How the University of Akron Built a Future‑Ready Campus Network for High‑Density Student Life

The University of Akron supports a large student population where reliable connectivity is expected across every part of campus life. As device counts increased and digital learning expanded, the network struggled to keep up. IT teams faced rising support demands, especially during high-volume onboarding periods. The university needed a more efficient way to improve performance while reducing operational strain.

The Challenge: Closing the Connectivity Gap in Higher Education

The University of Akron operates in a Division 1 environment where digital connectivity is as essential as the power it runs on for student attraction, success, and retention. Amid this competitive reality, the university’s aging infrastructure struggled to meet the heavy demands of a tech-savvy student body who view reliable connectivity as campus table stakes.

The student onboarding process was difficult and time-consuming, creating a significant burden for university IT staff and a frustrating first impression for students during their critical move-in period. For faculty, inconsistent wireless access prevented them from confidently using modern digital instruction tools.

The university issued an RFP for a comprehensive network overhaul. What they received were numerous bids for a standard Wi-Fi 6E protocol, a safe but limited path forward. While Wi-Fi 6E was a modern standard at the time, it represented the end of a hardware generation. It would have forced the university into a shorter hardware lifecycle, leaving them behind as student device capabilities quickly outpaced the network’s ceiling.

RUCKUS offered a future-facing response that differentiated itself with an innovative Wi-Fi 7 solution that could meet student demands and faculty needs alike. Wi-Fi 7 offered a massive leap in performance through multi-link operation (MLO) and 320 MHz channels that doubled the throughput of Wi-Fi 6E — a foundation to support the next decade of high-bandwidth needs.

The technical superiority of Wi-Fi 7, backed by industry-leading expertise and the added value of dedicated on-site support during the critical transition, won the university over.

The Solution: A Robust Ecosystem for High-Density Performance

The project featured North America’s first large-scale campus Wi-Fi 7 rollout, managed by the RUCKUS One AI-driven cloud controller. This unique and intelligent system cross-correlates data to automatically identify core network issues. In fact, the platform demonstrated its capabilities during the proof of concept phase, when it quickly diagnosed deep-seated problems within the university’s core network. These were problems that had been previously invisible or untraceable to administrators.

To resolve the historical (and stressful) spike in tickets for a lean IT team during move-in weeks, RUCKUS deployed the Cloudpath Enrollment System. Previously, the IT team would brace for an onslaught of help tickets during the new semester move-in crunch. Cloudpath eased this congestion by automating the onboarding of "headless" devices that today’s students bring to campus, like gaming consoles, smart lighting, tablets, smart watches, and even 3D printers.

Following its implementation alongside RUCKUS One, the university reported a landmark achievement: zero tickets submitted during its subsequent new semester mass onboarding. They’ve since reported a 30% reduction in help tickets overall and an increase in throughput by 15 to 20%. Early Wi-Fi 7 testing is expected to result in a 20 to 30% bandwidth improvement.

Despite a compressed 12-month schedule and the difficulty of supporting a 16,000-strong campus presence, the implementation was a massive success.

The Results: A High-Performance Foundation for Future Growth

Thanks to robust transition support from the onsite team, the new infrastructure provided immediate relief across campus. The university transitioned from an 8 Gb to a 12 Gb internet circuit, ensuring the campus “backbone” could handle peak network traffic.

Since deployment, the RUCKUS One controller has reported an average of three times the number of concurrent devices on the network compared to the previous year’s maximum spike. The university notes the system routinely hits 15,000 concurrent users. The Wi-Fi 7 deployment has also significantly reduced latency; the system now handles demanding digital learning tools, such as video conferencing, with no issues, even at peak capacity.

The RUCKUS Edge Service Delivery Platform sits between campus access networks and data centers, extending RUCKUS One capabilities to the edge. The university deployed Ruckus Edge appliances with redundant clusters (active/active or active/standby), enabling automatic failover and balanced workload distribution. This resilient, high-availability design ensures that teaching, research, and residential life can continue uninterrupted, even during maintenance windows or unexpected failures.

The selection of Wi‑Fi 7 is expected to help extend the hardware lifecycle by an estimated two to three years. They’ve reported that roughly 10% of network issues are now auto-remediated, and that coverage is so strong they plan to partially disable or even remove some access points entirely. Faculty are now empowered to request custom, secure SSIDs and passwords for specific events months in advance. This network confidence allows the IT team to serve as a strategic partner in campus life, rather than simply a helpdesk for connection emergencies.

• 100% reduction in move-in week service tickets, and an overall ticket reduction of 30%
• 300% increase in average device density compared to previous year’s peak
• 50% boost in internet circuit capacity
• 10% of network issues auto-remediated
• 15,000 concurrent users supported at regular intervals

The university and RUCKUS are already moving into the next phase of expansion. The foundational network layer is now being extended to support consistent digital experiences across academic, residential, and campus life ensuring the infrastructure keeps pace with evolving learning models.