One Glimpse Of The Wireless Future

SemiBarbaricPrincess writes "Check out this story at wired.com about wireless networks on college campuses. The focus is on Dartmouth College." It would be great to see this kind of wireless community outside academia too.

Comments

The bad part about the idea....

[Bowie J. Poag]

Sooner or later, it's going to hit its saturation point. Just like with any other network.

The only problem with 802.11b is that you only have a relatively small range to work within. It doesn't take much to have so much traffic in the 2.4 GHz band that smaller wireless devices become useless in anything but Ad-Hoc mode. The future may not so much be in providing wireless technology as Dartmouth suggests, but in developing technologies that control the manner in which these devices communicate (e.g. some way to tell a client to use a different channel, switching, trunking, etc.)

Ich liefere Ihnen Licht und Kraft
Und ermögliche es Ihnen Sprache, Musik und Bild
Durch den Äther auszusenden und zu empfangen
Ich bin Ihr Diener und Ihr Herr zugleich
Deshalb hütet mich gut..
Mich, den Genius der Energie.

Re:Oh come on, now :-/

[great throwdini]

Plenty of other schools have had this stuff for a long time now. Yes, the article's interesting if you're into networking and/or wireless data transmission, but their explicit focus on Dartmouth makes it seem as though they're unique and trendsetting.

Dude. Seriously. Did you read the article at all? Quote:

And Dartmouth isn't alone. From Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh to UC San Diego, American University, UT Dallas, and the University of Minnesota, dozens of schools are deploying wireless networks and turning students loose ... I feel that could have at least given credit to other schools that were at least equally as deserving.

Dude. Seriously.

We're wired here, too!

[Erwos]

Here at University of Maryland at College Park, the Office of Information Technology has been pretty quick in rolling out 802.11b throughout campus. We're not at the magical 100% coverage point, but you can walk into most any building and find a spot with coverage. The entire outdoor mall is wireless, too - laying out on the grass on a sunny day while coding a CS project and doing some IM on your laptop is really nice :-).

I think that technology like this could be astoudingly useful in the classroom, and it saddens me a bit that we haven't really made any serious attempts to integrate it... money I suppose. Zapping notes and due dates into PDAs would be nice, at the minimum - cuts down on communication errors.

I predict we'll see serious usage of these technologies in 10 years - gotta give traditional educators some time to cope with them.

-Erwos

I hope the future is even better

[PureFiction]

This is a great example of how pervasive, open wireless hotspots can empower individual communication in unexpected ways.

It will not be long before this kind of saturation is common in all the metropolitan areas (previous studies have placed wireless growth at double the current deployment by 2005)

The biggest potential uses and applications are centered around peer network integration that support the style of personal, interactive communication people crave.

There are a few projects working towards this goal like the Janus Wireless Project . This will provide not just increased internet access reliability and throughput (using multiple AP's and simultaneous associations) but also tight integration with common peer network services, like file sharing, music broadcasting using a broadcast FEC transport and playlists, even Voice over IP.

This kind of infrastructure has to be built by philantropist coders, as the business model is lacking, however, this makes it all the more tuned to what users will want, and the resulting networks in full control of those who generously provide the hardware and network connectivity (such as the Personal Telco Project .

I can only begin to imagine the possible applications of a robust, open wireless network coupled with integrated peer network services and good internet connectivity. This will be one of the most interesting and innovative areas of growth in the near future.

Re:Security

[WolfWithoutAClause]

Going wireless takes on huge security issues.

Garbage. Don't believe the hype. Where are banks being robbed? Where are spammers using other people's networks? (hint: whatever you've read, there's not been a single case so far, there probably will be eventually, but there hasn't yet been.).

How is Dartmouth going to deal with tightening down security? I know of people that drove down through a city with a laptop and pringles cans and picked up alot of wireless networks (including a state lottery wireless network). So that would be the biggest concern for me.

There's plenty of technologies out there that can lock down a network. I set up a network that used VPN software. Anyone could connect to the network. Wouldn't do you any good if you didn't have a password though.

I would rather be wired and go gigabyte

Gigabyte? Not gigabit? Gigabyte has not been deployed anywhere as far as I know. You can actually buy wireless networks. Gigabit has huge issues, the range is in feet, unless you go fibered, and that's expensive still, more than wireless.

than go wireless and be stuck at speeds less than 100 megabytes. Wireless is nice, but it is also more expensive than staying wired.

The wireless cards are currently about twice the price, but NICs and hubs are one of the cheaper components in a system, and they're coming down rapidly.

Page 2...

[Publicus]

They're right about nobody knowing how this revolution will come about.

Read page 2: Female initiating sex, now that's revolutionary!

Is it just me...

[foxtrot]

Or is a story on wireless networks run by Wired magazine just a bad idea to begin with?

Rochester

[ceejayoz]

The University of Rochester now has wireless in the library, the academic quad, and the commons building. Anyone can connect to the access points but you have to log in (via an HTML page) to the URNET with a userid/password. Very nice system.

On a semi-related note, I set up a linksys AP in my room... one of my suitemates discovered he can now get connectivity on the toilet. Oh, the places we'll go! :-p

My wireless card can't pick it up in our lounge (20 feet away), but for some odd reason I could get it across campus (half mile, and no LOS that I could see) - anyone know what the hell is going on there?

how do you block 802.11b?

[verch]

In my GF's school they have 802.11b in the common areas/lounges/study rooms of buildings but not in the classrooms. I wonder how they do this.. Is it just judicious placement of access points, or is there some sort of shielding you can put in the walls to block the signal out of the classrooms?

"Beam me up, Scottie!"

[XNormal]

There's an interesting use of 802.11b technology at Vocera. It's a small device you can hang on your shirt like a Star-Trek communicator that uses wireless network infrastructure and voice recognitioh.