Look Maam, No Wires

Arjun Khanna, a BTech student at one of the IITs spends his after college
hours not at the library stocking up on study material but lounging around in
the hostel working on his laptop. Khanna is one among the growing numbers of
students who are waking up to the benefits of wireless networks. His laptop
helps him to log on to the online library, discuss the work assignments with
other fellow students and teachers, and browse the Internet for updating
information. Not to mention chatting with his sweetheart in his home city.

With a growing number of campuses in India going Wi-Fi, students never had it
so good accessing the wireless college network for information or sharing
resources, which is fast becoming commonplace. The main reason behind this
surge can be attributed to the flexibility provided by devices enabled to access
wireless networks like laptops in teaching, making presentation, etc, in
academics, which overcomes the inconvenience of installing and using wires and
cables throughout the campus, says Phalguni Gupta, head, computer center,
IIT-Kanpur.

IIT-Kanpur, one of the premier campuses in India, uses Wi-Fi technology
installed mainly in the academic area five years ago. One of the primary
reasons for having a wireless campus was to enable users to use Wi-Fi-enabled
devices like laptops, if considerable strength is available from access points,
adds Pathak.

Over the years Indian colleges have felt the urge to go wireless. The need to
seamlessly connect departments and buildings enabling easy accessibility for
knowledge sharing is a key imperative for campuses today. A wireless network
gives the flexibility to painlessly add or eliminate locations. Wireless links
can be deployed faster than wired links and connecting LANs together using
wireless links is significantly less expensive than upgrading existing wires or
laying new ones. Wireless infrastructure also requires less maintenance than
wired infrastructure, says P Dasgupta, professor of Geology, Presidency
College, popularly known as PD.

The Latest Norm

The trend of wireless campuses in India has been borrowed from foreign
universities with most advanced courses like MBA, BTech requiring students to
use laptops. Wireless networks enable students to have access to reports and
statistics from anywhere in the world which can get them better clarity and
understanding of the subject. Moreover, it is essential that students are
connected to the world with information literally at their fingertips.

Students would ideally like to avail of the universities facilities. And in
most cases mobile devices like laptops, and PDAs have encouraged universities to
build stronger wireless networks.

Most universities necessitate the use of laptops for students to complete
assignments on time. This leads to reduced time to evaluate, leading to
increased teacher productivity and student productivity. Using resources on the
wireless networks, students can study at their own pace.

In line with the same objective, Kolkata-based Presidency College has gone
for Wi-Fi by using state-of-the-art technology that could not only meet the
present needs, but future requirements as well. We wanted to make the whole
campus a Wi-Fi zone which was also secure. Keeping this in mind, Forte proposed
four wireless access points spread across the college campus, says Dasgupta
from Presidency.

It is not just the private and engineering colleges that are going in for
Wi-Fi, even government colleges are hitching onto the Wi-Fi bandwagon. Armed
Forces Medical College too is going on for a Wi-Fi on its campus. The first
wireless Internet hotspot of AFMC was created in the graduate wing computer club
and later in the entire campus. A mix of heritage buildings and ultra-modern
facilities, and several routers will be installed on the campus to create a
number of hotspots for covering the entire campus. AFMC has already installed an
interactive real-time IT-based teaching system apart from having
videoconferencing facilities connecting the operating rooms to the auditorium.

The Indian campuses seem to be leaning toward Wi-Fi, considering that a host
of campuses have gone ahead and implemented Wi-Fi over WiMax.

Wi-Fi Vs WiMax

Before drawing comparisons, one needs to keep in mind that these are not
competing technologies. Wireless networks enable real-time access to people,
applications, and network resources across branch offices and remote locations.

The advantage that a Wi-Fi network offers is that it can make Internet
connectivity ubiquitous. It fits the bill, as it enables the student community
and staff the ability to share knowledge on a common platform that is accessible
by everyone anywhere on the campus. The use of wireless technology also does
away with capex on cables. Whats more, access points in Wi-Fi can be installed
only in those areas where Wi-Fi-enabled devices are frequently used, bringing
down the installation cost.

On the other hand, WiMax is a wireless digital communication system intended
for wireless metropolitan area networks. It can provide broadband wireless
access up to 30 miles for fixed stations and 10 miles for mobile stations. It
operates on both licensed and non-licensed frequencies providing a regulated
environment and viable economic model for wireless carriers, says Dr K Mohan,
senior director IT, ISB.

Being far more expensive than Wi-Fi, it will be some time before WiMax
becomes popular for campus uptake. Also, Wi-Fi is advancing in terms of speed
and technology as each year it brings a new variant to the 802.11 area. WiMax
offers a larger area of coverage and the installation includes towers with
antennae instead of access points giving a much higher speed of download than
Wi-Fi.

Perhaps that is why the North Eastern Regional Institute of Science and
Technology (NERIST), a prestigious university in Arunachal Pradesh, has chosen
Nortels Wireless Mesh and WiMax solutions to deliver indoor and outdoor
wireless connectivity across its vast mountainous campus area.

For NERIST, physically divided into two campuses across a very rugged
terrain, opting for higher-bandwidth connectivity through regular cabling would
have been an expensive and time-consuming process. Using Nortels wireless
solutions, the institute now has high-speed connectivity across its entire
campus, as well as complete mobility for its students and staff. WiMax is used
as the last-mile, high-speed broadband access technology linking the two
campuses.

What About Security?

Most colleges using wireless networks seem to agree that while the network
itself is robust enough to run core applications, the speed may be slow as
compared to the wired network, as one access point can only support up to twenty
users.

But most network administrators have sleepless nights over network security
issues. The main concern for wireless campuses is security for preventing
outsiders from accessing the services and resources of the college, and speed of
network access, says Gupta.

Sensing the security threats, the Indian School of Business has drawn up a
comprehensive plan. For any guest bringing in his laptop, our IT team usually
checks the laptop for any virus and malfunctions, etc, and only when we are
satisfied with the check the guest can enter our wireless network and access,
says Dr Mohan. Internet access is only allowed through the proxy server where
authentication is essential, so outsiders cannot access the Internet unless
authenticated.

With the entry of foreign universities in the Indian education market,
competition surely seems to be getting hotter for the Indian colleges, who are
increasingly seeing IT as a differentiator and are ramping up on their IT
infrastructure. Colleges are now looking at high range access points with 100
Mbps. For instance, ISB is working toward total network migration from100 Mbps
to 1 Gig for enhanced network access to users.

Stuti Das

stutid@cybermedia.co.in