If final papers have kept you from enjoying the spring sun, you're not alone. Many students have been holed up in stuffy dorm rooms, studying hard, and trying not to think about the beautiful weather outside. But if Tufts were to join universities like Yale and Carnegie Mellon in offering wireless Ethernet connections, you could join the sunbathers on the quad while still putting the final touches on your papers.
Yale installed "Wireless-Access Points" - base stations through which students or faculty can communicate - in early January. "The primary reasons were to gauge student demand for wireless service and for us to gain experience in managing a wireless infrastructure," said Joseph Paolillo, director of Data Network Operations for ITS at Yale.
Yale will complete a survey within the next few weeks to assess the success of the program. But positive response have already been noted. "Benefits are clearly the mobility factor. We haven't identified any obvious downsides," Paolillo said.
Availability of the system is limited, but includes public spaces, such as dining halls and meeting rooms, two dormitories, three buildings in the engineering department, and one housing the computer science department.
Under heavy usage, wireless Ethernet offers a lower level of performance than wired Ethernet, and Yale does not plan to replace wired connections in student dormitories.
"We envision a hybrid environment. The students, faculty, and staff may use a laptop with a wired connection in their office or room, and take the same laptop with them to public spaces and access the wireless network," Paolillo said.
Wireless networks do not encrypt the data stream. Although encryption is possible, Paolillo says it is too cumbersome to employ, as well as easily hacked. Since Yale is running a pilot program, minimal security has been applied.
Carnegie Mellon first installed wireless Ethernet in 1994 as a research network for five of its buildings. In 1998, after visible success with the research project, wireless connections were introduced for a production network. Within a year, academic and administrative buildings and outdoor areas on campus were wired with wireless Ethernet.
"The benefits of wireless are that our users are no longer tied to a data outlet for their networking needs," said Larry Gallagher, manager of Data Communications at Carnagie Mellon. But according to Gallagher, the wireless system is slow and susceptible to interference from other sources, such as radio waves or microwaves.
Carnegie Mellon has seen an increase in the use of wireless Ethernet cards.
"While we encourage the use of wireless, we have always let people know it should not be considered a replacement for wired networking, but rather as a supplement to it," Gallagher said.
Tufts initiated a small-scale pilot program this semester, involving the installation of wireless Ethernet at Dowling Hall. A larger pilot program is planned for next fall, in which Tufts will cover a visible campus location accessible by staff, faculty, and students. But it is unclear if there will be sufficient technical support to carry out the program, according to Keith Malvetti, network engineering team leader, who said that a kiosk of help would be necessary.
At Wake Forest University, the wireless system was introduced over a year ago to improve infrastructure and mobile access to the network. "Benefits are that students are free to move about their dorm room, the library, or a number of other covered areas untethered," said Tommy Jackson, director of telecommunications at Wake Forest.
But Wake Forest continues to support both systems, allowing students to choose speed and connectivity, according to Jackson. And unlike at Carnegie Mellon and Yale, the issue of security has been addressed at Wake Forest through encryption methods within the wireless hardware.
Tufts has evaluated other institutions to assess how it should integrate wireless Ethernet. Dartmouth has blanket coverage for its campus, whereas MIT covers ten to 15 percent of its campus. Princeton covers outdoor locations only, an option that is not viable for Tufts or other campuses in the area, due to New England weather patterns.
Despite the search for an adequate system, wireless network would only be an addition to the traditional wired technology, according to Malvetti. Wireless Ethernet has less performance and associated costs, unlike the more time-tested wired system, he added.
There are also policy concerns regarding the classroom use of the wireless system. Some professors who offer open laptop exams do not offer access to the network, and with a wireless system restricting access would be difficult. If Tufts were to offer wireless access, the campus center could become as popular as the library, which offers nomadic computing through newly distributed jacks for laptops.
On the other hand, according to Larry Levine, director of computing at Dartmouth, wireless Ethernet has beneficial academic applications. A wireless system would enable professors to broadcast presentation materials to student laptops and an electronic question/answer dialogue could be held between professors and students.
