IntJ. Mobile communications. Vol 3. No. 4. 2005 445 Building a wireless network infrastructure under budget constraints Richard a. Mcmahon*, Peter d. devries and P. Pete Chong Department of Finance, Accounting, and CIs School of Business, University of Houston-Downtown One main Street, Houston, TX77002, USA E-mail: Mcmahon(uhdedu E-mail: Peter@uhd. edu E-mail: Chong@uhd. edu *Corresponding author Abstract: This paper examines wireless networking and provides a case study of a wireless network infrastructure's development at ar m university of 11,000 students. The University of Houston-Downtown )incorporated wireless technology to help users stay connected to the I's network for access to curmicula-related products at any time and from any location. Keywords: wireless network; infrastructure; case study: mobile technology urban university; curricula-related products Reference to this paper should be made as follows: McMahon, R.A., De vries, P D. and Chong, PP. (2005)Building a wireless network infrastructure under budget constraints. Int. J. Mobile communications Vol.3,No.4pp445-456 Biographical notes: Richard A. McMahon is a CIS Lecturer at the University of Houston-Downtown and currently teaches upper-level courses in the CIs departments newly designed networking track. He is the author of I textbooks on networking, operating systems and security design. He also wrote database design, network operating systems and security design certification books. In 2003, he won the Texty Award from the Textbook and Academic Authors Association. McMahon is an Information Systems DBA candidate (currently ABD status) from Argosy University in Sarasota, Florida and doing his research in e-govemment Peter D. De Vries eamed his Doctorate in Computer Information Systems and Quantitative Analysis from the University of Arkansas in 1994 and is currently serving as an Assistant Professor of Cis at The University of Houston-Downtown. Dr. De Vries has contributed to a variety of journals in areas including entrepreneurship, data portrayal, electronic data interchange, online education and the internet. De Vries currently teaches programming and management information systems in the field of Computer Information Systems opyright o 2005 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd
Int. J. Mobile Communications, Vol. 3, No. 4, 2005 445 Building a wireless network infrastructure under budget constraints Richard A. McMahon*, Peter D. DeVries and P. Pete Chong Department of Finance, Accounting, and CIS School of Business, University of Houston-Downtown One Main Street, Houston, TX 77002, USA E-mail: McMahonR@uhd.edu E-mail: Peter@uhd.edu E-mail: ChongP@uhd.edu *Corresponding author Abstract: This paper examines wireless networking and provides a case study of a wireless network infrastructure’s development at an urban university of 11,000 students. The University of Houston – Downtown (UHD) incorporated wireless technology to help users stay connected to the school’s network for access to curricula-related products at any time and from any location. Keywords: wireless network; infrastructure; case study; mobile technology; urban university; curricula-related products. Reference to this paper should be made as follows: McMahon, R.A., DeVries, P.D. and Chong, P.P. (2005) ‘Building a wireless network infrastructure under budget constraints’, Int. J. Mobile Communications, Vol. 3, No. 4, pp.445–456. Biographical notes: Richard A. McMahon is a CIS Lecturer at the University of Houston-Downtown and currently teaches upper-level courses in the CIS department’s newly designed networking track. He is the author of numerous textbooks on networking, operating systems and security design. He also wrote database design, network operating systems and security design certification books. In 2003, he won the Texty Award from the Textbook and Academic Authors Association. McMahon is an Information Systems DBA candidate (currently ABD status) from Argosy University in Sarasota, Florida and is doing his research in e-government. Peter D. DeVries earned his Doctorate in Computer Information Systems and Quantitative Analysis from the University of Arkansas in 1994 and is currently serving as an Assistant Professor of CIS at The University of Houston-Downtown. Dr. DeVries has contributed to a variety of journals in areas including entrepreneurship, data portrayal, electronic data interchange, online education and the internet. DeVries currently teaches programming and management information systems in the field of Computer Information Systems. Copyright © 2005 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd
