When it comes to storied sports teams, names like the Boston Red Sox and Montreal Canadiens come to mind. In college football, there is no more iconic a team than the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. From Knute Rockne to Joe Montana to Rudy, Notre Dame football has a history of excellence and success.
Over the past several years, Notre Dame, like all organizations, has been rethinking customer experience. Fans are drawn to the team for its history and legacy, but that doesn’t diminish expectations for a best-in-class stadium experience. To help with that, the 80,000-seat stadium just got a major connectivity upgrade. Notre Dame partnered with HPE Aruba Networking to deploy Wi-Fi 6E at Notre Dame Stadium, making it the first college stadium in the country to use the new 6 gigahertz (GHz) spectrum outdoors. The rollout is part of a bigger plan to create a campus where fast, reliable Wi-Fi is available everywhere.
When the stadium’s last system was installed in 2017, it was mostly used for web browsing and social media. Today, fans live stream, share videos, and use mobile apps during events. While the number of connected devices hasn’t changed much, the demand for bandwidth has greatly increased.
With Wi-Fi 6E, the network can move data much faster, reaching up to 25 gigabits per second (Gbps), compared to 5 Gbps in the past, said John Buysse, Notre Dame’s senior director of university network and telephony services, in an interview with me.
It’s not just about speed, though. The total data fans use on game day also skyrocketed: “We were seeing maybe four or five terabytes in 2017. Now we’re seeing 15 to 20 terabytes, and that’s just during the game,” said Buysse.
To handle the surge and the anticipated increase in data volumes, Notre Dame installed 1,100 outdoor and indoor access points (AP) throughout the stadium. The new system proved successful during a playoff game in December 2024, when attendees pushed Wi-Fi traffic past 26 Gbps without any glitches. That was just the beginning. With faster, more reliable internet, fans now have a better experience.
Notre Dame has fully adopted mobile ticketing and introduced grab-and-go concession stands, with plans to expand them further. Alcohol sales were recently approved, prompting efforts to support new services like mobile carts. In premium areas, fans can stream various games during events. Notre Dame also tested mobile ordering for concessions with pickup alerts.
As they say in infomercials, “but wait, there’s more…” The university is continually exploring new ways to make the in-person experience even better. For example, it will offer exclusive camera angles and real-time stats, only available through Wi-Fi at the stadium. It’s all part of an effort to give fans something they can’t get watching at home. (See also: AI commentary goes into full swing at Players Championship)
“One of the challenges a lot of lot of sports venues face is getting people to pay to come to the game, when they can sit at home with their large TV and have a similar experience from the comfort of their couch,” said Buysse.
Behind the scenes, the stadium has also become a testing ground for advanced tech, in partnership with Federated Wireless and Notre Dame’s own Wireless Institute. Federated Wireless helped the university manage the challenges of using the new 6 GHz Wi-Fi band outdoors. Normally, too many devices using the same signal can cause interference. Federated Wireless’ cloud-based system, Automated Frequency Coordination (AFC), prevents interference by organizing how different devices share the signal. As a result, the stadium’s Wi-Fi is now stronger, covers more ground, and can handle more people at once.
Meanwhile, the Wireless Institute is piloting a private 5G network to see how connectivity can be improved for both students and devices across campus. While private 5G isn’t coming this year, Buysse said the university will be “transitioning back-of-house communications” to ensure that critical services, such as campus public safety, always stay connected regardless of how busy the network gets.
For now, Notre Dame directs everyone to Wi-Fi because the stadium’s cellular network is outdated and struggles to keep up with demand. Although improvements to cellular service are being made, progress has been slow due to various challenges. Specifically, cellular carriers want to install equipment in the bowl of the stadium, but the venue’s structure makes that difficult without impacting the aesthetic.
Beyond the stadium, Notre Dame is upgrading its entire network infrastructure, including switches, to meet the demands of Wi-Fi 6E. By August, Notre Dame’s 1,265-acre campus should be covered. Once that’s done, the university plans to tap into HPE Aruba’s AI tools to get insights on network usage and to troubleshoot devices.
“Ninety percent of Wi-Fi problems are not really in the infrastructure but the end user devices themselves. So, the biggest thing is providing better insight into how Wi-Fi is being used, as well as devices that have issues connecting. It’s about having the information to help address that,” said Buysse.
While this is a stadium-related deployment, all organizations can take a lesson from this in understanding the importance of the network. Last year I ran a survey that asked IT leaders: “How important is the role of the network in your organization’s ability to meet its business goals compared to two years ago?” A whopping 93% said it was more important. Today, brands are measured on customer experience, and, for most organizations, that starts with the network. Notre Dame has a rich history in football, and now it has a Wi-Fi network to match.
Source:: Network World