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Peer-to-Peer
Unwiring IIT Kanpur
The deployment of a Wi-Fi network at IIT Kanpur is a boon
for the multitudes who throng the institute’s conventions, says Abhinav
Singh.
 The
Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur, had a wired Local Area Network
(LAN) of 6,500 nodes in the academic and hostel areas. The lack of Wi-Fi zones
compelled notebook-users to physically connect to the wired network. Taking
note of this, the institute has embarked upon a plan to create a Wi-Fi zone
across its campus.
The LAN was not enough
The institute had plans to go in for a Wi-Fi network for quite
some time. It felt that in order to maintain world-class standards of technology
education, it needed an equally robust infrastructure to facilitate high-speed
and convenient learning and information-sharing.
Navpreet Singh, Network Manager, Computer Centre, IIT Kanpur explains, “The
importance of information-sharing, convenience of information processing and
need for mobility meant users could not be tied-down to their desktops. We have
a lot of visitors and students who own Wi-Fi enabled notebooks.”
The IIT conducts numerous conferences and has several conference rooms and auditoriums.
Its conferences are visited by delegates toting Wi-Fi enabled notebooks. Singh
points out, “Earlier users could only connect their notebooks to the Internet
through wires. This restricted the number of users who could access the Internet
at any given period of time.”
| About IIT Kanpur |
| IIT Kanpur is a premier government institute located on GT Road at Kalyanpur,
about 16 kilometres west of Kanpur, on 1,055 acres of land provided by the
Government of Uttar Pradesh. The institute offers bachelors, masters and
doctorate degrees in various branches of technology and science. It has
about 1,450 undergraduate and 850 postgraduate students, 300 faculty members
and more than 1,500 supporting staff. It has one of the finest scientific
and technological libraries with an online information retrieval system.
Freedom of thought, humane values and concern for the environment and society
are cherished ideals at the institute. |
Wireless zones
The institute decided in early 2004 to extend its LAN to a Wi-Fi zone. D-Link
was zeroed upon to provide the Wi-Fi network access solution because most of
the institute’s wired network was built using the company’s products.
A number of D-Link Wireless Access Points were deployed to extend existing network
capabilities as well as for providing flexibility and mobility to users. Singh
informs, “50 Access Points (APs) were deployed in 2004 and another 150
this year. We plan to deploy around 50 more by next year. Two different AP models,
the D-Link DWL-7100AP and DWL-2000 AP were deployed. Artek Enterprises was the
System Integrator for the project. The institute is using a 36 Mbps link from
VSNL to provide speedy access on the Wi-Fi network.
A detailed blueprint
"In order to achieve the maximum benefit we placed the APs in different
areas before actually implementing them to check the Wi-Fi coverage"
- Navpreet Singh
Network Manager
Computer Centre
IIT Kanpur |
Proper planning was a must before implementation. Singh explains,”
We wanted to plan the deployment of the APs in such a way that we got the best
possible coverage from the Wi-Fi network. We found that the coverage was being
affected in some areas due to the presence of walls and structures. Hence, in
order to achieve the maximum benefit we placed the APs in different areas on
an experimental basis before actually implementing them to check the Wi-Fi coverage.”
IIT Kanpur used an experimental tool from Airtight Networks to study the Radio
Frequency (RF) pattern in certain areas of the campus. The tool helped them
effectively plan their implementation for successful Wi-Fi coverage. The campus
is contemplating using planning tools for expanding the Wi-Fi network. Anil
Gupta, Director, Artek says, “The APs across the campus are connected to
the existing LAN infrastructure, which is based on fibre optic cable that runs
all over the campus. The cable connects all the buildings to the central core
switch which is connected to a server.” Artek has a resident engineer at
the campus to oversee the maintenance of the network.
Connectivity all around
Wireless connectivity is available to anybody having a notebook with a wireless
card or a PCMCIA card. IIT Kanpur has a constant flow of visitors the year round.
Today it is in a position to provide flexible Wi-Fi connectivity to them free
of cost. No strict security parameters have been kept for the Wi-Fi network
as it is likely to hamper the flexibility of connection for the users. Singh
says, “The Wi-Fi zone is a public domain and all the APs are open ones
barring the few critical areas such as the computer centre. Since there are
so many visiting delegates it would add to their discomfort if there is an authentication
exercise at each and every area of the campus.” In case there are major
conferences across the institute then there are about 100 users in a day on
the Wi-Fi network, there are around 50 users at other times. The network is
geared up to provide access to a large number of people and it is possible to
connect around 500 people within the auditorium itself. Gradually each and every
area of the campus is likely to be connected using a Wi-Fi network.
abhinav@expresscomputeronline.com
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