Jason Rand, a senior at Colgate, said, "Having wireless Internet all around campus and in the village of Hamilton makes connecting to the Web extremely easy and convenient. As a busy college student, being able to get online virtually anywhere at Colgate is one less thing for me to have to worry about."
The network, owned and operated by Colgate University, meets the huge demand by students armed with laptops, music players, communicators, gaming and other devices to be able to access the Internet as well as academic services such as course management, library, campus portal and e-mail at any time and anyplace. The outdoor network was constructed using Tropos Networks wireless routers.
"In the last two to three years, we noticed that our students have a much more digital lifestyle, owning three to four different mobile devices. There has been a pent-up demand for ubiquitous broadband wireless access, particularly in the residential dorms, on campus and where students congregate," said Rich Grant, associate director of technology planning at Colgate. "As a result, we launched an initiative to provide a pervasive Wi-Fi network, including outdoors on the campus and in the downtown area of Hamilton where many of our students live. Now, we have from 1,500 to 2,000 users of the Wi-Fi network at any given moment."
As students enroll at Colgate, they are automatically issued a password and e-mail account on the network so they can immediately get access to the course management system as well as to the Internet. While the primary use of the network is for the students and faculty, the public can also log in as guests at no charge for Internet access in certain areas of the downtown, including the village square, the Colgate Inn and Barge coffee house.
To build the network, Tropos routers were chosen by Colgate for their flexible technology platform, reliability and number of units needed to meet the university's requirements for outdoor area coverage resulting in an overall cost effective solution.
"Our experience in the design of wireless network solutions for the education marketplace resulted in the extensive Wi-Fi network system that was deployed throughout the Colgate campus and in the town of Hamilton, using backhaul provided by Colgate's fiber network," said Mickey Branson, vice president of sales for the Northeast Region at IWS. "The network design, deployment and overall operation has resulted in significant adoption by students and businesses alike exceeding Colgate's expectations."
Future applications for the network include voice over IP (VoIP) as well as asset tracking capability for laptops, audio visual equipment, textbooks and files.
