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CMU campus makes another advance in the computing world -- it goes wireless
Monday, November 29, 1999 By Rachel K. Sobel, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
Ross Higashi, a freshman at Carnegie Mellon University, stays in close touch with his family and friends from high school in Hawaii. Very close touch. On the way to class, laptop in hand, he e-mails former classmates now attending the University of Hawaii. In between Computers in History and Calculus in Three Dimensions, his parents back in Honolulu grill him in an instant chat session: "Are you eating enough?" Higashi also plays the computer game "StarCraft" with old buddies at MIT in Cambridge, Mass., during down time on campus.
In some ways, Higashi has barely left home. He owes his connectedness in large part to "going wireless." Instead of wasting minutes to walk home or waiting impatiently for a university computer, Higashi has the Net at his fingertips for as long as his laptop battery lasts.
As a computer enthusiast who walks around campus with his laptop open for Web browsing or chatting, Higashi isn't the only one tapping into the wireless community. Since October, all 10,000 students, faculty, and staff at Carnegie Mellon have had access to the world's first campuswide wireless network. Already, several hundred people have signed up to use it. With just a laptop and a $259 networking card, which inserts into the side of the computer, users can get connected within seconds.
So far, Carnegie Mellon, famous for being the first "wired" college in the mid-1980s, has enabled wireless access in 10 academic buildings. Wireless computing takes place through radio signals transmitted between each computer's networking card and access points -- small radios mounted onto the walls of campus buildings, connected by cable to the main network.
The school plans to expand the wireless coverage to 18 more buildings by the end of the academic year by installing about 225 more access points.
The primary attraction for wireless computing is convenience.
"I can take my computer pretty much anywhere on campus and not have to worry about plugging it in," says Jason Flinn, a graduate student in computer science. "Now that I have the option of using a wired or wireless connection, I almost exclusively use wireless."
Flinn uses his wireless connection in his office, classes, or meetings, where he can pull up files at a moment's notice. With "wireless spillover" -- coverage that leaks into unspecified areas -- Flinn has even networked beyond the reaches of campus. On a crisp autumn day, he checked the Internet and downloaded files at Flagstaff Hill in Schenley Park.
But the extent to which Flinn uses his wireless connection won't necessarily be the norm.
"We don't expect everyone to adopt it as their primary way of networking, but as a supplement to the wired network, it's extremely powerful," says Tracy Futhey, vice provost for computing services.
Futhey envisions students camping out wherever they want to, using e-mail or doing course assignments over the Web. She sees administrators replacing their daytimers, notepads and pencils with pocket wireless computers that can keep up-to-the-minute appointment changes from secretaries. Professors can work interactively with students in class over the Web.
The wireless project began six years ago with lab research. In 1997, the university set up a small-scale wireless network as a test bed for faculty and researchers in the computer science and engineering buildings.
The newly expanded network is more consumer friendly, with a help desk and instructions for users. Named Wireless Andrew -- a nod to both Andrew Carnegie and Andrew Mellon -- it is gaining popularity on campus.
Alison Greenwald, a computer science major who uses a friend's wireless laptop, appreciates its handiness.
"Being able to hold conversations online from unconventional locations is very nice," she says. "It makes you much more reachable."
Iris Jyoung, a creative writing major, was planning on getting a laptop with an internal modem. Now, she's thinking about canning the modem idea and going for a wireless card.
Wireless networking can be more than thirty times faster than the top-speed modem connection.
"I'll ask my engineering friends about what they think and if it's a good idea, I'll invest," she says.
Other universities are following Carnegie Mellon's lead. Officials from the University of Florida and Penn State University have toured their facilities. Bucknell University in Lewisburg has started experimenting with placement of wireless hardware.
"We think it's a great idea and we're trying to go that way," says Maurice Aburdene, a Bucknell professor of computer science. "In this field, they are definitely leaders."
Bucknell plans to have a campus-wide wireless network running in a couple of years. For now, the school needs to develop protection against outsiders who are able to break into the system.
Not everyone at Carnegie Mellon, however, is thrilled about the new option.
One student views the service as unnecessary.
"It's a neat idea but there's no real use for me," says Ahnya Chang, a public policy major. "I'm gonna try to resist the trend and ride my bicycle and cook on my wood-burning stove," she joked.
Another student, Guido Zarella, complained about the wireless project in the school newspaper, calling it a "magnificent waste of money."
He contended that the school gave priority to the "few people with laptops" over "the many students living off campus who are forced to use slow modems or pay hundreds of dollars a year to use a faster DSL connection." (DSL, which stands for digital subscriber line, enables high-speed Internet connections over telephone lines.) Administrators should funnel resources into expanding wired coverage first, he argued.
In response to this criticism, school officials stressed that Lucent Technologies donated $600,000 worth of hardware for Wireless Andrew and the university so far has spent only about $60,000 on the project.
Still, many are fascinated by the wireless network, sometimes in the quirkiest of ways.
Derrick Brashear, a staff programmer for computing services, is infamous among colleagues for having a "second office" -- one with a full array of plumbing fixtures.
"If I need to use the facilities, I just take the laptop with me and keep working on whatever I was doing," he explained in an e-mail.
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