San José and
RUCKUS Networks
Setting the standard for smart cities
®
First town in Spain’s Nueva California colony
As a city known for California firsts, it seemed inevitable that San José would become the first major United States city to build a fast free public Wi-Fi network in their downtown area. But surprisingly, the capital of Silicon Valley then expanded their network from downtown to the airport, the convention center and into the community. Through a public-private partnership with RUCKUS® Networks and SmartWave Technologies,
the city set out to become the first to provide free Wi-Fi to every single person of their nearly 1 million residents.
By 2030, San José aims to become one of the first multi-gigabit cities in the U.S.
First incorporated city in the new state of California
California’s first state capital
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When San José discovered that nearly 100,000 residents weren’t connected to
high-speed internet, it adopted the Digital Inclusion and Broadband Strategy to close the digital divide. Since 2017, San José has connected tens of thousands of its citizens in underserved communities to free Wi-Fi, covering more than 12 square miles, and is close to providing free Wi-Fi to all residents.
Read the San José
case study overview
A glimpse into success:
Catalysts of transformation
Powered by cutting-edge, patented RUCKUS technology, San José has evolved into a more user-centric, secure and sustainable urban center.
This digital leap has allowed the city to deploy advanced solutions such as coinless parking meters and climate sensors in public buildings—raising the bar for the city’s operational standards. This has also unlocked the ability for all residents to partake in Silicon Valley’s culture of innovation and has fostered transparency among businesses, residents and local governance.
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By collaborating with SmartWave and RUCKUS®, we are at the forefront of
AI-driven Wi-Fi technology. Our city is currently in the testing phase of implementing Wi-Fi technology in our
Wi-Fi infrastructure. This endeavor is already showing early signs of success, heralding a future where AI enhances connectivity and benefits our residents.
Matt Mahan
Mayor, City of San José
Redefining the
travel experience:
The San José Mineta International Airport
With the relentless proliferation of smart mobile devices, the San José Mineta International Airport (SJC) needed to align its services with the expectations of travelers visiting Silicon Valley. To deploy pervasive high-speed Wi-Fi in a high-density indoor environment, SJC needed to address three key issues:
Meeting millions of passengers’ network demands
Ensuring comprehensive and reliable signal coverage
Delivering consistent and reliable network performance
Through a partnership with SmartWave Technologies, SJC deployed RUCKUS indoor Wi-Fi 6 access points (APs) with 12 spatial streams to optimize multi-gigabit performance and connect more devices simultaneously. They also deployed RUCKUS outdoor APs, designed to withstand the elements, to provide curbside outdoor coverage and a seamless Wi-Fi experience for travelers moving from the airport to the downtown core.
LEARN MORE
To learn more, visit our
wireless access points page
DOWNLOAD
CASE STUDY
To read the full San José Mineta International Airport story,
download the case study.
Empowering events, amplifying experiences:
The San José McEnery Convention Center
$130
MILLION
When the McEnery Convention Center underwent
a $130 million renovation in 2013, this created an opportune time to address the shifting demands on
the facility’s Wi-Fi performance.
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We understood the challenges of deploying Wi-Fi in a large, high-density public space with limited available spectrum and channels and where there are high ceilings and no walls in the exhibit hall to segment signals.
We proposed a fixed network
architecture that leverages
enterprise-class technologies from RUCKUS to overcome the challenges
and easily modify Wi-Fi for various events while ensuring bandwidth control and security across competing exhibitors
on the tradeshow floor.
Walter Orell
SmartWave EVP, Engineering
Up to four-fold increase in speed and range for seamless connectivity
Real-time signal and usage data analytics, service assurance for proactive monitoring using RUCKUS AI
High-performance Wi-Fi supporting multi-gigabit experiences
Increased technology revenue and client savings up to 10%
Attracting more business and boosting revenue for the convention center revenue and client savings up to 10%
DOWNLOAD
CASE STUDY
To find out about McEnery Convention Center’s Wi-Fi transformation, download
the full case study.
Closing the homework gap:
San José East Side Union High School District
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East Side Union High School District faced serious issues as we transitioned to a digital curriculum. Providing a reliable, powerful solution for families is critical to achieving
our mission.
Randy Phelps
ESUHSD Chief Technology Officer
Among residents with no access to high-speed broadband were students living on the east side of
San José. The digital divide between the students who have home internet and those who don’t risked allowing students to fall behind their peers. To tackle this homework gap, the city of San José and East Side Union High School District (ESUHSD) worked with SmartWave Technologies and RUCKUS to design and deploy a free outdoor Wi-Fi network that took advantage of city assets such as street lights, traffic lights and city buildings.
The combination of high-performance technology inside the APs together with the installer-friendly deployment exterior made RUCKUS outdoor APs the ideal choice for this network. These features included:
Not all access points are created equal
BeamFlex+ adaptive antenna technology, which improves
signal quality to connected devices
ChannelFly®
dynamic channel technology, which provides the highest signal throughput
Weather-proofing
to IP-67 standards,
so no external antenna is needed
Multi-user MIMO, supporting up to 4X more concurrent users than other APs
DOWNLOAD
CASE STUDY
To learn about ESUHSD, download the full case study.
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When you have too many APs in close proximity, it’s possible for more than one
AP to carry a device’s signal on the same channel—causing co-channel interference. This is a big factor in degrading a
network’s performance.
Tim Fowell
SmartWave Chief Operating Officer
Bridging the
digital divide:
San José
community Wi-Fi
After successfully deploying the Wi-Fi network at ESUHSD, the city discovered there were more users than students enrolled in the schools and realized that the broader community in the district was also in need of connectivity. This prompted the city to create a separate public service set identifier (SSID) that the people from the communities could use to access the internet. The city also installed RUCKUS APs in downtown areas as well as more neighborhoods to extend the network.
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We can see people are actually using the network. The value is evident in the terabytes of data consumed weekly, which is equivalent to the Library of Congress. We’re doing more than preparing these kids for tomorrow. In many cases, we’re also helping their parents become more digital savvy, which increases their ability to become more successful in our community.
Tim Fowell
SmartWave Chief Operating Officer
75%
Currently, ESUHSD’s new extended Wi-Fi network reaches about 75% of students in targeted neighborhoods with great success
Serving 360,000+ households in underserved neighborhoods
Averaging download/upload speeds of at least 20/20 Mbps
Unlimited data capacity with connections that are never throttled
DOWNLOAD
CASE STUDY
Discover the community broadband story by downloading the full case study.
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