446 R.A. McMahon, P D. De vries and P P. Chong P. Pete Chong is the Martel Corporation,'s Professor of Cis at the University of Houston-Downtown prior to g UHD, Dr. Chong taught at gonza University, University of Idaho and Southeastern Louisiana University where he also served as the head of the business research Unit and the editor for Southeastern Economic Outlook. His research interests are in Pareto Principle and its application to Information Systems, including Netchising, e-commerce for small businesses and e-government. Introduction Wired networks trace their roots to the success of the Ethernet project at Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center(PARC)in the early 1970s(Metcalfe and Boggs, 1976). Such wired networks were possible because standard protocols became available, they were able to operate at fairly high speeds using inexpensive connection hardware, and Local et al., 1997). It was not until after these wired networks became widely used in business operations and users depended on those networks that advances in wireless technologies resulted in further implementations. Furthermore, as wireless business networking continues to increase, more companies realise that a wireless environment impacts the three critical success factors for mobile-commerce -speed, billing, and security (Massoud and Gupta, 2003)-in such a way that can help them reduce their companys Total Networking Cost(TNC). These TNC reductions not only include actual cost savings derived from companies reducing their need for additional wired network installations, but can include intangible benefits as well. Examples include increased flexibility in office design and equipment layout ddition of new generations of portable devices such as laptops and Personal Digital user freedom from being tied to desktops and offices dditionally, companies may impose restrictions on wireless network capabilities that improve both business efficiency and security Continuous training is a necessity in today's business environment, and cation is one of the resources for such training. Thus, companies often encourage workers to take classes or even seek additional degrees and subsidise them. of course such continuing education is more feasible in an urban university setting because, responding to demand, universities create extended campuses, branches or at least some sort of learning centres at strategic locations in large popul Studies have shown that acceptance of wireless Internet mobile technology is related to six major factors: a wireless trust environment, a perceived usefulness, a perceived ease of use, facilitating conditions, systems complexity, and social influences (Lu et aL. 2003). Therefore, a well established wireless environment could provide the foundation for delivering content in a mobile education environment as well
446 R.A. McMahon, P.D. DeVries and P.P. Chong P. Pete Chong is the Martel Corporation’s Professor of CIS at the University of Houston-Downtown. Prior to joining UHD, Dr. Chong taught at Gonzaga University, University of Idaho and Southeastern Louisiana University where he also served as the head of the Business Research Unit and the Editor for Southeastern Economic Outlook. His research interests are in Pareto Principle and its application to Information Systems, including Netchising, e-commerce for small businesses and e-government. 1 Introduction Wired networks trace their roots to the success of the Ethernet project at Xerox’s Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) in the early 1970s (Metcalfe and Boggs, 1976). Such wired networks were possible because standard protocols became available, they were able to operate at fairly high speeds using inexpensive connection hardware, and Local Area Networks (LANs) brought digital networking to nearly every computer (Lough et al., 1997). It was not until after these wired networks became widely used in business operations and users depended on those networks that advances in wireless technologies resulted in further implementations. Furthermore, as wireless business networking continues to increase, more companies realise that a wireless environment impacts the three critical success factors for mobile-commerce – speed, billing, and security (Massoud and Gupta, 2003) – in such a way that can help them reduce their company’s Total Networking Cost (TNC). These TNC reductions not only include actual cost savings derived from companies reducing their need for additional wired network installations, but can include intangible benefits as well. Examples include: • increased flexibility in office design and equipment layout • addition of new generations of portable devices such as laptops and Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) • user freedom from being tied to desktops and offices. Additionally, companies may impose restrictions on wireless network capabilities that improve both business efficiency and security. Continuous training is a necessity in today’s business environment, and higher education is one of the resources for such training. Thus, companies often encourage workers to take classes or even seek additional degrees and subsidise them. Of course, such continuing education is more feasible in an urban university setting because, responding to demand, universities create extended campuses, branches or at least some sort of learning centres at strategic locations in large population centres around the country. Studies have shown that acceptance of wireless Internet mobile technology is related to six major factors: a wireless trust environment, a perceived usefulness, a perceived ease of use, facilitating conditions, systems complexity, and social influences (Lu et al., 2003). Therefore, a well established wireless environment could provide the foundation for delivering content in a mobile education environment as well
