University to update campus wireless system; renovations will improve speed, availability

The range of wireless Internet connections on IU’s Bloomington and Indianapolis campuses will extend even farther starting May 19, due to updates in the system’s technology by University Information Technology Services.
Matt Davy, IU chief network architect, said the updates will result in more wireless connections in the dorm buildings and student rooms, as well as a “much faster connection.”
“We’ll be going back and putting in more access points,” Davy said, adding that he believes the number of wireless access points will triple due to the updates.
All buildings are expected to be finished by the start of the fall semester, Davy said.
“We’ll roll out eight buildings in the first week including the main library, so you’ll see some benefits from that right away,” he said.
The updates could cause some problems with the current system, but Davy said downtime should be minimal. Internet will be unavailable during the updates, but the length of time required is unknown.
“Each building that we put the upgrade in will be down for a couple hours at most one day,” Davy said.
The improvements to the current system will be extensive, fixing some of the problems with the older equipment. Graduate student Ann McCranie has had few problems with the wireless connection on campus, but said in areas of high traffic, it can be unreliable.
“I’ve only ever had slow connections in the library when there are a lot of people here,” McCranie said.
The new connection, a high-speed wireless system known as 802.11n, will fix these issues and more, greatly increasing the speed and availability of wireless Internet on campus.
“Whereas today most users might be able to get 4, 5 or 6 megabits per second, we expect with 11n most users will be able to get 50 to 100 megabits per second,” Davy said.
The VPN secure access system on IU Wireless will be replaced as well, by a new system known as WPA2 Enterprise. This new standard will be much more user friendly, allowing for automatic Internet connection, Davy said.
“The first time you try to connect to it you simply get a prompt for your user name and password,” Davy said. “You enter that prompt and you can use it any time without configuring anything. You don’t have to log in every time you connect.”
Updates will accommodate a growing number of handheld devices such as iPhones as well, allowing users to keep a constant Internet connection while moving across access points. Availability of wireless connection, especially on handheld devices, will only continue to increase.
“There are a number of things that we’re looking into and investigating. One of those is more outdoor wireless,” Davy said, adding that he expects the connection to be even more widely available by this time next year, even including connections on campus buses.