Wireless Coverage vs Wireless Density
Tuesday, March 27, 2012 at 08:11PM In the first years of wireless infrastructure for schools, the goal was to provide coverage, for every part, or at least every important part, of the building. That need still exists.
Many schools are running into a problem however, as they begin to pilot tablet, laptop, or other wireless-heavy technology programs. That problem is density.
In the early days, there wasn't much wireless traffic, and it was sufficient just to get access to a few users.
Now there are many more users, but the capacity isn't available to serve them. Photo by epSos "Driving cars in a traffic jam" http://www.flickr.com/photos/epsos/5591761716/It is no longer sufficient to simply provide coverage. Now additional density is required. This means additional wireless access points, and faster ones.
In addition to adding access point, there is additional expertise needed in the setup of these devices. Having a few widely spread out access points that did not talk to one another was sufficient for coverage, and relatively easy for schools to implement.
Now that there may be one or even more access points in a given room, these access points need to be managed, and properly configured to communicate not only with laptops and tablets, but with the other access points.
Access points can interfere with one another. Anyone who has ever pick up a cordless phone call on a baby monitor understands this kind of radio interference. On the original country road, there wasn't particular need for signage or urban engineering. In the current high-density scenario, there's tremendous need for intelligent management of wireless deployment, just to keep all the cars on the road.
As with many aspects of technology, wireless has become more complex over time, and existing infrastructure may no longer be sufficient to meet the needs of new evolutionary or revolutionary programs for schools.
