University of Lausanne scales high-density campus connectivity for 22,000 users

For the University of Lausanne, Wi-Fi is a critical academic infrastructure layer supporting 22,000 users across teaching spaces, research facilities, administrative areas, and hospital-linked environments. Lecture theatres seating up to 1,000 students, secure digital examination environments, and data-intensive research workloads depend on reliable campus-wide connectivity.

Building on more than 20 years of experience with RUCKUS, UNIL expanded and modernised its integrated wired and wireless architecture to support increasing device density, Wi-Fi 7 adoption, secure segmentation, and campus mobility. The upgraded network provides a 50% increase in bandwidth, supports up to 15,000 concurrent eduroam users, and enables the university to simplify operations while continuing to scale for future growth.

The Challenge: Supporting high-density learning, research and digital exams without increasing complexity

As a large research university, UNIL needed to support a growing population of students, faculty, researchers, guests, and connected devices across more than 30 buildings. High-density lecture halls, hybrid learning environments, and campus-wide mobility placed increasing demands on network capacity and consistency.

Reliable connectivity was particularly important for digital examinations and teaching continuity. The university regularly supports large-scale exam sessions and mission-critical academic services where stable performance, predictable behaviour, and uninterrupted access are essential. Any disruption has a direct impact on teaching activities, examination delivery, and user experience.

At the same time, the IT team needed to manage complex segmentation requirements for students, staff, guests, research environments, exam networks, and IoT devices while maintaining operational efficiency. The university wanted an infrastructure that could continue to scale, support new technologies such as Wi-Fi 7, and reduce administrative effort without requiring major architectural changes.

The Solution: An integrated wired and wireless architecture built for scale and reliability

UNIL continued to build on its long-standing RUCKUS deployment by leveraging an integrated wired and wireless architecture combining RUCKUS access points, Virtual SmartZone management, SmartZone Data Plane, and RUCKUS ICX switching. This approach provided consistent operations across the network while supporting progressive upgrades from Wi-Fi 5 to Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 7.

The university deployed a mix of access point models to match different density requirements across the campus, from large auditoriums and lecture halls to research facilities and general teaching spaces. SmartZone’s clustered architecture enables centralised management of hundreds of access points while supporting multiple wireless generations in the same environment, allowing phased technology adoption without disruption.

To support diverse use cases, UNIL uses advanced traffic segmentation and policy control across dedicated environments including eduroam, digital exams, guest access, research, and IoT networks. Dynamic Pre-Shared Key (DPSK)-based segmentation, secure onboarding mechanisms, and flexible tunnelling models help maintain security and operational control while simplifying administration for the IT team. The architecture also improves onboarding efficiency, reduces complaints in large auditoriums, strengthens uptime through resilient switching capabilities, and enables secure digital examination environments through dedicated network segmentation and access policies.

By taking advantage of newer wireless technologies including the 6 GHz spectrum, the university can support higher client densities more efficiently while reducing infrastructure complexity as the network continues to evolve.

Key Results: Reliable high-density connectivity with greater operational efficiency

The University of Lausanne has created a scalable campus network capable of supporting high-density learning environments, research workloads, secure examinations, and campus-wide mobility. The integrated RUCKUS architecture enables the university to continue evolving its infrastructure while maintaining operational simplicity and a consistent user experience. The university has increased performance and capacity while reducing support requirements, enabling future growth without disruptive network redesigns.

• Achieved a 25% reduction in IT tickets
• Delivered a 50% increase in bandwidth
• 15,000 concurrent eduroam users supported
• 25% increase in device density, supporting up to 150 concurrent users compared with 100 on Wi-Fi 5