By Chris Brown
Unseen and unheard by students and staff on the University of Louisville’s Belknap, Shelby and Health Sciences campuses is a high-speed computer network built not on telephone wires and data cables but on radio waves and transmitter devices.
U of L’s Information Technology department is working on a continuing project to outfit the school’s three campuses with the latest 802.11g, 54 Mbps technology, which will allow students, staff and guests to wirelessly access the Internet and other university computer resources from the comfort of any portable computer equipped with a wireless networking card and secure network client software, available free from the university’s Web site.
“By the end of June, every classroom in the university’s scheduling system … every room considered a classroom … will have wireless access,” explained Tom Sawyer, associate vice president for Information Technology. “Belknap campus will have more than 400 access points.” As of mid-February, according to I.T. department personnel, 250 of those access points had already been installed and enabled.
“At least one public space in every building has [wireless] access,” Sawyer said. This includes not only classroom buildings, but also the Student Activities Center and other facilities, he said.
Notable among wireless-equipped facilities is Belknap’s Ekstrom Library, which houses the university’s main print and media collections, as well as study rooms, the writing center, the Delphi Center and Ritazza Café. According to Katrina Butcher, circulation supervisor for Ekstrom, transmitters placed around the library and in the elevator shafts cast a net of wireless coverage throughout the building. Outside of the building, according to Sawyer, wireless signals are generally strong enough to provide coverage in the area between the library and Bingham Humanities Building.
“The wireless access is very available in most places,” Butcher said. However, she explained that the wireless signals have difficulty traveling through books and coverage is variable around the outer edges of the building.
When the library expansion is complete in fall 2005, students can expect full wireless coverage in the new section of the building as well, Butcher said.
In addition to the wireless access available in Ekstrom, the library also circulates 19 Dell Latitude wireless-enabled laptops for patrons without portable computers who wish to work in the study rooms or other areas away from the desktop computer stations.
“The laptops can be checked out for four hours at a time. After the four hours, their batteries need to be recharged,” Butcher said.
Students or staff wishing to take advantage of the computer check-out service should arrive early at the library, however. “Peak [check-out] hours during the week are from 11 to 5,” Butcher said, explaining that computers are often unavailable during that time because of their popularity.
“I started using them last month and I think it’s really convenient. I use the [wireless] Internet for my Spanish class,” said freshman Biology student Robin Shannon.
Ekstrom isn’t the only location with full-facility coverage. Sawyer explained that the various departments and schools within the university are given the option to upgrade their access capabilities. J.B. Speed Scientific School on the south side of Belknap campus and the dental school on the Health Sciences campus have already elected to do so, opting for wireless access points to be placed throughout their facilities for total or near-total coverage. Upgrades like these come at a cost, though, and each department or school has to shell out funds to pay for the equipment and installation.
Upgrades to wireless coverage in the SAC can also be expected, said Michael Radmacher, liaison between the I.T. department and other departments within the university. “Several different departments are sponsoring transmitters for the SAC,” he said.
The I.T. department, Undergraduate Studies and Student Affairs are each sponsoring two transmitters; Chartwells is sponsoring one as well. According to Radmacher, all floors of the west side of the SAC will have wireless coverage once the new transmitters are installed and functioning.
Transmitters will also be installed in the knew Belknap research building, still under construction on the east side of campus, said Jay A. Vetter, director of I.T. Project Administration. The transmitters are also expected to provide full coverage for that facility.
Additionally, students can expect wireless access in at least some parts of the new dorm facility planned for construction near Louisville Hall.
“The building will have access in at least one of the public spaces, just like the other [dorms],” said Director of Housing and Residence Life Shannon Staten.
She said, however, that currently there are no plans to provide full wireless coverage in the building. Staten explained that her department, like many others, would like to offer expanded coverage in both the new and existing dorms, but can only do so as funding allows.
Even without the installation and expanded coverage areas, U of L’s wireless technology is competitive with that of comparable schools throughout the region. The University of Kentucky and the University of Cincinnati both have extensive wireless networks, but, according to Vetter, U of L’s is one of the only secure campus networks in the region. A “single sign-on process,” in which users log onto the secure network using their assigned ULink usernames and passwords, provides an encrypted connection between client and server for safer surfing.
In the coming months, said Vetter, students, staff and guests can expect to see signs popping up in buildings across the school’s campuses to identify coverage areas. “We’re working on getting about 200 signs to mark the areas with wireless access,” Vetter said.
In the meantime, more information about wireless access and network coverage can be found on the I.T. department’s Web site. The Web site has instructions for downloading and installing the secure client software required to access the network. Visit http://www.louisville.edu/it/wireless.
Front page photo by Ben Chroneos.
