IT Keeps Campus Connected

09/03/2015
By Ed Brennen

When you turn a faucet, you expect water to flow. And when you flip open your laptop or swipe on your phone on campus, you expect an instant and reliable Wi-Fi connection.

What was once a technological luxury has become a bare necessity, particularly for students raised in a wireless world. 

To meet these expectations, and to stay ahead of growing classroom technology requirements, the university is completing a $3 million upgrade that will boost the speed and reliability of the campus data network.

Now in its final stages, the Information Technology Office’s three-year infrastructure improvement project has upgraded the fiber optic cabling backbone that connects the campus, created a new core network that has nearly tripled the Internet bandwidth to 3 gigabits per second,  and vastly increased the number of wireless access points (WAPs). Just this year alone, more than 1,000 WAPs have been added or upgraded across campus, bringing the total number to more than 2,300.

There’s still work to be done in older buildings on South Campus and in some popular outdoor areas, but Chief Information Officer Michael Cipriano believes the university is well positioned to meet growth for the foreseeable future.

“We really are in good shape because of the foundation we’ve set,” says Cipriano, who led a campus-wide IT infrastructure assessment in 2012 that showed the use of wireless devices, video streaming and classroom technology were all on the rise. “Now IT can do even more things that will have a direct impact on reaching the goals set in the university’s 2020 strategic plan.”

According to Steve Hall, director of network and communication services, there are now approximately 8,000 unique registered users on eduroam, the global secure wireless network used by the university. Those users have more than 40,000 different devices that connect to the network.

“We see an average of four devices per person, especially in the residence halls where students may have a laptop, a smartphone, a tablet and maybe a gaming device, Nook or Kindle,” Hall says. “During the school year we typically have more than 40,000 devices connecting to the wireless network at the same time, so the need for reliable, robust wireless service is huge.”

When wireless infrastructure first came to campus buildings six short years ago, Hall says the goal was to simply provide coverage. “Can I see a wireless signal? That was our first mode,” he says.

But with the boom in wireless usage, Hall says the focus has shifted to wireless “density.”

“Now it’s, ‘Can wireless support all the people in a given area, all getting on at the same time and having a reasonable experience?’ ” he says. “That’s a dense deployment.”

The IT Office works closely with Facilities Management to make sure new buildings such as University Crossing and the Health and Social Sciences Building are designed with the latest standards for cabling, network closets and wireless services. They also work to ensure that renovation projects, like a faculty office in Ball Hall that was recently converted to a drop-in space for 50 students, can meet the change in wireless demand.

Once a space is complete, network engineers Marcie Byrd and Chris McGee will walk through with laptops and special software that shows a “heat map” of the wireless coverage. Depending on the wall materials and other architectural features, Hall says each WAP covers provides different coverage. If a coverage gap is found or wireless services are not adequate, a WAP may be added or moved.

“People expect wireless to be clean, reliable, secure and always there,” Hall says. “Students who come in today sometimes don’t even know what a network cable is. ‘Why would I use that?’ It’s a wireless world and everything else is like a rotary phone.”

For more information on the university’s wireless network services, please visit www.uml.edu/wireless.