Secure Wireless Networking at Simon Fraser University

28 With the growing affordability of laptop computers, wireless access points, and network interface cards, it’s not surprising that so many universities have recently installed wireless networks. Students and professors are mobile, and wireless networking is a powerful technology for delivering services to these users. At Simon Fraser University, our interest in wireless networking goes back further than the past few years, however, having developed from concerns about capacity rather than mobility. Simon Fraser University is an interdisciplinary university located in Burnaby, British Columbia. Our university community includes nearly 25,000 students (of whom 17,000 are FTEs), faculty, and staff. Our interest in wireless networking increased dramatically in the mid-1990s. Computers were becoming increasingly important in research and instruction, and increased use meant we needed more computers, which meant more space. In 1994, one of our IT directors wrote a research paper warning that the university was going to have to build a new building—our biggest yet—simply to house the computers and computer carrels that students were going to need by 2005.