Saint Mary’s University, Halifax, Nova Scotia – Wi-Fi Master Plan Upgrade for Entire Campus

Saint Mary's traces its earliest beginnings to 1802 when the Reverend Edmund Burke, later Bishop Burke, taught young men at the Glebe House, on the corner of Spring Garden Road and Barrington Street. The boys’ school grew first into a college and then into a university, never wavering in its commitment to education and community service. Saint Mary’s was granted Degree-granting status in 1842 by an act of the Nova Scotia Legislature and became a University in 1952. For many years the school was operated by the Christian Brothers and then later by the Jesuits, eventually becoming a public university in 1970. Saint Mary’s has one of the oldest Commerce and business faculties in Canada, dating back to the mid 19th century. The current student body of 7,000 students hail from 115 countries.

Ward Sellars led the Hidi Group’s Communications and Networking team in this complete re-build of the Wi-Fi system at the campus. Ward’s team were referred to the University by a Toronto Architect familiar with our Wireless expertise. The University had deployed Wireless network’s in an ad-hoc fashion over many years and there were gaps in the coverage and administration problems with many generations of devices. SMU wanted a thorough review of the entire campus Wi-Fi network, and develop a Master Plan to bring it completely up-to-date. This review would include the academic buildings, residence buildings, athletic facilities, remote administrative buildings and the entire outdoor environment for the 80 acre campus. In the Summer of 2018, 3 members of the Toronto team spent 3 days on site in Halifax to survey and document all areas of the campus. We reviewed existing maps of Wi-Fi access points and reviewed Wi-Fi heat map survey data prepared by the University IT department. Hidi also used our IbWave predictive wireless propagation 3D software to determine Wi-Fi placement and quantity in the New Hockey arena which was just starting to build in the summer of 2018.

After discussion with the University, it was decided that a Public Tender for replacement of the entire Universities’ Wi-Fi system was desired. Hidi worked with the University IT department and the Universities procurement team, eventually resulting in a Public RFP through their purchasing portal (Bonfire). Although the products and services were Specified for Performance, the University wanted the System to be either Cisco, HP/Aruba, or Ruckus, as these three were the best supported in Halifax. Hidi helped with preliminary budgets and determining the exact pricing for the Contract before the bidding process. Hidi generated the RFP documents, assisted with the Bidder meetings on-site and then assisted with the Tender analysis and recommendations for award. The successful bidder proposed an HP/Aruba solution, to the satisfaction of the University. The systems came in under budget and the University was very happy with Hidi’s assistance.