mobile device

U of L wireless network – hurdles and behind-the-scenes efforts

Last year the University committed $20,000 to upgrade the wireless in some of the older residence buildings which dramatically improved coverage for students there, plus another $80,000 to improve the coverage in classroom spaces, says Jeff Oliver, Network Team Lead in IT Services. “Over the next few months, we will be conducting tests across the campus to determine where other gaps exist.”

Wireless surveys have already been completed in University Hall and Markin Hall which has helped us to identify some issues already. IT Services staff need to physically pace off every space with equipment that measures the wireless signals which then provides visual heat maps of how well wireless signals are reaching offices and workstations. “These heat maps help us figure out where new access points will help, and where they won’t,” adds Oliver.

E8 HeatmapWi-Fi coverage in E8 of University Hall: the darker colors represent good Wi-Fi coverage and are generally closest to the access points. The lighter areas show poorer Wi-Fi signals. The green line indicates where a staff member walked the area and the dots on the line represent ‘pings’ to the access points.

Wi-Fi signals do not penetrate solid materials well, particularly steel and concrete, or fluids. A person standing between a device and an access point can interfere and simply absorb the signals. The more obstacles, the weaker the signals.

Imagine being in a room with 10 radios that are all tuned to different radio stations…

“Noise, also known as an abundance of radio signals, is also a big problem with wireless. The more noise, the worse the connection. Imagine being in a room with 10 radios that are all tuned to different radio stations – can you listen to them all, or pick out just one? Can you pick out an individual conversation in a room where 100 people are all talking at the same time? In the wireless spectrum the same concepts apply. The more conversations going on at the same time, the more noise overall.”

The number of wireless devices brought on campus is increasing every academic year. With each additional faculty, staff or student come one to three or four additional devices, all requesting network access–many at the same time. This means that every access point must support more and more individual devices, and the access points need to be closer together as each one can only service a limited number of clients.

…there are about 25,000 wireless devices on campus of which more than 10,000 can be active and connecting to the wireless network over the course of a day.

Oliver adds there are about 25,000 wireless devices on campus of which more than 10,000 can be active and connecting to the wireless network over the course of a day. “Our maximum concurrent connections this semester so far has been 7,000, and that number can fluctuate wildly depending on the day.” Early in the semester we were alerted to the fact that some of the network infrastructure supporting the Student@UofL and Guest@UofL networks was running at capacity, which prompted us to replace some equipment with newer technology.

So how much network traffic does this number of devices equate to?

Guest student before new router

The graph above illustrates the amount of Wi-Fi traffic on the network during one week in September: it peaked out at 300MB per second. Once the new router was installed, the higher demand was easily managed as shown in the graph below and no longer has “flat spots.”

Guest student after new router

Network staff have been working to add additional access points in 80 classrooms over the past year, and expect to be finished by December. The largest classroom, PE250, will have six access points. The rest will have roughly double what they originally had, which will greatly increase the number of concurrent connections available in classroom spaces. “We are targeting approximately 40 users per access point.”

It isn’t just a matter of attaching an access point on the ceilings, additional wiring must be installed as well as network infrastructure such as switches and routers to support the increase in the wireless footprint. Much of the work must be done when the rooms are not in use.

The demand is not only on campus. Last spring, outdoor access points were added at the stadium to provide coverage in the bleacher and track areas. “The University’s wireless network is in a perpetual state of upgrade.”

The team is constantly planning and preparing for future changes in technologies. Next year about 250 aging access points are scheduled for replacement to keep up with the changing technology used in mobile devices today.

The next time you use wireless on campus, whether it works immediately or there’s a delay connecting, keep in mind the hurdles and ‘behind-the-scenes’ efforts and costs to provide the service. Oliver reminds people to report any issues to the Solutions Centre (help@uleth.ca) so that steps can be taken to correct them.

Blackfoot Digital Library – new and improved

The long and auspicious journey of the Blackfoot Digital Library (BDL) has met yet another major milestone. The newest iteration of it went live last week, after almost two years of planning and work.

