August 16, 2007
UW staffers working toward wireless campus
Two years after setting out to provide wireless connections campuswide within a three-year time span, work toward implementing the UW Wireless Initiative is on schedule. Generally speaking, the project is about two-thirds done.
But the ever-quick advance of technology and user expectations has made the process of expanding campus wireless connections more difficult and involved than at first imagined.
“We’ve really been successful in covering all or most of the areas where people really want (wireless connectivity),” said Oren Sreebny, executive director of emerging technology for Computing & Communications. “Just walking around campus watching people use it is pretty gratifying.”
But Sreebny added, “There definitely have been some challenges. Technical challenges more than anything else.” In some buildings, asbestos abatement has been necessary, he said, “and some of the buildings don’t have an up-to-date wiring infrastructure — it really helps to have that.”
Scott Mah, UW assistant vice president for Computing & Communications Service Delivery and Support, agreed. “We’re making progress. There’s a little less than a year to go in the initiative and the large classroom buildings are completed, and so what we’re focusing on is what remains.”
At last count, 65 percent of wireless coverage has been achieved in areas covered by the Wireless Initiative, which excludes UW Medicine, athletics facilities and most of Housing & Food Services (though some residence halls have received upgrades), according to Colleen Butler, C&C project manager for the wireless deployment project. That compares to about 13 percent wireless coverage in those areas before the initiative.
And as technology keeps progressing, Sreebny said, “wireless technology itself is something of a moving target, and as we do this project we’ve had to account for that.” Even over the brief time of the Wireless Initiative, since 2005, both the technology and the way it’s used have advanced. “It means that even now, some of the newer things we’re doing have more up-to-date technology than the stuff we did at the beginning.”
Wireless standards themselves have advanced, Sreebny said. “We have new forms of wireless — better and faster — coming to the fore. And also the amount of usage the wireless network is getting now far exceeds what our original expectations were.”
Mah explained that the network was originally designed for “casual use — Web access and e-mail.” But with the advent of new personal and hand-held devices, including the iPhone, the demands on the wireless network have increased dramatically. “Part of what we’re trying to do with research and development is to see what as an institution we need to do to support that type of device on the network.”
He said the coming school year will see continued discussions about priorities for wireless service, involving the Wireless Working Group and Wireless Advisory Group, subcommittees of the Academic Technology Advisory Committee. Also involved in the talks is the University Technology Advisory Committee.
Sreebny added, “It’s a terrific project. And a lot of credit is due in a lot of places. But first on my list is Colleen (Butler), who has managed this project brilliantly.”
To learn more about the UW Wireless Initiative, visit online at http://www.washington.edu/computing/wireless/initiative.html.
