When 80,000 fans fill the University of Notre Dame’s iconic football stadium on Saturday afternoons in the fall to cheer on the Fighting Irish, there’s no shortage of high-decibel screaming. And now, thanks to a major network expansion, there’s no shortage of high-bandwidth streaming.
Last fall, Notre Dame became the first college or university in the U.S. to turn on Wi-Fi 6E, the relatively new standard that takes advantage of the 6Ghz wireless spectrum to provide enhanced wireless coverage for outdoor venues. The new network supports a variety of advanced features such as ticketless entry, remote ordering at the concession stands, live streaming of real-time stats from Fighting Irish Media, and video chats between people in the stadium or anywhere in the world.
Designed for a maximum capacity of 40Gbps, the 6E network triples the bandwidth of the prior network. In the team’s first game on Sept. 28, the Wi-Fi was able to comfortably support a network load that hit 22.37 Gbps. And that’s just the beginning.
“This project was about more than just upgrading Wi-Fi. It’s about staying ahead, giving our fans and community the best experience possible, and making this campus a leader in connectivity,” says Mike Atkins, infrastructure architect at Notre Dame. “With this network, the possibilities for fans and academic research are endless.”
John Buysse, senior director of university network and telephony services, adds: “At this point, if we can imagine it, we can find a way to do it. We’re committed to being a wireless-first campus, and with 6E Standard Power, we now have one of the most advanced wireless infrastructures in college athletics.”
What the future holds
The new Wi-Fi 6E network provides multiple benefits both inside the stadium and across the campus, located in Notre Dame, Indiana. These include:
- There are plans to add virtual reality features so fans can view player highlights and track plays in real time.
- University event personnel are able to leverage network data to improve crowd control and perform security monitoring.
- Notre Dame’s Wireless Institute will be able to use the network as a live lab for conducting cutting-edge research into IoT, augmented reality and AI.
- The network will serve as a central hub for an expansion of Wi-Fi 6E across the campus, providing high-speed connectivity for students, faculty and administrators.
- The technology is opening doors to innovative projects such as using IoT devices connected to the Wi-Fi to monitor the growth of grass on the field. The football field is artificial turf, but a layer of grass is laid down for special events, such as a recent soccer match between Cheslea FC and Celtic FC. “We never anticipated how far we could push this technology,” Atkins says.
- The project also included movable Wi-Fi structures that can be taken onto the field to accommodate events such as concerts, movie nights and other special events. For example, last year there was a ‘Flick on the Field’ event at the stadium, where the inspirational football film ‘Rudy’ was shown. (Rudy tells the real-life story of Daniel “Rudy” Ruettiger, who overcame obstacles to eventually fulfill his dream of making the Notre Dame football team.)
Upgrade project faced challenges
Notre Dame’s iconic stadium, designed by the same architects behind Chicago’s Comiskey Park and New York’s Yankee Stadium, was built in 1930 and became known as “the house that Knute Rockne built,” in a nod to the legendary coach’s effort to get the facility built.
By 2020, the existing wireless infrastructure was struggling to keep pace with the demands of modern fans who were on their phones talking, texting, shooting videos, taking selfies, posting content on social media, checking out other online sites, and generally consuming huge amounts of bandwidth.
Notre Dame wanted to meet those basic requirements but also wanted to add advanced features like interactive stadium activities, real-time stats and video streaming.
In 2023, Notre Dame began working with PIER Group, an Indiana-based technology service provider focused on education and research markets, to design, plan and implement the Wi-Fi upgrade. The planning and strategizing phase took about a year.
There were hurdles to overcome. First, the stadium has thick concrete walls which impede the wireless signal. Second, the IT team had to work around a packed event schedule that included football games, as well as other events such as graduation ceremonies and the international soccer match.
The physical installation of Aruba outdoor access points began in early 2024 and took around six months to complete. The access points were strategically placed for maximum efficiency, and they were creatively concealed within the stadium’s infrastructure to maintain the aesthetic appeal of the historic facility. For example, the team used 3D printing to design and build enclosures for the APs that were placed all over the stadium, even in little boxes attached to the hand railings that lead fans up the steps to their seats.
Why Wi-Fi 6E?
