Some client engagements are defined by their complexity. Others, by their scale. And then some stand apart simply because of where they take place, and the weight of history you feel the moment you set foot on the grounds.
The Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, is that kind of place. Since its founding in 1930, IAS has served as a sanctuary for the world’s leading researchers and scholars, free from the obligations of teaching or institutional bureaucracy. Albert Einstein spent the last two decades of his life here, and J. Robert Oppenheimer served as its third director. The minds that have walked these grounds read like a roll call of 20th-century intellectual history.
It’s also, as it turns out, a place with a wireless network that needed a hard look.
The Backstory
Velaspan has worked with higher education institutions for more than two decades, and the challenges tend to rhyme: Historic buildings with thick stone and concrete walls, infrastructure layered over infrastructure as campuses grow organically, networks assembled incrementally, an access point added here, a building added there, without anyone stepping back for a comprehensive view of the whole.
Velaspan’s prior work at nearby Princeton University provided relevant experience for the environment IAS was looking to assess. Despite operating at the frontier of human knowledge, IAS hadn’t received a formal, top-to-bottom assessment of its wireless network since approximately 2018. The infrastructure itself was a relatively current Cisco environment already running Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E capable hardware, but modern equipment alone doesn’t guarantee a well-performing network.
The result was what you’d expect, with areas of poor and unstable coverage, particularly in the residential facilities that house visiting scholars and fellows. The Institute had a skilled, experienced network team that knew the environment well and sensed something wasn’t right, but they needed data to understand why and a plan to address it.
Earning the Work
Before a single engineer set foot on campus, Velaspan had to earn the engagement, which meant making a clear case for how we work.
In our conversations with IAS, we emphasized that our approach starts with on-site data, not assumptions. We don’t make recommendations based solely on what a configuration file says should be happening. We measure what the RF environment actually looks like, bring that coverage data together with the configuration review, and normalize both against a known-good baseline. Only then do we tell a client what needs to change.
That sequencing matters more than it might seem. A network running access points at inflated transmit power can look great on paper, and perform poorly in the real world. IAS’s team recognized the value of grounding recommendations in real-world measurement, and that approach became the foundation for the rest of the engagement.
What We Found
Velaspan’s engineers began with a campus-wide wireless coverage assessment across IAS’s academic buildings, offices, common spaces, and residential facilities, collecting real-world data on how the network was actually performing. We then combined those findings with a detailed configuration review to understand not only where problems existed, but why.
The configuration review showed that power settings had been left at defaults rather than tuned to the environment, causing access points across campus, and especially in the residential buildings, to broadcast well above recommended levels. In a dense network with hundreds of access points, excessive transmit power doesn’t improve coverage. Instead, it can increase interference and keep devices connected to more distant access points rather than roaming cleanly. Channel bonding settings compounded the problem, particularly in the densely built housing areas.
The on-site measurements helped put those configuration findings into context. Placement and mounting in the residential facilities frequently didn’t align with best practices, and the combination of elevated power and inconsistent placement could produce signal-strength readings that appeared healthy even though the underlying RF environment was not.
Importantly, outdated hardware wasn’t the primary problem. IAS had relatively modern infrastructure, but the network evolved without being comprehensively tuned to its environment. The issue was in how the network had been designed and configured, and the combined assessment gave IAS a much clearer picture of what needed to change.
From Assessment to Action
With both deliverables in the client’s hands within roughly a month of project kickoff, IAS had a clear, data-backed picture of its network’s actual condition, something it hadn’t had in years.
The residential facilities emerged as the top priority, and Velaspan moved directly into a predictive wireless design for IAS housing, built on the findings from the coverage assessment and configuration review. Rather than design each building from scratch, Velaspan developed a templatized approach that could be applied consistently across the residential campus, giving IAS a scalable, repeatable design rather than a one-off fix.
The work with IAS has since expanded beyond the residential campus. Velaspan is also supporting the renovation of the Institute’s Historical Studies/Social Science Library. A post-installation survey will validate the new network once deployment is complete.
A Note on Partnership
Projects like this one don’t go smoothly by accident. IAS’s network team brought deep familiarity with their environment and worked alongside Velaspan from day one, providing context and facilitating the access needed to do the job properly. Accurate floor plans are one of the most common challenges in wireless projects, particularly on campuses with buildings that have evolved over many decades. IAS’s team persisted in tracking down the information Velaspan needed, giving the project a much stronger foundation from the start.
The Bigger Picture
The Institute for Advanced Study is a distinctive place, but the lesson from its wireless environment is broadly applicable. Networks evolve. Buildings change. Hardware gets replaced. Over time, even a relatively modern infrastructure can drift from the environment it was meant to serve.
At IAS, the answer wasn’t simply newer equipment. It was stepping back, measuring the network as a whole, and using real-world data to understand what needed to change. For an institution built around giving extraordinary minds the environment they need to do their best work, that same principle now extends to the network supporting them.
If your wireless network has evolved faster than it has been assessed, Velaspan can help you see what’s really happening. Start with a data-driven assessment—and turn real-world insight into a clear plan for better performance.
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