Building a wireless network infrastructure under budget constraints gher education, by the very nature of its business, can benefit from the inherent flexibility of wireless networks. Classrooms must be reconfigured to meet the demand for electronic classrooms. Universities, like more traditional companies, can reduce TNC and derive significant benefits from incorporating a wireless networking environment that offers portability and flexible integration if such an environment incorporates the variety of hardware components and software solutions usually found in a higher education environment. The portability and flexibility available with wireless networks can help educe barriers to learning- be they physical or conceptual -by reducing the networking frustrations that may prevent students from learning In the last five years, many universities have implemented wireless networks on their campuses. A 2003 national survey known as the Campus Computing Project found that more than three-quarters of the 559 institutions (or 430) participating in the survey reported having their own wireless networks(Olsen, 2003). This paper examines wireless networking and describes some of the challenges and solutions encountered with the implementation of wireless networking at The University of Houston-Downtown. Since typical urban universities are built with similar constraints as many corporate facilities, lessons learned can be extended to the corporate environment as well. 2 Wireless networking in education During the spring 1999 academic semester, staff at the Mildred F. Sawyer Library at Suffolk University found their computing resources constrained. Since space was limited, the library staff investigated using a wireless network of laptop computers Students checked out laptop computers that could be used anywhere inside the library for a period of two hours. Phase I of the programme included 12 laptops and proved very popular with the students, although Internet connections were only available if plugged into the wired network. Phases Il through IV of the laptop programme included wireless access to the Internet and student freedom of movement within the library(Dugan, 2001). Drexel University claims that in June 2000, it became the first university to establish a fully wireless campus(Carlson, 2000). The university president hoped that the wireless system would be an attractive convenience for students and faculty members who could walk from the library to class and never even have to stop 'bidding on eBay. The wireless network also has the potential to make laptops rise to the status of cellphones on campus,according to John Bielec, Vice President of Information Resources and Technology at Drexel( Carlson, 2000) Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Tulane University in New Orleans, and many others are reported to have implemented wireless networks via wireless LANS, or WLANS, in 2001(Smith, 2001). The following year, Seton Hall claimed to be not only the 'most wired but also the most campus in academia. The 56-acre campus was blanketed by a wireless Lan as well as a private cellular network(Higgins, 2002) The wireless connectivity explosion is not limited within the USA. Two examples show universal growth of the wireless concept. Anna University in Chennai, India, installed wireless equipment in 2001(Anonymous, 2001)and the University of Toronto followed suit shortly thereafter(Fruitman, 1991)
Building a wireless network infrastructure under budget constraints 447 Higher education, by the very nature of its business, can benefit from the inherent flexibility of wireless networks. Classrooms must be reconfigured to meet the demand for electronic classrooms. Universities, like more traditional companies, can reduce TNC and derive significant benefits from incorporating a wireless networking environment that offers portability and flexible integration if such an environment incorporates the variety of hardware components and software solutions usually found in a higher education environment. The portability and flexibility available with wireless networks can help reduce barriers to learning – be they physical or conceptual – by reducing the networking frustrations that may prevent students from learning. In the last five years, many universities have implemented wireless networks on their campuses. A 2003 national survey known as the Campus Computing Project found that more than three-quarters of the 559 institutions (or 430) participating in the survey reported having their own wireless networks (Olsen, 2003). This paper examines wireless networking and describes some of the challenges and solutions encountered with the implementation of wireless networking at The University of Houston - Downtown. Since typical urban universities are built with similar constraints as many corporate facilities, lessons learned can be extended to the corporate environment as well. 2 Wireless networking in education During the spring 1999 academic semester, staff at the Mildred F. Sawyer Library at Suffolk University found their computing resources constrained. Since space was limited, the library staff investigated using a wireless network of laptop computers. Students checked out laptop computers