It may be a bit confusing, but the Wi-Fi 6 standard (802.ax), approved by the IEEE in 2020, gets its name because it’s the sixth generation of Wi-Fi technology. But Wi-Fi 6 doesn’t use the 6Ghz band of unlicensed spectrum made available by the FCC in 2020. Wi-Fi 6 runs in the 2.4 and 4 GHz bands only.
Wi-Fi 6E (Extended) runs on all three spectrums, which is what delivers the additional bandwidth. It is estimated the Wi-Fi 6E can be as much as twice as fast at Wi-Fi 6.
Wi-Fi 6 takes a variety of well-understood wireless techniques and combines them in a way that achieves a significant advance over previous standards while maintaining backward compatibility with previous generations. For example, it uses higher order QAM modulation, which allows for more data to be transmitted per packet.
It also achieves more efficient spectrum utilization, creating broader channels and splitting those channels into narrower sub-channels. This increases the total number of available channels, making it easier for endpoints to find a clear path to the access point.
Wi-Fi 6E builds on the core Wi-Fi 6 technology in a number of ways: The additional spectrum delivers more nonoverlapping channels, so Wi-Fi 6E can support dense IT and IoT environments with no degradation of performance. Because it operates in the newly available 6Ghz spectrum, network architects can be confident that there are no other device types (microwave ovens) using the spectrum, which means less interference or competition for bandwidth from other wireless sources. And from a security perspective, WPA3, which provides new authentication and encryption algorithms for networks, is a mandatory requirement for the Wi-Fi 6E network.
But there’s a catch. Wi-Fi 6E is not backward compatible with prior versions of Wi-Fi. It requires the proverbial forklift network upgrade, and on the end-user side of the equation, only devices that support 6E can take advantage of the new technology.
Luckily, the vendor community has stepped up. For example, Samsung began supporting 6E in 2021, with the Galaxy S21 Ultra. Apple began supporting Wi-Fi 6E in the iPhone 15 Pro in 2023, and in all subsequent models.
On the network side, when Pier Group was working with the Notre Dame IT team to upgrade from the previous Wi-Fi 5 implementation, they needed to install sufficient Aruba Wi-Fi 6E access points to cover the stadium’s seating area as well as the densely populated concourse. The final total was a whopping 1,110 APs.
The next step was to upgrade the backend switching infrastructure to accommodate the additional traffic and power requirements. The third radio, the one that runs on the 6Ghz band, increases energy consumption linearly, pushing 6E up against the limits of standard power-over-Ethernet (POE).
So, Notre Dame added 130 new switches that deliver smart-rate, multi-gigabit ports, while also providing up to 90 watts of power-over-Ethernet (POE) per port, which enabled Notre Dame to run the Wi-Fi in Standard Power mode, rather than the Low-Power option.
And the team deployed Automated Frequency Coordination, which dynamically manages frequency usage and power levels to optimize network performance and prevent interference from other 6Ghz spectrum traffic.
Teamwork is key
Buysse credits PIER Group with helping to get the project over the goal line. “Working with PIER Group has been instrumental in achieving our vision for the stadium and the entire campus. We’re committed to being a wireless-first campus, and with Wi-Fi 6E Standard Power, we currently have the most advanced wireless infrastructures in college athletics.”
Chad Williams, president of PIER Group, adds: “This project is a testament to the power of collaboration and innovation. It’s exciting to see a venue with such a rich legacy be the first in higher education to set this high bar for fan engagement and campus connectivity.”
One key point is that the Notre Dame football stadium doesn’t exist in a vacuum. In fact, in 2014, the $400 million Campus Crossroads expansion renovated the structure and added three buildings onto the stadium: the Duncan Student Center, which hosts student recreational and dining facilities; O’Neill Hall, which houses the university’s music department; and Corbett Family Hall, which hosts the psychology and anthropology departments. In addition, the three buildings house premium stadium seating, press boxes, and event spaces.
So, any network upgrade that adds new outdoor access points and improves backhaul capabilities benefits the larger Notre Dame community. “We wanted to make sure we were making the best decisions for the stadium as well as the university as a whole,” Buysse says. “Moving to 6E Standard Power isn’t just about creating a better experience for fans – it’s about improving connectivity for staff, faculty, and students across the university. We’re thinking long term.”