In alignment with the Japanese government’s 10-trillion-yen fund to develop research universities that meet the highest global standards, the university announced UTokyo Compass, a set of guiding principles designed to foster world-class innovation and excellence in education and research, by embracing dialogue, diverse perspectives and experiences in 2022.
The UTokyo Compass initiative has prompted the university to enhance its Information and Communications Technology (ICT) strategy. This entails a comprehensive reassessment of the network infrastructure and the transformation of its operations to facilitate active communication throughout all campus locations.
"Since its establishment, the University of Tokyo has remained dedicated to providing a world-class research and education platform," Junji Tamatsukuri, associate professor and deputy general manager for the information systems division at The University of Tokyo. "The network plays a vital role in facilitating access to crucial resources and active communication for our students and faculty."
He noted that an efficient and user-friendly network is equally important, enabling his team to address issues that may arise swiftly."
The process
Embarking on this transformative journey, UTokyo established a cross-organisational UTokyo Wi-Fi Task Force focused on enhancing the wireless network infrastructure, reinforcing its pivotal role in improving students' and faculty's educational and research experiences.
The team placed significant emphasis on building a reliable, secure, and high-performing wireless network capable of accommodating large numbers of users, with multiple devices per person on each campus.
A major focus was implementing a network solution that offered the team from different departments consolidated management across all departments while giving them appropriate management authority.
This objective would be achieved through a single dashboard, enabling a unified view of the entire network, as well as the ability to observe and visualise faults and user experience. The University of Tokyo (UTokyo) has selected Juniper’s AP32 Access Points to provide a seamlessly unified wireless experience across its campuses enabling flexible management.
These networking upgrades will enable the multiple departments in UTokyo to deliver a high-speed wireless network infrastructure to its 48,000 students and faculty actively engaged in learning and research across 10 faculties and 15 graduate schools.
Juniper's solutions powered by Mist AI, with a successful track record in local and global implementations, proved to be the ideal choice, meeting all the required criteria for this transformative initiative.
The deployment of Juniper AP32 Wireless Access Points across its three main campuses in Hongō, Komaba and Kashiwa, has successfully streamlined network management and operations for the different departments and provided them with a unified view of the entire network on a single dashboard powered by Mist AI. The team also utilises the capabilities of the Juniper Mist™ rich API-centric architecture, which visualises the necessary data for each site to improve operational efficiency.
Post-implementation
Since implementing a Juniper-powered wireless network, the experience for the school's team and its students has significantly improved. Additionally, the network can seamlessly support the simultaneous connection of approximately 18,000 devices during peak usage period. The expansion is being carried out progressively, aiming to cover all campuses.
As UTokyo looks towards the future, it is actively exploring the potential integration of Mist AI throughout its entire network, aiming to establish it as a fundamental component of its IT infrastructure.
