halls with wireless access points in order to facilitate more flexibility in the working practice. With wireless connectivity, the conventional classrooms may instantly become workshops, for example, and the communication between teacher and students become more dynamic and efficient. Such a wireless network will also enable the school to organize specific events such as conventions and seminars where outside attendees will be granted secured access.
A variety of wireless solutions available in the market has been assessed, from both vendors' hardware systems to freeware applications. Several solutions have been tested and benchmarked. The final choice was made on Aruba's solution.
In October 2004, the network integrator NextiraOne has supplied the ENSEEIHT with a Aruba 2400 systems and 25 AP52 access points, and put the cabling in place. The integrator has also assisted in the implementation of the Aruba solution, with the secured wireless network, which was installed by the school's own IT team.
"The reasons for choosing Aruba were of multiple folds," continued Brigitte SOR. "First, because of the multi-sites topology of the school and the distribution of the IT expertise between the various sites, it was necessary to have a solution with a great ease of management and control. Because Aruba's solution features a centralized supervision and a homogeneous platform, it perfectly fulfilled our needs. Then, the flexibility of this solution enables to create a great variety of user profiles and access rights, which is a big advantage considering the diversity of the network users. Last, for the large number of students and staff who work outside the campus or in foreign countries, Aruba solution is able to manage remote access in particular with high-speed VPN tunnels which proved very attractive."
Like with every wireless network, security was of paramount priority for the school. And here again, Aruba solution could fulfill all the project's requirements, especially with end-to-end encrypted VPN access, with a built-in captive portal to restrict access to internet only for authorized guest users, and with the capability to detect and neutralize any rogue or suspect access point.
"This cooperation with ENSEEIHT means for Aruba a strong reinforcing of our presence in the academic and research market from where several institutions have already adopted our flexible solutions. This partnership with ENSEEIHT goes beyond a mere customer-supplier relationship because it rather represents a tight cooperation inscribed in a specific initiative that we have put in place for the Education institutions," mentions Pascal DESAINT, General Manager at Aruba Wireless Networks for France and Southern Europe. "It also acknowledges the wireless technology as a vector for increased flexibility, mobility and security in today's workplace."
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About ENSEEIHT
At the forefront of the technology schools in France, the ENSEEIHT is well known by the enterprises for the quality of its engineers. With an education agreement with Ecole Polytechnique, the ENSEEIHT is currently structured into five curricula, each of them including its own training department and laboratory, in the sciences of energy and radio processing. The ENSEEIHT, with its long experience in secular education, is in continuous evolution. In two new departments dedicated to workshops, several high-tech teaching methods are offered to its students.
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