Expanding the Network

In spite of the fact that Columbia is a world-renowned and cutting-edge research institution, students and faculty lack access to a useful and mainstream technology that is often considered an educational necessity—a campuswide wireless network. Since professors are making more use of the Internet and CourseWorks in their classes than ever before, students would benefit greatly from wireless access in every classroom on campus. The current network is inadequate, and the University should enact a plan to improve wireless access on campus.

Although Butler Library, Lerner Hall, and outdoor areas of campus have Columbia-sponsored wireless coverage, access to wireless networks in the residence halls and in most classrooms is scant. Columbia's peers, almost without exception, provide superior wireless coverage. Harvard, Princeton, and Yale offer wireless coverage that blankets their campuses and adjacent parts of town. In New York, NYU and CUNY offer ubiquitous wireless access in buildings on their campuses. Columbia University Information Technology cites high costs as the primary barrier to providing comprehensive wireless coverage. It points to such expenses as “changes and upgrades to the buildings themselves, including building, powering, cooling, [and] managing telecom rooms to support wireless technology.” But a cursory look at the existing network infrastructure suggests that the necessary cabling is already in place in every residence hall, and that there is little need for additional network infrastructure. The installation of wireless routers would likely require little more than access to power plugs and ethernet jacks, much less cooling systems and new server racks. Even if CUIT’s cost estimates are correct, it is difficult to imagine how so many schools with much less funding than Columbia can afford better wireless networks than we can.

CUIT’s current approach to expanding wireless access is noncommittal: Its Web site states that those who need wireless access in a part of campus that is currently uncovered must e-mail CUIT to submit a request. Such an approach gives rise to inconsistent coverage—the same Web site, for instance, indicates that Hamilton Hall’s wireless coverage is limited to rooms 301 through 304, 309, 702, and 703. CUIT should formulate a plan to expand wireless access to the entire campus within a reasonable time frame. In doing so, CUIT should take into account expected future advancements in wireless technology— notably the projected ratification by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers of a new wireless standard in November 2008.

Sparse coverage has induced many students to set up their own wireless routers in violation of current CUIT policy. The presence of multiple, unauthorized routers results in interference for all wireless users. The ban has proved impossible to enforce, in large measure because students who want wireless access have no legitimate alternative. That fact in itself testifies to student demand for universal coverage. CUIT says that “security is of the utmost priority,” but it should recognize that the best deterrent to a patchwork of personal wireless networks is a unified network that meets the needs of students and faculty.

CUIT asks whether students would want the University to expend money and effort on a technology that will have to be upgraded within a few years. Certainly, a comprehensive network will require upgrades down the line. That is the nature of the beast—no generation of technology lasts forever, and there is always a trade-off between the costs and benefits of waiting for a newer version. Wireless is here to stay—it is better for the Columbia community to have it sooner rather than later, even if it costs a little more.