that could be used anywhere inside the library for a period of two hours. Phase I of the programme included 12 laptops and proved very popular with the students, although Internet connections were only available if plugged into the wired network. Phases II through IV of the laptop programme included wireless access to the Internet and student freedom of movement within the library (Dugan, 2001). Drexel University claims that in June 2000, it became the first university to establish a fully wireless campus (Carlson, 2000). The university president hoped that the wireless system would be an attractive convenience for students and faculty members who could walk from the library to class and never even have to stop ‘bidding on eBay’. The wireless network also has the potential to make laptops rise to the status of cellphones on campus, according to John Bielec, Vice President of Information Resources and Technology at Drexel (Carlson, 2000). Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Tulane University in New Orleans, and many others are reported to have implemented wireless networks via wireless LANs, or WLANs, in 2001 (Smith, 2001). The following year, Seton Hall claimed to be not only the ‘most wired’ but also the most ‘wireless’ campus in academia. The 56-acre campus was blanketed by a wireless LAN as well as a private cellular network (Higgins, 2002). The wireless connectivity explosion is not limited within the USA. Two examples show universal growth of the wireless concept. Anna University in Chennai, India, installed wireless equipment in 2001 (Anonymous, 2001) and the University of Toronto followed suit shortly thereafter (Fruitman, 1991)
448 R.A. McMahon, P D. De vries and P P. Chong Bill Drew of SUNY Morrisville College described a student working effortlessly on a computer while strolling through his local universitys library. Looking for books and magazines the student logs onto the network. conducts searches emails information to himself, prints locally and chats with others online while connected to a wireless network that ',the entire library(Drew, 2003). Universities throughout the country are offering students wireless connections like this at least within their libraries. drew has begun by creating a partial list of universities that have informed him of such connections. Currently, the online listing shows 19 such institutions in Texas(Drew, 2004). One of the listings on his website is a prime example: students at the University of North Texas can check the school,s website to verify wireless availability at the schools library and surrounding buildings. Another of Drew's listings contains an explanation of the library loan system available for wireless portables at the University of Texas Pan American librar These successes may point out the benefit of having a wireless environment but they also highlight the problems some universities face. Few universities around the country can afford allocating resources to build such infrastructures without affecting other instructional needs. It is much more efficient to design wireless systems when buildings are built with this technology in mind. Therefore, the cost of creating a wireless nfrastructure in older schools, although less than pulling wires through the old buildings is still higher than adding wireless requirements to more modern buildings. Finally, the less endowed universities require significantly more resources to bring their students, staff and faculty up to date. The resource requirements often widen the digital divide. 3 The university and its challenges The University of Houston- Downtown is part of the larger University of Houston (UH) system, located in Houston, Texas, one of the largest cities in the south. The UH system also has four satellite campuses in a 100-mile radius. The UH system also has four satellite campuses spread out over a 1600 mile area surrounding the central campus. UHD first became a component within the UH system in 1979 as the open-admissions component of the UH System. Currently, UHD has the second highest enrollment in the UH system with 10,974 students(Ackerman, 2003). UHD is a 100% commuter,real urban university. The primary mission of the university is to provide access to higher education to the general public. One of its most important goals is to overcome the digital divide, defined as the income/locational/cultural gap between those comfortable with computerisation and those who are not( Ackerman, 2003. p 230)in our nformation-based economy The principal UHD campus is located at the northern edge of the city's downtown section and is basically a single, yet historic, ten-story building formerly used as a manufacturing site. The present UHD facility is unique in that its single-building campus atmosphere was actually maintained when constructing a new academic building. The new facility was added in the form of an outcropped extension and was simply joined to the nearly 100-year-old manufacturing building" at the hip where the two buildings now share elevator systems. Additionally, it is a unique fact that the UHD campus is the only Us campus with an active train system passing under a portion of the campus buildings structure
