Saridel Hel says he attracts a lot of attention with his “spectrum analysis rig,” a grey pushcart with a wooden board bolted vertically to its side. The board holds a white bubble the size of a softball about eight feet in the air. Hel, a senior economics major, uses an iBook and maps of campus’s buildings, along with the cart, to do what he calls a “spectrum inventory” of the campus, shop-talk for the research he is doing to prepare for the introduction of wireless networking at USM. The network is slated to be fully functional in all major buildings on campus by the beginning of the fall 2004 semester.
With the network in place, anyone with a laptop and a wireless network card will be able to use the internet from inside any major University building. Students and teachers will be able to use Blackboard and other online resources anywhere on campus. This will make every study area on campus more attractive to laptop-owning students, and should also reduce demand on the computer labs.
USM is getting the new equipment from part of a $60 million state bond, passed last June to stimulate the state’s economy. $3 million of that bond was budgeted for “educational technology” improvements for the UMS system. $600,000 of that money is being spent to install a wireless network on all the campuses in the UMS system. $4.4 million from the same bond also paid for the new bioscience wing on the Portland campus. The grant pays for the new equipment, and the schools provide for the installation of the gear, which will require pulling new wires through the hung ceilings in all the buildings.
Hel’s goal is to use as little equipment as possible to provide this ubiquitous coverage. The white bubble on Hel’s cart is an antenna that broadcasts data to any computer within range of its signal. He trundles the cart around, stopping at intervals to plug it into the internet. With the antenna plugged in at a given location, Hel walks around with the iBook, which tells him how strong the wireless signal is and records the information on a map of the building. This kind of testing is necessary because some building materials weaken the antenna’s signal, and can do so in unpredictable ways.
“It’s hard to transmit through concrete, as well as steel piping,” Hel said.
The antennas will be attached to access points, boxes about the size of a textbook, which will be housed above the ceiling panels in the buildings. The access points are connected to the university’s network and provide connectivity to two antennas each. The antennas will poke through hung ceiling panels, and will be the only visible part of the system.
According to Jeff Letourneau, manager of network operations for UMS’s University Network (UNET), the highest priority in installing the network is to provide a consistent service throughout the UMaine system.
“You should be able to configure your laptop on the Portland campus, and then be able to turn it on at LAC (USM’s Lewiston-Auburn College) or UMO, and get right online,” he said. The system is also seen as important to attracting new students to the University.
“There’s 160 some-odd seventh and eighth graders used to having wireless,” Letourneau said, referring to former governor Angus King’s laptop program. “We need to be ready to meet their expectations – to them it’s gonna be nothing to have wireless. If we don’t have it, they’re gonna say, ‘This university is backwards.'” By installing the system early, Letourneau said, teachers at UMS campuses will have time to find ways to use the wireless networking in the classroom.
“That’s why we’re trying to get a little ahead of demand with this thing.”
Wireless networking uses a protocol called 802.11b/g. This protocol has existed for several years and is well established in the homes of computer geeks and in coffee shops. Intel’s Centrino and Apple’s Airport devices are code-names for this protocol. Many new laptops have wireless capability built-in, and most owners of older laptops will be able to access the network by adding a PC card.
Any departments that have installed access points where USM is installing its own network will have to disconnect their equipment. Furthermore, departments should not switch to the wireless network in lieu of their current connections, said Mert Nickerson, director of academic computing at USM. “We know that some departments may be thinking about using wireless as a replacement for their wired connections,” Nickerson said. “We really discourage it.” He points to limitations in modern wireless technology.
“Everybody connected to the same access point is sharing the same 11 or 55 megabit connection,” So, each new user that connects in a given location takes another slice out of this limited resource. Depending on what people are doing with their computers, the connection can quickly bog down. By contrast, Nickerson says, the existing wired network jacks have a dedicated throughput of 10 or 100 megabits each. Those connections cost $15 per computer, per month.
The wireless network is not going to be installed in dormitories. Nickerson says that UCT does not plan to stop students from using their own access points, as long as their signals do not interfere with those that UCT is installing. Hel says his survey has turned up a number of student-owned wireless access points already installed in the dorms.
Some dorm rooms may also be within the signal of an official access point by chance. An example of where this could happen is Upton-Hastings in Gorham, where some offices on the first floor will have university-provided wireless that may happen to reach some dorm rooms. In this case, Nickerson said, students will not be allowed to install their own access point, but will be allowed to use the connection already provided.
John Bronson can be reached at [email protected]