Wireless and UTD

Wireless networking (WiFi) on the UTD campus is now an accepted service covering almost the entire campus, even the newest buildings. With that acceptance has come a new freedom to "connect" practically anywhere anytime.

UTD is also one of the first institutions to deploy wide scale wireless for student residences (Waterview Apartments). The approximately 4500 residents of Waterview Apartments have free wireless network access from their suites via WiFi. Waterview is the largest apartment complex in Dallas and one of the largest student residence complexes in the nation to have exclusive wireless connectivity.

Thus WiFi is now firmly entrenched as part of the student experience (on-campus and off) and is almost taken for granted. You see folks all over campus using their wireless notebooks to connect to the campus network. Whether it be in the cafeteria, the library, by the fountain, or simply outside a classroom, students now routinely expect connectivity wherever they go. And wireless printing capability will be a reality during the Fall of 2003.

The advent of wireless pda's will continue that trend towards the ubiquitous network connectivity on campus. Although UTD has more PalmOS users than other pda's, WiFi connectivity is now available for all pda platforms. The addition of the campus mapping function (from NearSpace), both the pda downloadable version and the webpage, help to promote even greater use of the available wireless connectivity. And pda's are eminently more portable than notebooks! You can visit the UTD PalmOS webpage for downloadable files and more information about pda's on campus.

With cell phones and pda's converging into "smartphones" that provide both cellular and WiFi connectivity, the utility of the campus wireless network will continue to grow dramatically.

Starting the Fall of 2003, UTD will be deploying not only 802.11b (11MB/sec) WiFi connectivity, but also 802.11g (54MB/sec) and 802.11a (also 54MB/sec) in various locations across campus. Students now purchasing wireless cards should be buying the "tri-mode" cards to enable them to connect to any of the three different services in a seamless fashion.

So while WiFi may not be the answer to every computing problem at UTD, it is one of the services needed by most of the computing problems at UTD! And oh yeah, faculty and staff are allowed to use the wireless network also!

Doug Jackson
Director, Technology Customer Services