448 R.A. McMahon, P.D. DeVries and P.P. Chong Bill Drew of SUNY Morrisville College described a student working effortlessly on a computer while strolling through his local university’s library. Looking for books and magazines, the student logs onto the network, conducts searches, emails information to himself, prints locally and chats with others online while connected to a wireless network that ‘blankets’ the entire library (Drew, 2003). Universities throughout the country are offering students wireless connections like this at least within their libraries. Drew has begun by creating a partial list of universities that have informed him of such connections. Currently, the online listing shows 19 such institutions in Texas (Drew, 2004). One of the listings on his website is a prime example: students at the University of North Texas can check the school’s website to verify wireless availability at the school’s library and surrounding buildings.1 Another of Drew’s listings contains an explanation of the library loan system available for wireless portables at the University of Texas Pan American Library.2 These successes may point out the benefit of having a wireless environment but they also highlight the problems some universities face. Few universities around the country can afford allocating resources to build such infrastructures without affecting other instructional needs. It is much more efficient to design wireless systems when buildings are built with this technology in mind. Therefore, the cost of creating a wireless infrastructure in older schools, although less than pulling wires through the old buildings, is still higher than adding wireless requirements to more modern buildings. Finally, the less endowed universities require significantly more resources to bring their students, staff and faculty up to date. The resource requirements often widen the digital divide. 3 The university and its challenges The University of Houston – Downtown is part of the larger University of Houston (UH) system, located in Houston, Texas, one of the largest cities in the south. The UH system also has four satellite campuses in a 100-mile radius. The UH system also has four satellite campuses spread out over a 1600 mile area surrounding the central campus. UHD first became a component within the UH system in 1979 as the open-admissions component of the UH System. Currently, UHD has the second highest enrollment in the UH system with 10,974 students (Ackerman, 2003). UHD is a 100% commuter, real urban university. The primary mission of the university is to provide access to higher education to the general public. One of its most important goals is to overcome the digital divide, defined as the income/locational/cultural gap between those comfortable with computerisation and those who are not (Ackerman, 2003,p.230) in our information-based economy. The principal UHD campus is located at the northern edge of the city’s downtown section and is basically a single, yet historic, ten-story building formerly used as a manufacturing site. The present UHD facility is unique in that its single-building campus atmosphere was actually maintained when constructing a new academic building. The new facility was added in the form of an outcropped extension and was simply joined to the nearly 100-year-old manufacturing building ‘at the hip’ where the two buildings now share elevator systems. Additionally, it is a unique fact that the UHD campus is the only US campus with an active train system passing under a portion of the campus building’s structure
Building a wireless network infrastructure under budget constraints Like all universities, one of the biggest challenges at UHD is providing continued increases in computer access within the limitation placed on the resources made available. Adding to the challenge at UHD is the fact that the ratio of funding per student is the second lowest in the state. That combination makes the task of keeping UHD technologically advanced an extremely difficult one. On the bright side, the UHD,'s single-building campus does help reduce some technology expansion costs. This is because the distances between network components and even the numbers of those components as well are minimised. On the other hand, the age and original construction materials used within the conjoined buildings make typical networking techniques difficult and expensive. Even the simple act of pulling wires through a wall may involve long, expensive detours over thick concrete ceilings, walls and floors Because the construction of this historical building used thick concrete I-beam materials, pockets of non-reception, which act as barriers to wireless transmissions, exist pervasively throughout the building. These structural difficulties were similar to the problems encountered in other similar buildings, such as the MD Andersen Cancer Center(Brewin, 2001)and others (lough et al., 1997). Although the use of wireless technologies might often be more economical than pulling wires in such heavy construction,the cost remains higher than in installations in a more open environment. Approaches to finding solutions At UHD, it was determined early by managers of the Information Resources (IR) department that a networking solution could only evolve after taking a