Comprehensive BYOD Management at SDSU

With 34,000 students, 9,600 faculty and staff, and guests on its 300-acre campus, California’s San Diego State University (SDSU), a nationally ranked research university renowned for academic excellence, must accommodate tens of thousands of wireless and mobile devices accessing its network each day, many of these personal devices. Given that volume of devices, SDSU needed a comprehensive access and policy management solution that could easily scale while improving the security of the wireless network.

SDSU 

San Diego State University’s deployment of the ClearPass Access Management System will provide robust, reliable and secure network access for all of their users — students, faculty, staff and guests.

SDSU selected to deploy the Aruba ClearPass Access Management System, a new solution that will allow it to manage network policies, securely onboard and manage devices and admit guest users — all from one platform.

Combined with SDSU’s existing Aruba Networks Wireless LAN (WLAN), ClearPass will allow the university to address the challenges associated with the exponential growth in wireless and mobile devices resulting from the growing bring-your-own-device (BYOD) trend on campus. The new solution will give SDSU’s IT department visibility into exactly which users and devices are registering onto the network, enabling SDSU to better manage, track and give appropriate access to the devices accessing the network, which will ensure a more secure, consistent network experience for all of the university’s users.

“With our old access management system, we weren’t able to access the necessary information from devices to properly prioritize and manage traffic,” says Kent McKelvey, director, Telecomm and Network Services, SDSU. “With ClearPass, we will be able to view and manage all of that detailed information, and restrict or block access if necessary. ClearPass will provide us with the flexibility to manage a user base comprised of known and unknown users and will allow us to quickly and easily adjust how we determine levels of access.”

Aruba Networks
www.arubanetworks.com

This article originally appeared in the College Planning & Management August 2013 issue of Spaces4Learning.

Featured

  • Construction Begins on 100+ Acre K–12 Campus Designed for Lakota Culture

    The Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe (CRST) and the Cheyenne-Eagle Butte School District in Eagle Butte, S.D., recently broke ground on a new K–12 campus that will cover more than 100 acres and serve students and families across 1,600 square miles, according to a news release.

  • Rethinking K-12 Schools as a Continuous Learning Experience

    Most students move through three or more separate facilities during their K-12 journey, yet the built environments they encounter at each stage have traditionally been designed in isolation, with little continuity in spatial language, learning philosophy, or physical resources. Each new school is a reset with different layouts, learning models, expectations, and ways of moving through a building. The next generation of school design is making the case that the first day of kindergarten and the last day of high school can and should feel connected through common support systems and infrastructure in the physical environment.

  • ed tech conference calendar

    Upcoming Awards, Events & Webinars

  • Longwood University Hits Construction Milestone on New Music Education Facility

    Longwood University in Farmville, Va., recently celebrated the topping out of its new music education and performance facility, according to a news release. The university partnered with development and construction firm Skanska on the 63,800-square-foot facility, which began construction in August 2025 and has an estimated completion date of fall 2028.