TASK
Our task is to produce a technical and business proposal for wireless connectivity to the dorms. The proposal will be presented to the Associated Students. Our client is the AS president, David Gamboa.
NETWORK ARCHITECTURE
I located a map of the dorm area -- it is on the class Web site.
There is a fiber connection running from one dorm building to the campus network. I am trying to find out which building that is in.
We will probably build a point-to-multipoint link from each dorm to that central place, but should also look into mesh networks.
New point-multipoint standards and equipment are just emerging. Unfortunately, products are not expected until the second half of 2004. We may not be able to wait. (See the article I wrote on wireless networking in developing nations).
A mesh network might also work; however, I don't know if any products are yet available. This might be a very important architecture in the future, but we may be too early.
Whatever we propose has to be competitive with wired alternatives. One is regular cable-modem access from the Comcast. The other is running wires from the connected buildings to the others instead of a wireless link. Perhaps we could even use the existing telephone conduit or extra wires in those conduits.
Some companies with point-to-multipoint equipment are: http://motorola.canopywireless.com/ http://www.dlink.com/ http://www.proxim.com/products/bwa/multipoint/ http://www.vivato.net/ http://www.cisco.com Some mesh vendors: http://www.meshnetworks.com/ http://www.firetide.com/ http://www.troposnetworks.com/ http://www.strixsystems.com/ http://www.packethop.comBACKGROUND INFO
General wireless Web sites
http://www.wi-fiplanet.com/ http://www.nwfusion.com/topics/wireless.htmlMagazine sections
http://www.pcmag.com/category2/0,4148,1227431,00.asp http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.05/unwired/These books sound interesting. Check Amazon.com and a bookstore.
Drive-By Wi-Fi Guide by Jeff Duntemann Paraglyph Publishing; (February 2003) ISBN: 1932111743 Deploying License-Free Wireless Wide-Area Networks by Jack Unger Publisher: Cisco Press; 1st edition (February 26, 2003) ISBN: 1587050692 802.11 Wireless Networks: The Definitive Guide (O'Reilly Networking) by Matthew S. Gast Publisher: O'Reilly & Associates; 1st edition (April 2002) ISBN: 0596001835 Building Wireless Community Networks, 2nd Edition by Rob Flickenger Publisher: O'Reilly & Associates; 2nd edition (June 2003) ISBN: 0596005024 Wireless Hacks by Rob Flickenger Publisher: O'Reilly & Associates (September 2003) ISBN: 0596005598OTHER
We need a business plan as well as a technology proposal: How will it be paid for? Who will install, maintain and service the equipment?
Campus Computer Services Director Min Yao has indicated that he will cooperate, but part of the proposal will have to be working out an arms-length agreement to handle our network traffic. We will also need to interact with CS in defining the technical proposal.
CONTACTS:
Director, Computing Services: Min Yao, myao@csudh.edu
Director, University Housing Services: Kaveh Razaghi, krazaghi@csudh.edu
Campus physical planning (maps): Lane Koluvek, lkoluvek@csudh.edu
ASI President: David Gamboa, asipresident@csudh.edu
TO DO:
Gather background information -- books, Net
Write problem statement and send it to vendors
Test connectivity in one dorm building to get a sense of coverage