comprehensive look at the overall problems facing a full-scale implementation, and the solution would have to take advantage of all available resources. The strategy then centred on searching for one resource that would address multiple problems and, thus, facilitate combining resources from multiple sources so as to implement a complete solution that would reduce redundancy and make limited dollars stretch further. The primary approach is to be'cooperative' with all departments in the university rather than be 'competitive'when btaining resources. Since the construction of infrastructure serves the common needs of the community it was determined that it would be built one piece at a time with the assistance of many seemingly unrelated projects. With the advancement of this type of growing infrastructure, the system can be used as a support mechanism when obtaining additional funding for future projects that serve the diverse individual needs of the community 5 Laptop pilot project implementation When the time came for going mobile, UHD was ready for a change. It turns out that ID's pilot project, which had originally been aimed at just a segment of its diverse tudent base, laid the groundwork for what has ultimately developed into a high-quality, university-wide networking project that involves near-total immersion into the wirele technologies available. The fact that UHD is a single-building campus in its historic building along one of the citys important bayous also played a part in the systems development into a wireless network environment. As the ir department looked into wireless implementations, they were able to start by implementing a system with a limited reach, and they could do it in a relatively small, confined location
Building a wireless network infrastructure under budget constraints 449 Like all universities, one of the biggest challenges at UHD is providing continued increases in computer access within the limitation placed on the resources made available. Adding to the challenge at UHD is the fact that the ratio of funding per student is the second lowest in the state. That combination makes the task of keeping UHD technologically advanced an extremely difficult one. On the bright side, the UHD’s single-building campus does help reduce some technology expansion costs. This is because the distances between network components and even the numbers of those components as well are minimised. On the other hand, the age and original construction materials used within the conjoined buildings make typical networking techniques difficult and expensive. Even the simple act of pulling wires through a wall may involve long, expensive detours over thick concrete ceilings, walls and floors. Because the construction of this historical building used thick concrete I-beam materials, pockets of non-reception, which act as barriers to wireless transmissions, exist pervasively throughout the building. These structural difficulties were similar to the problems encountered in other similar buildings, such as the MD Andersen Cancer Center (Brewin, 2001) and others (Lough et al., 1997). Although the use of wireless technologies might often be more economical than pulling wires in such heavy construction, the cost remains higher than in installations in a more open environment. 4 Approaches to finding solutions At UHD, it was determined early by managers of the Information Resources (IR) department that a networking solution could only evolve after taking a comprehensive look at the overall problems facing a full-scale implementation, and the solution would have to take advantage of all available resources. The strategy then centred on searching for one resource that would address multiple problems and, thus, facilitate combining resources from multiple sources so as to implement a complete solution that would reduce redundancy and make limited dollars stretch further. The primary approach is to be ‘cooperative’ with all departments in the university rather than be ‘competitive’ when obtaining resources. Since the construction of infrastructure serves the common needs of the community, it was determined that it would be built one piece at a time with the assistance of many seemingly unrelated projects. With the advancement of this type of growing infrastructure, the system can be used as a support mechanism when obtaining additional funding for future projects that serve the diverse individual needs of the community. 5 Laptop pilot project implementation When the time came for going mobile, UHD was ready for a change. It turns out that UHD’s pilot project, which had originally been aimed at just a segment of its diverse student base, laid the groundwork for what has ultimately developed into a high-quality, university-wide networking project that involves near-total immersion into the wireless technologies available. The fact that UHD is a single-building campus in its historic building along one of the city’s important bayous also played a part in the system’s development into a wireless network environment. As the IR department looked into wireless implementations, they were able to start by implementing a system with a limited reach, and they could do it in a relatively small, confined location