The advantages of Wi-Fi:

How Wi-Fi fits into the broadband

access options
Professor Stephen Brown

Wireless Broadband in Libraries

QEII Conference Centre London
26 January 2005

To boldly go.

..exploring the wireless universe

Access options
Wired

WAN

LAN

ADSL

Ethernet

PAN

Cable modem
Powerline
Wireless

BFWA
Satellite
Digital TV
Mobile telephony

Wi-Fi

IrDA
Bluetooth

Access options
Wired

WAN

LAN

ADSL

Ethernet

PAN

Cable modem
Powerline
Wireless

BFWA
Satellite
Digital TV
Mobile telephony

Wi-Fi

IrDA
Bluetooth

Access options
Wired

WAN

LAN

ADSL

Ethernet

PAN

Cable modem
Powerline
Wireless

BFWA
Satellite
Digital TV
Mobile telephony

Wi-Fi

IrDA
Bluetooth

universe
Monitor

Collaborate

Earth

Text
Nomad

Its education Jim.

but not as we know it.

What you can do with

bandwidth

What bandwidth means

Download times for MSIE 5.01:

54Mb/s (802.11g) = 14.4 secs

11Mb/s (802.11.b) = 1 min 11 secs
2Mb/s (Digital TV) = 7.5 minutes
512kbits/s (Cable modem) = 25 minutes
256kbits/s (OECD minimum) = 51 minutes
56kbits/s modem = 3hr 50 min

Bandwidth vs mobility
2G
Broadband

2G

3G

Bluetooth
WLAN

IrDA
wired

Some real world examples

Wake Forest University

Identity Checking at
Parties
Medical Students Access
Patient Records while on
Hospital Rounds
Physics Students Work in
Teams During Lab
Session
Language Students Work
in Teams During Class
Email classmates during
class
In-class quizzes

React/feedback during
class
Access relevant
websites/databases
during class
Create team
presentations

SUNY Morrisville
Rewiring too
costly/dangerous
(asbestos)
Rewiring visually
unacceptable

Wireless laptop
included in course
fees
Wider range of study
times & locations
Roaming
Spontaneous groups

Northumbria University library

Group work
Student culture
Student expectations
Study patterns

Increased capacity
Variety of learning
spaces
Wireless laptop loan
service (30)

Ealing, Hammersmith & West

London College
Monitor student
attendance
Immediate and regular
feedback on attendance
and progress

Wireless tablet PCs given

to teaching staff

Bangor University
Student nurse portfolio
building
Remote access to
resources on placement

Wireless laptops given to

students

Dewsbury, Bishop Burton &

Thomas Danby Colleges

Outreach centres
Workplace learning
Field data collection
Equality of access

Wireless PDAs

GLOSCAT SATVAN
Remote community
access

PC equipped van
Satellite link via GPS

Birmingham University
Collaborative working

Wireless tablet PCs for

students

Newarke & Sherwood College

Whole campus wireless

Mobile units
Eliminate computer suites
Flexible seating
Community access

Collaborative working
between learners and
their tutors/facilitators
Notebooks passed
between participants in a
more informal
atmosphere

3 phases of the broadband journey

1) Adoption - taking the immediate benefit of
always on and faster access.
2) Adaptation - taking advantage of new on line
services, improving basic efficiencies without
fundamentally changing life styles or the way a
business operates.
3) Absorption - the transformation phase, when
individuals fundamentally change life styles and
businesses redesign themselves around the
availability of broadband.
Most users are still at the first or second
stages.

Key differences

Volume and availability of information resources

New tools for management of information
New media for dialogue and sharing ideas
The different nature of interaction between
student and tutor
Changes in understanding of learning processes

Implications

Teaching spaces
Real campus
On campus
Cohort learning spaces
(lecture theatres/class
rooms)
Accessibility limited
Access & recruitment
limited

Learning spaces
Virtual campus
Off campus
Individualised/
collaborative learning
spaces
Accessibility widened
Access & recruitment
widened

Issues
Institutional strategies
Physical space vs virtual space technologies

interactive whiteboards
tablet PCs
IP videoconferencing
wireless
streaming

Single location vs roaming/mobile

Institutional vs student ownership
a la cart solutions?

Acknowledgements
Tom Franklin: Franklin Consulting
Agnes Kukulska-Hume, Alison Nicholson,
Anne Jeffs: Open University
David Brown: Wake Forest University
Jean Bowland: SUNY Morrisville
Gilly Salmon: Leicester University
JISC TechLearn

sbrown@dmu.ac.uk
http://kmd.dmu.ac.uk

Collaborate
Group based
Spontaneous
Learners are free to study with
whomsoever they wish
Peer to peer
Virtual shared spaces
Flexible room arrangement
Presentation/collaboration devices

Monitor

Individual tracking
Attendance monitoring
Context sensitive support
Instant testing
Instant feedback

Text

Instant messaging
Peer to peer
File sharing
Presence

Nomad
Cheap access devices, (wearable,
disposable)
Roaming: buildings, organisations
Study whenever, wherever
Non traditional spaces
Resources on demand
Information on the move
Field data capture
Portfolio development

Broadband
BSG Broadband Definition (2004):
Always on access, at work, at home or on the
move provided by a range of fixed line, wireless
and satellite technologies to progressively higher
bandwidths capable of supporting genuinely new
and innovative interactive content, applications
and services and the delivery of enhanced
public services.

As a starting point this would include higher

bandwidth services (defined as >256 Kbit/s by
the OECD).

Technology Impact Chart

High

Key:
Time to production

Public Wireless LANs

802.11b

Now
< 2 years
2 to 5 years

Moderate

Networked video
streaming

Source

Broadband to home (ADSL & Cable networks)

4G phones

From survey
Other

3G phones IP Videoconferencing
Fixed Wireless LANs (802.11a and 16)

Low

Eventual Impact on L & T

5 to 10 years

2-way satellite

Digital TV

Research

Emerging / New

Mature

Current State of the technology

Networks compared

Typical
bandwidth

Affected
by Multiple
users
Yes

Affected
by
distance
Yes

Availability
2003-2006
Low

Cost:
Install/
Running
Not known

Significance

Public
WLANs

11-54
Mbit/s
bidirectional

Low

BFWA

512kbit/s
down
256kbit/s
up

Yes

Yes

Low

150/
40 per
month

Medium

3G

144kbit/s2Mbit/s
bidirectional

No

No

Very low

Not known
but
expected
to be high

Low

ADSL

512kbit/s
down
256kbit/s
up

Yes

Yes

Medium to
high

140/
28 per
month

High

Cable

512kbit/s1Mbit/s
bidirectional

Yes

No

Medium

40/
25-33 per
month

High

Satellite

512kbit/s
down
128kbit/s
up

Yes

Yes

High

900/
60 per
month

One-way:
low
Two-way:
high

Digital TV

2Mbit/s
down

No

No

High

350/
10-37 per
month

Very low