Funding Your Next Wireless Project
- By Linda L. Briggs
- 06/09/04
Meeting the Wireless Challenge
Since over 90 percent of campuses in the U.S. already offer some form of wireless
network, according to the Campus Computing Project, chances are your school
already has some sort of wi-fi network in place. Assuming wireless is already
there in some form, colleges and universities face several challenges in the
next few years. First, they must expand the wi-fi network to meet a growing
student need for wireless in more and more places, while keeping technologies
current as new and faster standards (802.11g and eventually third-generation
technologies) replace older and slower ones (802.11a and b). Finally, schools
must find a way to pay for the wireless network.
That last challenge can be the toughest in many ways. One mistake that IT administrators
and CIOs need to avoid is thinking that adding or augmenting a wireless network
will reduce the cost of the wired network. That simply isn’t true, according
to Brian Voss, the associate vice president for telecommunications in the office
of the vice president for IT & CIO at Indiana University.
His school was recently named "Most Unwired Campus" in a survey of college
campuses across the U.S. (http://www.intel.com/products/mobiletechnology/unwiredcolleges.htm).
The "Most Unwired College Campuses" survey, conducted by Intel Corp., is based
on the number of hotspots, the number of undergraduates, number of computers,
the computer to student ratio, and the percentage of each college campus that
is covered by wireless technology.
There are about 35,000 students at Indiana University and another 35,000 at
associated Indiana University - Purdue University at Indianapolis, 55 miles
away, along with about 15,000 faculty and staff at the two campuses. The campuses
together have over 1,000 access points, at a cost of about $300 per point. The
size of the project helped keep costs down, Voss explained: "We did the
sort of thing we always do at IU. [Because of the] large volume, we put it out
for bids and got the best pricing we could. Based on volume, we offered the
vendor a chance to partner with us and make a big impact. That was interesting
to several of the vendors."
According to Voss, an important pitfall to avoid (and one that IU fell into
initially) is the temptation to think the institution can pay for wireless projects
by dipping into funds for the wired infrastructure. In fact, installing or expanding
on a wireless network won’t reduce your wired network costs at all, Voss
emphasized, since the two networks are typically complementary. In fact, Voss
said, wired networks are getting more costly, not less, and thus require additional
funding, regardless of the state of the campus wi-fi network.
“What we learned as time passed and we got smarter [is that] wired d'esn’t
cost any less today, it costs the same, and maybe a bit more. ” -- Brian Voss
"What we learned as time passed and we got smarter [is that] wired d'esn’t
cost any less today, it costs the same, and maybe a bit more." While hardware
technology like switches and routers has gotten cheaper, Voss said, other fundamental
components such as the wiring itself and the labor to build, maintain, and manage
the network have gotten more expensive. Also, demand for more bandwidth and
new services have added new costs to the campus network equation.
Justin Borthwick, senior systems programmer at the University of Wyoming and
the person responsible for that university’s wired and wireless networks,
concurred. He emphasized that there’s been no scaling back of the wired
network as wireless has grown—in fact, "the wired side is growing
faster that the wireless side."
The University of Wyoming has just over 12,000 students and another 2,000 faculty
and staff spread over 785 acres. Currently, Borthwick said, the school has 105
access points, about evenly split between the slower 802.11b wireless standard,
and the newer, faster 802.11g. The school is in the process of upgrading all
its access points to g and plans to complete the upgrade by the end of 2004.
The wired and wireless networks at UW are "two separate pieces,"
Borthwick said—in fact, funding for the wireless network comes from a
different source. While the wired network is considered part of IT infrastructure
and funded as such, the school pays for the wireless network through various
groups on campus as they request wireless service.
The University of Wyoming’s method of paying for wireless – having
individual groups assume the burden based on need—solves what is a common
problem on campus when there’s no planned funding stream for wireless.
