The building structure consists of reinforced flat-slab concrete floors with concrete columns reinforced with steel bars. The renovated facility will have open ceilings and exposed mechanicals for modular cubical work areas, private offices, conference rooms, collaboration facilities, classrooms, labs and public areas. Wireless usage is expected to be highest in public and quasipublic areas, such as classrooms and labs.
Vendors were given guidance regarding anticipated user density in specific parts of the building, and were required to meet a minimum per-user average throughput goal of 500 Kbps.
IST's network is integrated into the campus network, and the program "insources" to the central IT organization for basic network services. Not unlike many other organizations, SU's central IT group has deployed a number of wireless hotspots around campus, using Cisco 350 and 1200 access points in public spaces, like the library and student unions, as well as in several campus departments. Even if the university were to move to a new wireless network supplier, it would want to preserve as much of its existing investment as possible.
Currently, among the labs, classrooms and offices, there are about 145 desktop computers and 70 notebooks communicating with servers running NetWare, Windows and Linux. IST has been given two IP subnets on the university's Class B network. In the next three years, IST expects an increase in the number of notebooks, PDAs and other wireless-capable devices, many of them student-owned machines. About 200 wireless notebooks are anticipated in 2004, increasing by at least 100 per year, and 20 percent of these are expected to be connected to the wireless network at any given time.
IST has found its existing Cisco wireless system to be adequate, but perhaps not suitable for the new building environment, where new technologies and applications, including converged voice, video and data, are expected to play a more prominent role. Like many existing Cisco customers, SU's central IT organization has a high comfort level with Cisco's product line, which has proved cost-effective and reliable. For it to consider alternatives, the value proposition must be very high and the new products must interoperate with existing wireless infrastructure devices. --Aris Castillo
Many studies have been conducted in recent years to assess the return on investment associated with WLANs. In general, these studies have concluded that wireless delivers both efficiency and effectiveness benefits. In short, most knowledge workers perceive WLANs as making them more productive. They also like using it.
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