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Wireless Integration: A New Kind of Computer Lab
8/30/2004
The instructor station can be moved to many different locations within the space and still be able to project the monitor image on the screen. There is plenty of table and counter space for computer and media equipment, and the noise from people working together, as well as video and sound editing is contained. Video conferencing using a mobile Polycom from the campus Media Services has been successful. Because of the cost, the card lock system was not extended to this space, and the Hybrid Lab is not an "open access" lab—it can be reserved ahead for use by faculty and staff (and research projects), who can be assured of working uninterrupted.Because the printer is configured for TCP/IP printing, we have overcome a large obstacle to guest laptops using print services in our department, and, as importantly, we can offer these services to both Mac and PC at the same time.
An extremely important product of the Hybrid Lab planning and construction has been the partnerships between Academic Planning and Budget, Computing and Communications and GS'E. The GS'E had access to a great deal of expertise and these departments have a continuing commitment to the success of the lab.
Future Plans
The GS'E Hybrid lab calls for future implementation of its own wireless access
point (AP). At the present, Cisco 350 series 802.11b AP’s installed across
UCR campus provide an 11Mb connection to the outside, but keep users from the
internal network. The campus is currently looking to upgrade the existing 802.11b
infrastructure to the newer 802.11a standard in the coming months. The new standard
allows for up to 54mb speed connections, though more AP’s are needed,
due to the limited range of this standard. Because of this limitation, the GS'E
expects to have an AP installed directly in the room to better serve the students
utilizing the wireless network. By having an 802.11a AP directly in the Hybrid
lab, students will be assured a solid 54Mb connection, to provide favorable
access during simultaneous downloads, video streams, and file sharing, all conditions
which are possible within the lab environment.
References
Griffi'en, H., Seales, W. B., and Lumpp, J.E. (1998) Teaching in Realtime Wireless Classroom, Proceedings of the 1998 Frontiers in Education Conference, November 1998. Reprinted [Online] Available: http://www.dcs.uky.edu/~wc/publication/1296/1296.html.
Griffi'en, H., Seales, W. B., and Lumpp, J.E. (1998) Wireless Computing in the Classroom Second Quarter Progress Report. [Online] Available: http://www.dcs.uky.edu/~wc/reports/q2/report/report.html.
Varsheny, U. and Vetter, R. (2000) Emerging Mobile and Wireless Networks. Communications of the ACM, 43, 6 (June 2000), pp 73-81. Reprinted [Online] Available: http://www.cisp.org/imp/june_2000/06_00vetter.htm.
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Sean L. McGrath is a programmer/ analyst working in networking hardware
and support at Claremont Graduate University.
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