1. Enterprises Will Find
College Grads Attuned to
Broadband Wireless Future
BY J. SHARPE SMITH
What will tomorrow’s wireless applications be and
who will create them? Officials at Carnegie-Mellon
began working on the answer to that question back
in 1994 when they were farsighted enough to
understand that a wireless infrastructure for
communications, computation and entertainment
was going to be important in the future. As a result,
the school built a complete wireless system on top of
the wired communications and computation
infrastructure in order to train future software
developers, as well as to enhance the educational
environment for the students.
“We believed we needed to lead in this field because
we have a history of leading in the areas of
communications and computation,” says Ed
Schlesinger, Professor and head of the Electrical and
Computing Engineering Department. “We didn’t
want to just do the research, we wanted a large-
scale infrastructure established within the campus to
help us understand how the technology works first
hand by watching the students interact with it.”
How `Wireless Andrew’ Works
To provide high-speed wireless service to the campus,
Lucent WaveLAN equipment was installed, which uses
a direct sequence spread spectrum radio to provide a
raw data rate of 2 Mbps. The equipment is 2.4 GHz,
IEEE 802.11b ethernet compatible technology.
The result was ubiquitous wireless access to a
powerful, wired network on the Carnegie Mellon
Campus, located five miles from downtown
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The Carnegie Mellon
Wireless Network, nicknamed “Wireless Andrew”
after the first names of both Andrew Carnegie and
Andrew Mellon, covers the entire campus including 4
million square feet of interior floor space and 1 to 2
acres of outside areas. Using more than 800 802.11b
EWM 14
ISSUE 1, VOL. 2, 2006

2. Access Points, coverage is provide to
33 academic and administrative
buildings, 36 residence halls and
four outdoor areas.
Broadband Wireless
Shaping the
Communications
Mindset of Young
Because of the ubiquity of the
broadband wireless coverage Andrew, nearly two and a half the lifestyle of the college student.
provided by Carnegie-Mellon, times the number of students You are more likely to see a student
“computing anywhere and [7,500], but that number includes with a laptop under their arm than
anytime” has gone from a luxury to faculty and staff. On any given day, pencil and paper,” says Schlesinger.
a service that is taken for granted there are more than 3,000 active “It changes the way we operate; it
by students. As an established users networking wirelessly. is much more efficient. If we are in
component of the infrastructure, a meeting and can’t answer a
more than 18,738 wireless cards “The whenever, wherever high- question, we surf the Web until we
are registered on the Wireless speed Internet service really fits into find an answer. We usually work
EWM 15
ISSUE 1, VOL. 2, 2006

3. Carnegie Mellon’s philosophy is
that, as a fundamental
infrastructure, WLAN is as
important as any of the other
infrastructures. The school is
currently upgrading the system
to 802.11A, which still operates
at 2.4 GHz and uses direct
sequence spread spectrum, but it
will operate at a much higher 11
megabits per second. The university
will continue to upgrade, maintain
and grow this system to keep up
with the technical advances in the
Ed Schlesinger, head of Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at
future.
Carnegie Mellon University
together to craft an email based on Networking Institute or working on The wireless network at Carnegie
the minutes and send it out before a degree in computer science. “The Mellon is an open network.
the meeting breaks. It makes things WLAN infrastructure provides them Previously, access points closed the
more immediate.” with real-world experience in the system to laptops not configured
research, testing, deployment and for the Carnegie Mellon University
maintenance of wireless technology,
WLAN Serves as a network. Today, when a user
which is critical to developing the connects to the network, they must
Living Laboratory talent that our nation’s companies still obtain a Carnegie Mellon IP
for Tomorrow’s need to continue our leadership in address through AuthBridge or
this area and further the growth of QuickReg on the NetReg page. This
Applications this technology,” says Chuck Bartel, step restricts the Carnegie Mellon
Project Director for Wireless wireless network to Carnegie
The infrastructure is not only a
Andrew. Mellon affiliates, yet still allows
test bed for use in terms of
Internet access to those not
doing research, but it provides a
College Research affiliated with the campus.
service for the users, as well. The
Drives the Wireless
ability to do research depends on
“A team of students is always
having the proper infrastructure,
Network Forward working to improve the Wireless
but it is difficult to deploy and
Andrew system. They continually
maintain an infrastructure unless
study a graphical representation
In the networking area, researchers
the students are engaged in
of the network to analyze system
are studying topics ranging from
requisite research. What results is a
usage, which allows them to
the quality of service of network
dynamic synergy of the user
pinpoint which access points
management and e-commerce
community, research community
are the busiest and perhaps rework
issues to improving Wi-Fi reception.
and system-maintenance
the network to increase
This expansive research team also is
community that provides the
throughput,” says Bartel. “Another
doing research related to optical
wireless service.
course studies e-commerce, using
networks, including how best to
location-based technologies.
configure fiber optics, how to
Students from several departments
Software has been studied that
improve ways to get messages to
within the university are involved in
allows students in separate areas to
their destinations and how to use
working on the WLAN. Electrical
work together on a collaborative
optical components such as laser
and Computer Engineering is one.
basis, all sharing the same
switches, the building blocks of
The student might be pursuing a
computer screen.”
networks.
degree in the Information
EWM 16
ISSUE 1, VOL. 2, 2006

4. In particular, the students have While some of these projects might wireless system on their campus
created software that tracks the seem a bit offbeat, this gives allows students a space to develop
user and coordinates their location students from the computer software that will eventually
with their class schedule. If the engineering discipline a leg up on leverage future wireless
student is not moving toward his or molding technologies into infrastructures. “We built the
her next class 10 minutes before applications that will serve users in WLAN for traditional purposes,
the start, it will set off an alarm to a particular environment. web access, e-mail and calendar
help keep the student from being use, but since it is here we are
late. Location is achieved using having a number of students,
Graduates Creating
triangulation of several Wi-Fi system faculty and staff finding new and
the Future of
access points. Students are also interesting uses for it,” says Bartel.
Enterprise Wireless
studying the provision of “If you didn’t have the pervasive
information service alerts. Students, infrastructure in place, these
being students, one project types of products may not have
With cellular EVDO wireless
provides the location of events been attempted. The notion is
broadband capability, wireless
across campus where free food is research institutions expose
mesh and Wi-MAX becoming a
being served, via email alert. In college students to new technology
reality, ubiquitous wireless
another application, using the before the rest of society. So,
broadband may be an important
student’s calendar, the system when they go into the workplace,
part of the future enterprise
delays instant messages until the they enable their employers to
wireless environment. Carnegie
student is out of a class. move into those technologies.”
Mellon officials believe having a
EWM 17
ISSUE 1, VOL. 2, 2006