Wireless Networks on university Campuses

U niversities are particularly interested in wireless communication networks because they let students using wireless-enabled mobile terminals download lecture slides, watch educational audio and video programs, and take online practice quizzes at any time and from anywhere on campus. This can both reduce paper handouts and simplify paperless assignments and submissions. Wireless networks can also strengthen teamwork among students and faculty, making it easier for them to email each other with preliminary results, use chat channels to discuss problems, and readily access information resources during problem-solving sessions. When students and faculty can access all the information they need via their own mobile terminals, universities can even consider retiring their expensive computer labs. To achieve these benefits, usability is crucial—that is, university information systems must make it easy for users to access resources and achieve their goals. Typically, universities employ individual authentication to give users system access. Such authentication mechanisms tend to reduce system usability, however, because users view them as both an intrusion and an obstacle to completing their primary tasks. Also, individual authentication often requires users to remember multiple log in names and passwords and sometimes to possess particular authentication devices. Finally, authentication requires a trade-off between a user’s privacy rights and an administrator’s need to protect access to resources. On wired networks, university IT departments have long been capable of collecting information on authenticated users, including what they do and when they come and go. Introducing a campus-wide wireless network that uses authentication makes it even simpler to track user movements and activities on campus. As an alternative, universities can opt for an open network, granting wired and wireless users access to the network infrastructure without any form of authentication. Open networks let users freely surf the Internet and access library catalogs and other services that offer nonsensitive information; sensitive services, such as email, would still require authentication. An information system’s degree of openness largely depends on the number of different devices that can access the system, the number of services available without authentication, and the network’s availability. Open networks increase system usability, but they also raise privacy issues and increase the risks of illegal downloads and various attacks (and the negative press coverage that can result). We discuss these benefits and drawbacks here, using a simple model in which campus-wide mobile terminals communicate over wireless links with services on the university’s wired infrastructure. We also discuss how administrators can mitigate open-network risks and vary their network’s openness to reduce these risks while still increasing usability.