The IT-needs after the Covid-19 pandemic and the NWU’s move to a HyFlex Teaching and Learning model have drastically changed the connectivity requirements of NWU staff and students. Around 60% of the NWU’s total network traffic flows through the WiFi network and is a reversal of the pre-pandemic 35% / 65% split with the cabled network.
The increase in WiFi demand has required/prompted the NWU’s IT to adjust some IT strategies and reprioritise funding and projects to upgrade, expand and stabilise the WiFi environment of the University.
The Enterprise WiFi that the NWU uses to address its 5 000 access points and the 20 000 concurrent connected user devices are much more complex than Small office/home office (SOHO). Maintaining this environment has many more complexities, resulting in many interdependent IT projects currently running to improve WiFi connectivity.
The categories of the various projects are:
- INTERNET & FIREWALLS
- AUTHENTICATION & AUTHORISATION
- BASIC IP SERVICES
- OPERATIONAL & TELEMETRY
- BACK-END NETWORK
- WIFI PLATFORM & SERVICE
As these categories of projects are completed, users will experience an incremental improvement and increased performance on the NWU WiFi.
Basic building blocks, like WiFi connectivity, are an essential enabler of the Digital Business Strategy, and IT commits to prioritising connectivity in support of the DBS.
The following table summarises the progress:
| INTERNET & FIREWALLS | Tasks | Status | Progress |
| Firewalls @ max capacity | Upgrade firewalls | Done | 100% |
| Upgrade provider edge to accommodate new equipment | Upgrade uplinks & backbone | Done | 100% |
| Increase connectivity (Contract) | Contract negotiations, budget etc | In process | 60% |
| Latency issues (PCM) | Investigating | 40% | |
| AUTHENTICATION & AUTHORISATION | |||
| High failure rate | Investigating | 5% | |
| Timeouts between controller & RADIUS servers | Investigating | 5% | |
| DS back-end performance issues | Investigating | 5% | |
| IDM understaffed by >400% | Investigating | 5% | |
| NAC stability issues, non-standardised configs & versions | Work with vendor to remediate | In process | 30% |
| BASIC IP SERVICES | |||
| Cause behind >30% of connection failures | Investigating | 40% | |
| DNS & DHCP services understaffed, outdated software, hardware & monitoring + management tools | Investigating | 5% | |
| Insufficient capacity on recursive resolvers | Increase capacity | In process | 1% |
| Lack of usable IP space | |||
| OPERATIONAL & TELEMETRY | |||
| No insight into solution performance (Tools & Processes) | Analyse tools & processes required for optimal service quality | In process | 20% |
| Tools to identify outages & performance issues | Identify & implement tools | In process | 5% |
| Processes to remediate | Create or optimise processes | In process | 10% |
| BACK-END NETWORK | |||
| Contention at controllers | Aggregate links, upgrade capacity | In process | 80% |
| Insufficient capacity on user routers | Replace | In process | 40% |
| High loss & latency between controllers & AP’s | Fix aggregation layer topology & router interconnects | In process | 5% |
| Insufficient AP bandwidth at edge & aggregation layers | Fix edge topology, upgrade or replace devices | In process | 5% |
| WIFI PLATFORM & SERVICE | |||
| Unstable controllers | Work with vendor to remediate | In process | 90% |
| Unstable access points | Work with vendor to remediate | In process | 90% |
| Configuration issues | Work with vendor to remediate | In process | 95% |
| Design in high density areas | Investigating | 5% | |
| Gaps in coverage | Investigating | 5% | |
| Communication - policy | In process | 5% | |
| End user device specification guidance | To nudge users toward newer and better quality devices | In process | 5% |