Mobile Computing >> Imagination on the Move

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Mobile Computing >> Imagination on the Move

6/24/2005

By Matt Villano

As mobile computing becomes more and more prevalent, a handful of colleges and universities are coming up with the next generation of campus solutions.

It wasn't that long ago that the phrase 'mobile computing' captured the imagination of academic IT administrators everywhere. In the back corners of server rooms, these technologists daydreamed about the joys of computing without the tether of an Ethernet cable. Common fantasies included sending e-mails from a courtyard, listening to achived lectures on portable digital media players, and receiving text-message notifications about a cancelled class. Someday they thought, it will happen ...

That day has come sooner than just about everybody expected. Today, mobile computing is as common on US campuses as pizza deliveries. As it becomes more prevalent, a handful of institutions—UCLA, Georgetown University (DC), Seton Hall University (NJ) and Carnegie Mellon University (PA)—are proving that it’s never too late to innovate and try a new spin on a standard technology.

Wireless with a Kick

If mobile computing were included in Major League Baseball’s new anti-steroid policy, somebody might have to investigate the new wireless network at UCLA’s Anderson School of Management. There, with the help of vendor 5G Wireless Communications (www.5gwireless.com), technologists recently set up a solution so powerful that they had to devise a creative way to turn it off during class. The effort began in early 2004, when the class of 2003 gifted the professional school with money to fund a wireless network to cover a courtyard and café. Eric Crane, Network Infrastructure, Security, and Server manager, set out immediately to find the best equipment at the lowest price. Just as he was about to sign up for 60 or 70 access points from a major provider, 5G came in and made an offer that blew him away.

The 5G offer hinged on coverage. The Anderson School boasts five four-story buildings, and 5G was able to cover 85 percent of the space with a G-Force Base Station—one access point on a pole, or mast, atop one of them. To ensure the highest Quality of Service (QoS) for the remaining 15 percent, 5G also installed five additional access points in hard-to-reach places around campus. Neither Crane nor Doug Fox, director of Business Development at 5G, will reveal what the implementation cost, but both say the six access points cost far less than 60 or 70 would have cost from the big guys. Crane adds that the biggest savings has been in maintenance; instead of having to maintain five or six dozen access points, staffers at Anderson Computing and Information Services (ACIS) need only worry about six, freeing them up to extinguish IT fires elsewhere on campus.

“We wanted a way to do mobile computing quickly and affordably,” explains Crane. “For us, the answer was wireless-enabling the campus with a solution that made sense.”