Success Story Howard University

Slice Wireless Solutions Provides Presidential WiFi For The Howard University Commencement Convocation.

Howard University’s 148th Commencement Convocation was held on Saturday, May 7th 2016 at the Upper Quadrangle of the main campus. This prestigious outdoor event required a wireless network footprint of over 125,000 square feet with support for over 15,000 users. Add in the presence of President Barack Obama and the strict requirements of the secret service and all of a sudden you have a perfect project for Slice Wireless Solutions.

Given less than a week’s notice to prepare for the project, Slice’s wireless internet experts eagerly accepted the challenge. With a van full of equipment and wireless technicians, Slice headed south to the nation’s capital ready to build and support a robust wireless network meant to provide internet access to the graduating class of 2016, hundreds of members of the media, and countless politicians.

The Deployment
 

After arriving on Wednesday, May 4th, the physical installation began. Spanning over 2 days and totaling over 30 hours, the Slice technicians deployed over 20 Ruckus ZoneFlex 7782 access points across the 125,000 square foot area. With inclement weather promised for the day of the event, running ethernet cable was simply not an option. The Slice technicians decided to deploy Mimosa B5 and B5-Lite backhaul radios together with the access points to deliver a truly wireless internet experience.

Below - The graduating class entering the event area

Below - Mimosa bridge in the foreground and a Ruckus access point in the background

The Results
 

As predicted, the network saw a surge in mobile traffic as soon as the POTUS took the stage. At peak utilization, the network supported downlink speeds of over 170mbps and uplink speeds of over 100mbps to over 1000 connected devices. The event ended shortly after the POTUS’ speech and as quickly as the wireless network was put up, it was broken down and equipment was returned to Slice Wireless Solutions’ Midtown Manhattan headquarters. Another speedy, secure, and solid event WiFi deployment by Slice.

Below - Real time network usage during President Obama's speech.

Watch President Obama's speech in full below.