OIT plans to add wireless connections on campus

In today's technology-driven world, being "wired" is no longer necessarily a good thing.

Instead, universities are working to make the switch from wired computer communications to wireless ones that allow students to surf the Internet and check email without having to plug their computers into an Ethernet jack.

The University's wireless services are similar to most universities inside and outside the Ivy League, offering partial wireless coverage across campus.

"Princeton is about in the middle when looking at our progress at creating a 'wireless campus,'" OIT Director of Support Services Steven Sather, said in an email. "The clear leader [in the Ivy League] is Dartmouth, which has a 100% wireless campus."

Dartmouth became the first school in the Ivy League to offer full wireless coverage in the spring of 2001. Since then, it has also developed a system using "convergence" technology that allows cable television, voice and data to travel over the same line. This has led to the availability of "softphones," software phones, at the college, which allow students to place and receive telephone calls over their computers via the wireless network.

The University does not yet offer anything so technologically advanced or comprehensive. While wireless coverage is available in a handful of classroom buildings and libraries, it is absent from many places, including residential halls, where other universities already provide coverage.

Currently, a few sites on campus, including the E-Quad, McCormick Hall, the Center for Jewish Life and Alexander Beach, offer full coverage. Many more buildings, including Frist Campus Center, Forbes College, Robertson Hall and Wu and Wilcox Halls have only partial coverage.

However, OIT continues to improve wireless networking. For example, Firestone Library recently received wireless coverage in several of its reading rooms to help facilitate studying.

"I believe extending the wireless network is a high priority," Sather said.

OIT's report to the Priorities Committee this year said "there is no question that the University would benefit by having a campus-wide wireless network at anytime and anyplace on campus."

In the areas where wireless coverage is available, computers can connect to the Internet using wireless LAN technology. An access point connected to the University wired network transmits a radio frequency to computers — within a certain range — that have a wireless Ethernet interface card. These computers can establish a wireless connection.

Since 2002, computers sold to students through OIT have come equipped with Ethernet cards to allow wireless connection.

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The University currently has roughly 20 wireless LAN access points across campus. A complete campus-wide wireless network would require approximately 1,400 access points, Sather said.

Most other Ivy League schools, including Harvard, Yale and Brown, have only partial wireless coverage as well.

Sather said plans continue to be made to extend and improve wireless coverage on campus.

"OIT and the University will continue to make incremental enhancements to the wireless service on campus," he said. "Although there are no plans at this time for a large-scale deployment, small projects continue to add valuable new coverage areas."