Campuses making radio waves

Calum MacLeod says demand for wi-fi services at AUT in Auckland hasn't been as as big as expected. Picture / Kenny Rodger

Whangarei's Northland Polytechnic is the latest local educational institution to go wi-fi, with a free campus-wide wireless hotspot now in operation.

The network aims to make the delivery of education more flexible and give students and teachers better access to course material.

The first phase of the project is now providing wireless broadband coverage to all buildings at the main Whangarei campus using the polytechnic's own laptops, which can be booked and delivered to classrooms for teachers to use.

It's an immense time-saving exercise, says Xiaohui Xu, Northland Polytechnic's manager of information and communication technology services.

"In the past if a student needed to use a computer we had to put a cable in the classroom ... nowadays with the wireless initiative, if a classroom doesn't have computing facilities we just deliver 20 [or] 30 wireless-enabled laptops."

Teachers who previously spent time downloading materials to local machines can now use the wireless connection to access information directly from the network.

By June, the free connection will be available to any student using a wireless-capable laptop.

The technology is seen as an investment for the future of the institute and it is hoped it will increase the availability of skilled workers in the local economy.

The polytechnic's computer network, including five satellite campuses across Northland, can be accessed from any fixed-line internet connection.

The school, which had 20,000 part-time students last year, now has the means to expand education into the community, said Jason Everard, project leader of network installer IBM.

"Some potential students face transport difficulties getting to classes or have other responsibilities close to home that would make attending impractical," Everard said.

Auckland University of Technology is another school that has set up wireless hotspots in buildings, plazas and common areas, mainly around its Wellesley campus, but its experience hasn't been perfect.

Wireless connectivity is an important service for students, but is currently too expensive to roll out campus-wide, says Calum MacLeod, AUT IT strategy manager.

"The demand hasn't been as great as we would have expected it to be and certainly the uptake hasn't been as good as we would like it to be," he said.

Students at AUT credit money to an account, which is debited based on their internet traffic, whether wired or wireless.

They can access the wireless coverage in common areas such as at stand-up tables outside classrooms in the school's business building.

The handicap of powering laptops is proving to be a limiting factor for colleges looking to go wireless, MacLeod said. A laptop battery can generally run for about two hours before needing to be recharged.

"What we have found is, of course, most of them still want power to keep the batteries charged, so they are still plugging stuff in, so they are not all that useful for the long sessions, but they are good for email and casual sorts of things like that."

Apart from the power needed to drive a laptop, the bandwidth required to make web surfing sail rather than sag can also be a challenge, he said.

"If you've got a large number of people connecting at a single wireless access point it can be painfully slow and it turns people off."

Newer wireless technologies being developed would address this but it was unlikely they will ever replicate the speed of a wired network, he said.

Maintaining the geographical borders of the wireless zone can also be a challenge. In the unlicensed world of wireless connectivity there are no rights to protect your coverage area.

Competition between wireless systems in neighbouring buildings can result in providers ramping up the power in a bid to out-boost each other's transmitter.

Despite the challenges, MacLeod said wireless technology could have a big impact on the future delivery of education, and AUT planned to go campus-wide at some point. "We're not rushing into it, but we are pushing it out as the demand increases for it and the technology itself settles down."

However, wireless technology, much like the fabled paperless office before it, has one final irony.

"In spite of everything else there's a lot of wire involved in a wireless network as well."