UH moves toward wireless Internet

By Beverly Creamer
Advertiser Education Writer

University of Hawai'i-Manoa students and faculty are now able to sit in the Campus Center with their laptops and tap into the Internet through new wireless access.

Wi-Fi (for wireless fidelity) Internet coverage at the Campus Center is up and running, made possible by a $70,000 grant from the Pepsi Bottling Group. Some of the money also is going toward financing a new technology center.

The Wi-Fi infrastructure at UH is being expanded, and includes more than 75 wireless access points, with coverage in the libraries, most outdoor mall areas, most classrooms in the Pacific Ocean Science and Technology and School of Ocean and Earth Science Technology buildings, and a number of other locations.

"Our primary focus on wireless infrastructure is to 'light up' as much of the public access areas as possible," said Garret Yoshimi, telecommunications manager for UH. "The central mall next to Hamilton Library, for instance, and down toward Varney Circle has been lit up by wireless for about a year now, but it's not that widely known."

The advances place UH in the vanguard of a national wireless movement still in its early stages. Some Mainland universities boast of having their entire campuses wireless, but many more — like UH — have a combined wired and wireless system.

"Our wireless deployment is being used in conjunction with the wired infrastructure," Yoshimi said. "Some of the colleges and departments also have their own wireless networks deployed. Some have done it on their own with departmental funds. Because we're not funded to cover the whole campus, we haven't restricted what other folks can do in covering their own areas."

A lot of the wireless coverage at UH comes from positioning wireless access points in the buildings adjacent to that area, and pointing the antennas toward the mall, Yoshimi said.

Each access point costs around $1,000, which includes the expense for cabling. About 50 people can be served with each access point, although experts are looking at having each point serve only about two dozen, to keep connection time fast.

"As more people connect in a particular physical location, they'll contend for the band width," Yoshimi said. "You need to tune it to put more access points where there's high usage."

Special computer cards are needed for students to connect with the wireless system.

Yoshimi said that as he walks around campus he can see students sitting under trees using their laptops.

"My staff uses it in various areas of campus, such as Keller Hall and Bilger Hall," he said. "As we go from point to point, instead of finding some place to plug in, it's been very useful for us. I have meetings weekly in two or three different buildings and I literally take my computer with me. It's like I'm at my desk."

One of the concerns is to make the UH closed system tamper-proof by creating firewalls that can't be breached. An elaborate system of security and passwords is in use, and Yoshimi monitors the system for problems.