Campus Wireless
Wireless technologies represent a rapidly emerging area of growth and importance for providing ubiquitous access to the network for the campus community. Students, faculty and staff increasingly want untethered network access from general-purpose classrooms, meeting rooms, auditoriums, and even the hallways of campus buildings. There is interest in creating mobile computing labs utilizing laptop computers equipped with wireless Ethernet cards. Recently, industry has made significant progress in resolving some constraints that have affected the widespread adoption of wireless technologies. Some of the constraints have included disparate standards, low bandwidth, and high infrastructure and service cost.
Wireless technologies can both support the institutional mission and provide cost-effective solutions. Wireless is being adopted for many new applications: to connect computers, to allow remote monitoring and data acquisition, to provide access control and security, and to provide a solution for environments where wires may not be the best implementation.
New technologies rapidly find acceptance in the university environment. To determine the appropriate application of wireless communication, the campus community will be fully engaged to ensure that this developing technology will be used to enhance the teaching, learning, and research environment. A number of pilot implementations have been done. Based on data from the initial implementations and input from students, faculty, and staff, a specific roadmap will be developed for the expansion of wireless connectivity for the entire Trinity Western University's campus.
Wireless Local Area Networks
Wireless Local Area Networks (WLAN) are implemented as an extension to wired LANs within a building and can provide the final few meters of connectivity between a wired network and the mobile user.
WLANs are based on the IEEE 802.11 standard. There are three physical layers for WLANs: two radio frequency specifications (RF - direct sequence and frequency hopping spread spectrum) and one infrared (IR). Most WLANs operate in the 2.4 GHz license-free frequency band and have throughput rates up to 11 Mbps. The new 802.11b and g standard is direct sequence only, and provides throughput rates up to 54 Mbps. Trinity Western University recommends the following wireless vendors; Cisco, Linksys, Intel, IBM and Apple. By the end of August, Trinity Western University will have implemented the 802.11g offering backward compatibility for IEEE 802.11b. In a typical WLAN infrastructure configuration, there are two basic components:
1. Access Points - An access point/base station connects to a LAN by means of Ethernet cable. Usually access points receive, buffer, and transmit data between the WLAN and the wired network infrastructure. A single access point supports an average twenty users and has a coverage varying from 20 meters in areas with obstacles (walls, stairways, elevators) and up to 100 meters in areas with clear line of sight. A building may require several access points to provide complete coverage and allow users to roam seamlessly between access points.
2. Wireless Client Adapter - A wireless adapter connects users via an access point to the rest of the LAN. A wireless adapter can be a PC card in a laptop, an ISA or PCI adapter in a desktop computer, or can be fully integrated within a handheld device.
The wireless network currently supports a open key infrastructure, and all wireless cards on this network can be of the 802.11B,G standard. (Preferred cards are Cisco, Avaya and Orinoco but there are other brands that have also worked on this pilot trial wireless network)
Technology Services is located on the ground floor of the Mattson Building. Our office is open from 9:00am to 4:00pm Monday to Friday. If you have any questions, please call local 4357 or drop in to the office and speak to one of our staff at the front counter.