Wireless Internet has gained so much popularity over the last decade—it’s safe to say that it has become a phenomenon of the 21st century. Whether it’s buying something, working on a project, or simply communicating with your friends and family, it’s likely a wireless network is working behind the scenes, and Carleton is no exception.
With the large number of people connecting wirelessly on a daily basis to our network, it’s a wonder that it can all be supported or even how it’s still running at all.
While some spots on campus are slower than others, getting an idea of where the best signals are might be that saving grace when you desperately need to send your prof that paper you should have finished 24 hours ago. Computing and Communication Services at Carleton (CCS) has the answers.
Meet Carleton’s gurus
Eddie Villarta, manager of network services:
Eddie Villarta began his schooling in mechanical engineering in the Philippines where he grew up, but by the sweltering heat of the summer months in the mechanics shops, his attention got pulled to the cool air conditioned room where the computer engineering students worked. After graduating he worked with international computing companies in the Philippines before immigrating to Canada and starting with CCS.
Chris Murray, senior network engineer:
Originally from the Bahamas, Chris Murray has been working with wireless technology since he graduated from the University of Georgia. He said his first experience with wireless was setting up access for boats, cruise ships, yachts, and other places for tourism around the islands. He has been working at Carleton since 2006 and has wireless in his DNA, according to Villarta.
The set-up
“In 2007 we had about 75 access points deployed around the campus . . . now we’re up to 800,” he said. This covers 58 per cent of the indoor campus.
Access points are devices that let wireless devices like cellphones and laptops connect to a wired network.
Increasing the number of access points stems from the rise in demand from more and more students and services on campus needing wireless access. Between 2011 to 2014, the number of unique devices connecting each month to the school’s network has increased by five times, Murray said.
“We’re now up to 50,000,” he said. “Which is quite a bit considering we have about 27,000 students.”
“We can look at the network at any one time, and we’re looking at about eight to nine thousand people connected,” he said.
Not only is it students and staff on campus who are using the network, but a number of other campus services require it too, such as parking and safety.
“The list goes on and on about how many devices now use the wireless network,” Murray said.
Eddie Villarta, manager of network services at Carleton, explained that they’re looking to improve the current capacity with more access points in some areas. Though Murray said they have already almost doubled the bandwidth within the last year to allow for higher speed, larger sized downloads, and streaming.
Another upgrade was getting rid of CU Internet last year and only having CU Wireless. The upgrade was mainly for security, Murray said.
“In terms of speed and performance, CU Internet and CU Wireless were always the same,” he said.
There have also been upgrades with the introduction of the network eduroam, which is the same speed and performance as CU Wireless, but it’s used throughout Canada, and now Europe as well, said Murray.
Most of the upgraded equipment now is ideal for when they have to make the next, latest wireless upgrade.
“We will always try to be two steps ahead,” Villarta said.
Hotspots and coldspots
“We focus on the academic buildings, and every year we try to see where we have the most demand, and where it would help the most number of students,” Murray said.
The library has been completely wireless for a while, Murray said. The third and fourth floors are well covered because they were most recently constructed.
“That’s our philosophy when we do a new building or section . . . they’re built with wireless installed,” Murray said.
Wireless access points and hotspots are hidden for security reasons, Murray explained, so there are areas with wireless that people don’t realize.
So where are the secret hotspots?
“There are the tunnels from Steacie to Hertzberg, and I hardly ever see anyone there, but there’s a couple of access points there,” Murray said. “Almost all the seating areas that you see in the tunnels are covered.”
He said another good place is the Tim Hortons in River Building, where the wireless coverage extends outside.
“That’s a nice place to go sit outside on the grass,” he said.
As far as network cold spots go, Villarta said signal strength can be subjective based on the number of people around you using the network at the same time.
Other complications can rise in the remaining percentage of campus that isn’t yet wirelessly covered.
“All these buildings that are halfway done are kind of headaches because when you think about it, it’s hard to say it’s halfway done because the signal doesn’t stop at say, this point,” Murray said.
Villarta said areas can have low signal when they don’t have a dedicated access point, but rather take it from nearby access points.
“A good example is we had a user in Southam Theatre B say they didn’t have good coverage, so we looked at it and saw we don’t have full coverage in that area, but what’s happening is the signal bleeds from other areas,” Villarta said.
A lot of the strength of a signal is based on interference, Murray said.
Interference problems are seen in residence buildings where a large number of students with different routers are sending out their own signals, he said.
“Lennox, for instance. There are ten floors in the building, and when you’re on the fifth floor, you get all of the noise from above, and all of the noise from below,” he said. “It’s a really difficult environment to have a production network and then also have every single room have a wireless network.”
“That is a challenge that we’re working on—trying to make the two networks coexist,” he said.
The future
The capacity to expand is based on their budget. Faculties, departments, and, in the case of residences, the housing department, can also expand wireless in their areas by funding it themselves.
Another feature they’re looking to add is wireless printing, “but as you can imagine there has to be some form of security around that. You don’t want someone from one side of campus printing to someone else’s printer,” Murray said with a chuckle.
This spring or summer the department is looking to improve wireless access in the quad.
“Right now it’s quite limited, so we see a need for improvement,” Villarta said.
The installation of the access points would be through underground cables and weather proof boxes, Murray explained.
Another concept they’re looking into is the ability for students to connect wirelessly to classroom projectors in order to be able to participate in presenting, Murray said.
Other improvements are going to be in increasing the speed and capacity of the wireless bandwidth, the amount of data that can be sent and received. More people are requesting the ability to use Skype and Facetime, Villarta explained, which requires a lot of bandwidth.
To cover the campus completely in wireless is projected to cost about $1.3 million dollars, Murray said. They’re hoping to have it done within the next several years.
The gurus agree: wireless is no longer a nice-to-have feature, but one that’s part of the plumbing at the university.
