Goals & Benefits to Campus
Berkeley IT has embarked on a wide-ranging program to improve the overall experience of network users on campus. The goal of this project is to offer a broader and clearer range of connectivity options and to modernize and improve the capacity of various network services where necessary. This IT Top Priority consists of multiple projects as described below.
User Experience Improvement Projects
Network User Experience Program Timeline
Improving our overall network involves several coordinated projects happening in tandem with careful consideration for project dependencies and sequencing to minimize disruption to the campus community. The biggest factor in our ability to make progress in the past has been years of underfunding. We are thrilled that, as of July 1, 2022, we are now fully funded to continue this critical work, however, we are playing catch-up and changes cannot happen overnight. The overall aim is to enhance the campus Wi-Fi, firewall, and VPN experience on campus and to improve connectivity for students in international locations. 
Wi-Fi Upgrades: Infrastructure Expansion & Modernization
The majority of locations on campus now enjoy modern 802.11ac Wi-Fi service. From 2021 to 2022, we replaced over 800 obsolete access points that do not support modern services in multiple buildings on campus. This work was completed in October 2022. The remaining ~150 access points were replaced and Cisco abatement was completed in January 2023. View the updated map of coverage here | compare to Wi-Fi map from last year.
Berkeley IT offers several Wi-Fi network services, some of which provide identical features. The user experience for configuring access to the primary campus Wi-Fi service (eduroam) is not intuitive and has poor accessibility. Our existing services do not adequately support Internet of Things (IoT) devices or the needs of students in our residence halls. We are addressing all of these issues during this project.
Campus Firewall & VPN Capacity Improvements
During the pandemic, the bSecure GlobalProtect VPN became an important tool for our students, faculty, and staff and use of this service increased dramatically. More and more campus departments rely on the bSecure firewall service to ensure they are able to meet policy and privacy requirements. Berkeley IT would like to expand the service to most campus connections as the default to reduce risks for our user community. We will be implementing additional hardware capacity to ensure the ongoing stability and scalability of VPN. We will also implement additional capacity to expand firewall services on campus.
Detailed Milestones & Timeline
Important dates and major milestones for this program. See individual project pages for more detailed information. All dates are estimated and information may shift as this program and the suite of projects within it progresses.
Date |
Milestone |
Benefit to Campus |
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Phase 1: Oct. 2017 - June 2020 |
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Oct. 2017 |
Begin Wi-Fi infrastructure upgrades |
Ensure ubiquitous, high-performance Wi-Fi throughout campus. |
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June 2019 |
Begin Wi-Fi upgrades and coverage in student housing |
Provide Wi-Fi coverage throughout campus residence halls to ensure equitable access to educational resources. |
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July 2019 - June 2020 |
Campus Wi-Fi infrastructure upgrades continue |
Continued progress to goal of ubiquitous high performance Wi-Fi. |
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Phase 2: July 2020 - June 2021 |
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July 2020 - June 2021 |
Continued progress with Campus Wi-Fi Infrastructure restricted. |
Continued progress with work on the campus Wi-Fi infrastructure restricted due to the pandemic and lack of funding. |
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June 2021 |
Completed residence hall Wi-Fi upgrades |
Provide Wi-Fi coverage throughout campus residence halls to ensure equitable access to educational resources. |
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Phase 3: July 2021 - Jan. 2022 |
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July 2021 |
Network User Experience Program begins |
Wide-ranging program to improve the availability, accessibility, security and performance of campus network services with a focus on the user perspective. |
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Nov. 2021 |
Deprecate Airbears2, SSID broadcast turned off on Nov. 16 |
Reduce user complexity and confusion, simplify service offerings, prepare for enhanced services, improve user connectivity experience. |
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Jan. 2022 |
Implement additional campus firewall and VPN capability, PAN Refresh (new hardware & CPU cycles) on Jan. 12 |
Ensure access to campus resources, improve data security and availability. |
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Phase 4: Feb. - Nov. 2022 |
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March 2022 |
Completely abate Airbears2, network will be retired on March 23 |
Reduce user complexity and confusion, simplify service offerings, prepare for enhanced services, improve user connectivity experience. |
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Sept. 2022 |
Enhance Wi-Fi user experience monitoring; integrate sensors into Wi-Fi operations/support |
Faster detection, reporting, and resolution of issues resulting in less disruption for users. |
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Aug. 2022 |
Portal Wi-Fi Keys User Experience Accessibility & Usability Go Live |
Improved accessibility and usability for all campus users. |
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Nov. 2022 |
Enhanced connectivity for international students; Remote connectivity for international students in China. This project will be discontinued on 12/1/22 due to a large reduction in the student population in China and a lack of interest in the service within that population. |
Ensure access to course materials for international students. |
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Phase 5: Dec. 2022 - July 2023 |
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Jan. 2023 |
Cisco Abatement with Aruba Replacements |
Improve network security. Improve connectivity options for campus and resident communities. |
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Jan. 2023 |
Launch Residential/IoT Wi-Fi Services; PSK network development |
Improve network security. Improve connectivity options for campus and resident communities. |
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March 2023 |
Replace CalVisitor with Berkeley-Visitor (both will run concurrently through the abatement of CalVisitor scheduled for July 1, 2023) |
Improve user connectivity. Reduce confusion, simplify services. Improve campus network security. |
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July 2023 |
CalVisitor Abatement |
Improve user connectivity. Reduce confusion, simplify services. Improve campus network security. |
Team Members & Roles
Primary Contact:
David Rieger, Project Manager
Sally Baker, Service Desk Manager
Clark Bilorusky, Technical Services Supervisor, Student Helpdesk
Martin Garcia, Network Project Manager
John Ives, Security Analyst
Andrew Lau,Network Engineering Supervisor
Rita Rosenthal, Director of Communications
Sean Schluntz, Principal Network Engineer
Gary Thomas, Principal Wireless Engineer, Process Owner
Steering Committee Members
Bill Allison, Chief Technology Officer
Dave Browne, Executive Director of Campus IT Infrastructure
Wes Johnson, Executive Director of Campus IT Experience
Erfan Mojaddam, Director DevOps & Learning Spaces
Cristóbal Olivares, Director, Student Technologies
Isaac Orr, Manager Network Operations & Services (Steering Committee Liaison)
Faye Snowden - TPO Manager