WLA Task Force on Technology Utilization
Topic Paper
Wireless technology
Background
Mobile phones and other wireless communication devices – net-enabled or not –
are extremely popular and are likely to become even more so. Colleges and
universities are busily installing wireless services in classrooms and other
academic buildings. However, UW-Stout's "Strategic Plan for Information
Technology, 1999-2001, says this about the wireless campus:
"The current state of wireless technology is such that it does not warrant consideration today. Wireless connectivity has been limited to a bandwidth of 1MB until very recently. Some vendors have begun to offer products that support 3MB, and at least one vendor has a product operating at 11MB. For many of our applications, this is still too limited. However, as the bandwidth increases, wireless becomes more desirable."
Still, "a plan must be developed to also eliminate the "plug" and proceed to a wireless campus...within several years." We're all going to have to deal with wireless one way or another in the next several years.
What do you need to use it?
In a wireless setup, portable computers or even desktop PCs are equipped with
communications cards called wireless adapters. The adapter contains the electronics and antenna for
sending and receiving signals from boxes called "access points."
You install the access points on the interior and exterior walls of buildings. Each access
point, typically the size of a book, houses a transmitter, a receiver, an antenna, and a piece of
equipment that acts as a bridge to your wire-based network.
A single access point can serve many users. Depending on the type of computer tasks they need
to accomplish, up to 30 users at a time can connect to the network through the same
wireless access point by simply logging onto their network.
As more people connect, however, each person gets a smaller share of the bandwidth -- which translates to a slower network connection. But a someone with a wireless PC antenna can be several hundred feet from an access point and remain connected to the network, because the wireless radio signal carries through walls, floors, and ceilings.
How much does it cost?
Today, prices for a single access point from several of the top wireless equipment vendors are below
$1,000, and you typically pay an average of roughly $1,000 to run a power cable and data wire to each
access point. Wireless adapters for laptops are about $100 each.
Concerns?
Bandwidth: In terms of bandwidth, wireless technology lags what you'd find in a wired network, and
that will probably be true for a while.
Privacy/security: Because radio frequencies are shared among users of the network, any information sent or received over a wireless network can be intercepted. Radio frequencies can "leak" into areas adjacent to the "campus" creating opportunities for intruders to get onto the local network.
Interference: Competing wireless devices such as cordless phones, audio speakers, or even Apple AirPort access points that operate at 2.4-gigahertz frequencies may cause interference that disrupts the network.
How would it benefit WLA?
WLA occasionally needs to set up an "internet room" or remote
training facility. Usually this means borrowing and hauling desktop machines
from some nearby (usually academic) institution. With 8 laptops with wireless cards
and a portable access point, WLA could
make it easier to set up these remote facilities at conferences, etc. We could
probably do something like this for $15,000 - $20,000. Chargeback
to units could help defray the costs.
Links:
revised: 21-Nov-2000
peter.j.gilbert@lawrence.edu