SUMMARY

India’s COEP Technological University’s roots may date back to the mid-19th century, but its facilities are ultra-modern, including campus-wide connectivity enabled by NETGEAR. Benefits include a reliable network experience for students and faculty staff and centralized network management for IT teams. NETGEAR was given the chance to show what it could provide when it came to the university’s rescue days before an important exam.

BACKGROUND

Established in 1854, COEP Technological University is one of the oldest engineering institutions in India, with a rich legacy of consistently contributing to technical education. This multi-disciplinary public university located in Pune supports approximately 4500 students from within the state and nationwide through thirteen academic departments, which cover a wide range of topics, such as smart renewal energy, biomedical engineering, advanced electronics manufacturing, and robotics.

Part of COEP’s commitment to fostering the nation’s skills is ensuring an excellent on-campus experience across classrooms, seminar rooms, accommodation, libraries, laboratories, and more. In turn, these all depend on superior-quality network connectivity to simultaneously support large volumes of users, devices, and the systems on which the university’s smooth running depends.

CHALLENGE

While the existing network infrastructure had served its purpose in the past, it began to experience some issues. Plus, the legacy switches required highly technical staff to configure and support equipment. Matters came to a head when some of the old switches failed, and the existing network vendor was unable to provide a viable solution, so the university was left without timely replacements several days before an important online exam was due to take place.

NETGEAR rapidly came to the rescue, providing M4300 switches and wireless access points to ensure students could sit the exam. Furthermore, NETGEAR provided on-site technical assistance, staying until the exam was completed, a level of support that the university commented it had not previously experienced from a network equipment vendor.

SOLUTION

The results of this first encounter with NETGEAR exceeded the university’s expectations, due to both NETGEAR support and product performance. However, it still evaluated the company compared to to other vendors and found some stand-out advantages from NETGEAR. For instance, the university appreciated that NETGEAR network switches are easy to install and configure, without needing special on-going expertise to support. Similarly, NETGEAR access points start working as soon as they have internet access without requiring complex configuration.

Another plus point was NETGEAR Insight, a cloud portal for centralized and simplified remote management of the network, including monitoring, configuration, remote trouble-shooting, all from one single view. This simplifies network management for supervisors, while also reducing the need for site visits.

The relationship with NETGEAR was another important element in the final decision, with a proactive support team that helped build the university’s trust. Strong warranty and service policies also provide additional peace of mind.

RESULTS

So, the university decided to extend NETGEAR equipment to other parts of the campus, including WiFi access points deployed strategically to maximize coverage and seamless performance. The network – with its recently upgraded 10Gbps backbone to support high-speed transmission and future scalability — is also supported by 70 NETGEAR network switches, including 10Gb, multigig and PoE-enabled models.

Today, academic buildings, hostels, libraries, and recreational areas are all fully covered by a high-speed, high-performance WiFi network, demonstrating how this long-established university’s legacy of an excellent on-campus university continues to be a priority in the modern day, as does NETGEAR’s commitment to supporting world-class educational institutions like COEP.

KITLIST

Products Deployed:

• WAX625 (Wi-Fi 6 Indoor Access Points) – 210 units
• NPR1SNG5 (Power Adapters) – 210 units
• XSM4324FS (24-Port 10G Fibre Switches) – 3 units
• XSM4348S (48-Port 10G Switch) – 1 unit
• GS324TP (24-Port PoE+ Smart Switches) – 66 units
• AGM732F (SFP Fibre Modules) – 140 units
• AXM762 (10G SFP+ Modules) – 2 units

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