UCF Teams With Harris, Bay Networks In Establishing Wireless Net On Campus
ORLANDO, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 18, 1998--The University of Central Florida, recently named one of the nation's Most Wired Campuses by Yahoo Internet Life magazine, is taking steps to become one of the nation's most wireLESS campuses. UCF has concluded discussions with Harris Semiconductor, developers of PRISM(TM) wireless networking technology, and Bay Networks, manufacturer of wireless networking systems featuring Harris semiconductors, to start wireless networking projects on UCF's Orlando, Fla., main campus.
UCF will completely equip its College of Engineering Building with Harris-Bay Networks wireless Ethernet technology by the end of August. This will enable students and faculty to connect to the UCF campus network from any location in the building and be able to move throughout the building while remaining connected to the network through notebook computers or other portable computing devices.
Martin Wanielista, dean of the College of Engineering, said the partnership with Harris and Bay Networks advances a research priority for his college. "The diligent and detailed work of the faculty in the college is paying off in the wireless communications area," he said, "with a sophisticated system that will advance our research agenda and simultaneously offer an exciting new communications service to faculty and students."
Ron Eaglin, an engineering professor who is playing a key role in networking the building, stressed convenience and the educational benefits. "The use of wireless technology makes it possible for us to meet the needs of our students in an environment where computing resources must be available to the students wherever they may be," he said. "This not only is a factor of convenience for both the students and faculty, but it also helps us improve the accessibility to computer resources in the college, exposes the students to state-of-the-art technology and increases their ability to function efficiently in the education environment."
Future wireless network projects now in design at UCF are a new high technology classroom building (scheduled to be completed in fall 1999), meeting rooms throughout the campus, residence halls, the library and a potential wireless umbrella covering the entire campus. The projects will extend access to the full array of campus network resources -- on-line registration, library information, the World Wide Web, electronic mail and others -- anywhere on campus, without the need to find a network outlet to plug into.
"Our university is one of the most dynamic institutions in the country, and has, for several years, been developing innovative ways to use technology to serve our students, faculty and staff," said Joel Hartman, UCF's vice provost of Information Technologies and Resources. "Everyone at UCF has access to the campus network and its vast resources. With the addition of wireless technology, access will ultimately be available at any location on campus."
The first step will be the installation of 14 Bay Networks' access points throughout the College of Engineering facility. Each access point is wired to the university's sophisticated network, which features a high speed OC-3 backbone. Each access point also includes a Harris PRISM-based radio card that will transmit and receive data to engineering students and faculty who have similar radio cards installed in their computers. This system covers the entire engineering facility and provides data communications in the 2.4 GHz ISM band at a data transfer rate of 2 megabits per second (Mbps).
In addition, the College of Engineering's Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering will conduct research on the system, studying and reporting findings on the actual performance in this application. "We will, as well, conduct advanced research on wireless solutions for the future," said Dr. Madjid Belkerdid, UCF professor who heads up the research effort. "We'll research in the areas of spread spectrum, RF propagation, antenna design and similar related topics and look ahead to higher data rates and higher frequencies." |
