Your familiar blue cord may soon prove obsolete, as wireless Internet is becoming increasingly common on college campuses across the country. John Meerts, vice president of Information Technology Services (ITS), and Director of Technology Support Services Ganesan Ravishanker spearheaded the wireless movement at Wesleyan, and have continued to make changes as the technology improves.
A recent conference at Dartmouth College yielded several new ideas, but Meerts and Ravishanker say that they are generally pleased with Wesleyan’s wireless capabilities.
“We have been slowly implementing wireless around campus,” Ravishanker said. “We’re relatively cautious about both the choice of technology and the deployment…I think we’re on the right track.”
Wireless coverage was initially implemented in the summer of 2002. The Campus Center, Olin Library and the Science Library were the first campus buildings to be outfitted with wireless access points, or “beacons.” Clark Hall, then under renovation, was reconstructed with full wireless capability. Coverage was increased over the following year – 100 beacons are now in operation, servicing most buildings on campus.
“This past summer, we populated the dorms and all of the academic buildings,” Meerts said.
Wesleyan’s wireless system is not only expanding, but also improving in quality. Students can now move from floor to floor in their residence halls with no interruption in wireless service. Also, any communication between wireless laptops and their access points is completely encrypted so that outsiders cannot access the information.
Wesleyan’s beacons – produced by the networking company Cisco – cover an area of approximately 300 feet in radius. According to Meerts, however, this figure changes based on the nature of the building that the access point is in; Olin, for instance, is extremely tricky because of the metal stacks, which interfere with wireless communication.
Wireless access points are currently available in three forms. All three varieties function via radio waves, but are distinguished by the speed and frequency at which they operate. The “B” type is the most common and works at a speed of 11 megabits per second. Interestingly, B access points run at 2.4 gigahertz, the same frequency used by microwaves and cordless phones – the frequency is known as the “free spectrum” and is not regulated by the FCC, hence its popularity. If students try to chat, nuke and surf in the same vicinity, anyone of their instruments may be disabled by the overlap. The “G” and “A” beacon varieties both operate at the higher speed of 56 megabits per second. Like Bs, G access points operate at 2.4 gigahertz, while As demand five gigahertz. .
For Ravishanker and Meerts, the biggest challenge has been balancing cost with the quality of technology. Wireless systems are becoming more sophisticated by the day, providing appealing options for the Wesleyan campus. ITS staffers are reluctant to invest in such new and expensive technology, however, because of the fast-changing nature of the field.
“If you’ve heavily invested in some technology, you might soon find yourself having to redo it,” Meerts said.
This line of reasoning led ITS to outfit Wesleyan with the affordable B access points. While G and A beacons are significantly faster, they are also more costly. Furthermore, Ravishanker explained that B access points are easily upgraded, and can be converted to G beacons if desired.
“In the worst-case scenario, we can increase the speed five-fold with minimal changes to the hardware,” he said.
While their attitude toward wireless is somewhat conservative, Meerts and Ravishanker are constantly researching realistic ways to improve the system. Woodframe houses, for instance, are too spread out for the current capabilities, but could be serviced by access panels developed by the Vivato corporation.
Each panel is intended to cover a one-mile line of sight, which Meerts and Ravishanker describe as a semi-circle or a cone. While it would be far too costly to install access points in all senior houses, a single panel could affordably cover all homes in a certain area.
Meerts added that he intends to expand the campus wireless even further, focusing first on meeting spaces, then moving on to administrative buildings and other locations.
“We’re likely to keep incrementally growing the network…I’m a big fan of also going into open spaces,” he said.
According to ITS, nearly 80% of students purchasing computers from their store choose laptops. This suggests that many students on campus have the potential to go wireless – anyone who has yet to do so can buy a wireless card in the computer store, and then visit www.wesleyan.edu/its/wireless for further set-up instructions.
Meerts and Ravishanker ask students to be cautious as they make the switch, however, because carelessness can lead to network problems. If students with wireless capability also connect through a wire, network bridging is activated, and a single computer can act as a gateway for hundreds of computers around you.
“Our entire campus network comes to its knees because one person has misconfigured their computer,” Ravishanker said.
Most wireless college campuses are currently struggling with this problem. Technology support staffers at Wesleyan and elsewhere ask their students NOT to turn on network bridging when setting up their wireless connections.
Once this problem and others are solved, wireless internet will become more efficient at Wesleyan and elsewhere.
“I think it’s reasonable to expect that there will be a day when computers, like cell phones, can be everywhere,” Meerts said.
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