Wireless Internet range expansion will offer more

Matt Crist

Issue date: 11/16/06 Section: News

With more students having access to their own personal notebook computers, University Computing Services looks to expand and improve wireless Internet services on Marshall University's campus.

"More and more people are bringing wireless devices," Allen Taylor, chief technology officer, said. "It's probably grown 25 or 30 percent in the last few years in terms of wireless use."

The trend toward increased use of wireless devices will likely continue, Taylor said.

"Right now, we have about 170 access points deployed," Taylor said.

Access points, also called hotspots, are stationed devices that hang from the ceiling and operate on a radio frequency to make wireless connections possible.

"Eighty-five are in classrooms and the others are in the library, the student center and various buildings and locations," Taylor said. "We anticipate before we move to the next wireless technology having about 250 total deployed. We think we'll probably deploy another 80 or so this year or early next year."

"We have delayed installing wireless access points in areas that have asbestos," Mike Adkins, director of networks and telecommunications, said. "At this time the current area that is slated to have access points installed is the third floor of Smith Hall. The third floor has not been abated."

"Smith Hall was the major building that was asbestos- laden," Taylor said. "It was built in the '60s before the problems with asbestos were discovered. The student center, which was built in '72 after the plane crash, also has some asbestos that is principally in the dome area, and a few other places."

Most of the places where the concentration of asbestos was limited have been abated, but Smith Hall still has some work, Taylor said.

Other concerns at Marshall include inept power supplies and infrastructures containing dense materials like steel and wire mesh that wireless signals struggle to penetrate, Taylor said.

"Our strategy has been clear," Taylor said. "It's the academic spaces, the meeting collaboration spaces. That's where we see people using wireless devices. We clearly hit some outdoor spaces-the ones that would be popular. The whole plaza area down here, the seats that are out in front of Drinko, where there is shade, where there is a table, where there is coffee close, etc. We cover all of that."

The student center plaza will probably be the first area of outdoor space augmented, Taylor said.

"We cover most of the student center plaza already," he said. "It actually goes out a little past where the fountain is, but we want to include more of it. Every time we go out on a nice day and look, we are kind of observing how many people are out there and wanting to do that."

By 2008, there will be a new technology to replace current wireless technology, Taylor said.

"It will augment about five to 10 times the capacity of what we have now," Taylor said.