BDL

“The first version of the BDL in 2009 was ground-breaking work,” says IT Services’ Web Manager Michael Warf. “It pushed boundaries with the technologies but, because it was so customized, upgrades became a huge barrier. The other huge shift that happened since the first version was developed was the evolution of mobile devices,” Warf says. “The previous BDL site didn’t have any support for these devices, which created a significant barrier with the growth in mobile usage.”

As a result, and with the assistance of a grant, the University Library commissioned Hybrid Forge, an Edmonton company that specializes in design and development for the web and mobile. IT Services was brought in to assist with the RFP, vendor selection, and to act as a consultant on the project. “It’s one thing to have an idea and it’s quite another to understand what’s within the realm of the possible. It’s not unlike doing a complete renovation on your existing home. You and the contractor have to communicate in order to manage what can be changed or rebuilt and what the associated costs are,” says Warf.

IT Services’ ongoing commitment to supporting this important and significant resource is to be commended.”

Once Hybrid Forge completed the development of the new BDL site, the ITS Web team deployed it on campus. The system now can be secured, updated and maintained appropriately. “The longevity of the system is now there and can easily upgraded and secured. And it also works well on mobile devices. One of the great features is that anyone can use a mobile device to record interviews and the files can be immediately uploaded to the Blackfoot Digital Library. It removes all the extra steps that are often involved.”

Wendy Merkley, Associate University Librarian says the new BDL is the result of a successful collaborative effort on the part of the Library, IT Services and Red Crow College. “While the process encountered difficulties, the relationships established early on by the members of the core project team served to ensure that we did not lose momentum or direction. IT Services’ ongoing commitment to supporting this important and significant resource is to be commended.”

For more information, please contact Michael Warf at michael.warf@uleth.ca, or 403-332-4584.

Faculty & Staff: Office 365 is now FREE

 

Information Technology Services is pleased to announce Microsoft’s latest offer of Office 365 ProPlus free of charge to current faculty and staff at the University of Lethbridge.

“Earlier in the fall, Microsoft offered the Office 365 Student Advantage Program free to currently registered students, and now they are also extending the offer to current employees of the University,” says Terry Kirkvold, Infrastructure Manager. “Microsoft has re-branded the product as Office 365 ProPlus to include employees’ personal use. This is a significant offer from Microsoft.”Office 365 ProPlus

Kirkvold adds the offer is solely meant for home or personal use since the University currently provides Office products to all employees for work purposes via a site license. Employees will no longer need to purchase it with Professional Supplement and personal funds.

This offer is identical to the Student Advantage plan, and permits installation of all Office products on up to five different Windows and Apple devices including laptops, desktops, smart phones and tablets.

“We would also like to advise those who choose to download the product during the Christmas break that should they have any difficulties with the installation, we will not have staff working to assist them with troubleshooting.”

Those who download and install on devices that currently do not have any Office products on them should not experience any issues, he says. But those who have old copies of Office software on their machines could run into difficulties if they do not carefully read and follow the instructions on the Microsoft website.

“We wanted to get the information out now to make faculty and staff aware of the offer in the event they receive a new device for Christmas and decide to purchase Office 365. It will save them a bit of frustration when they find out it’s free after the fact.”

In summary:

  • Students have been offered Office 365 for free since September through the Student Advantage Program.
  • Microsoft is now extending the same offer, Office 365 ProPlus for free to faculty and staff for home/personal use
  • Office 365 can be installed on up to five (5) personal devices
  • Downloading on devices that do not currently have Office products installed should result in a smooth installation
  • Downloading on devices that already have Office products may cause issues if instructions are not followed closely
  • Do not purchase Office 365 products when you can get them for free

For more detailed information on this Microsoft offer, visit the IT Services website.

Click here to download the Office 365 ProPlus package.

Here are some sites that may assist:
Getting Started with Office 365

Online Community Support and troubleshooting page

For more information:

Please contact the Solutions Centre at (403) 329-2490, help@uleth.ca, or drop in to E610 in University Hall.

Students – download Office 365 free!

 

Recently Microsoft announced the Student Advantage Program which provides a free copy of Office 365 Pro for students.

This includes the full version of Office (Word, PowerPoint, Excel, OneNote, Outlook, and more) which can be installed on up to five PCs and Macs, and includes Office for iPad and other mobile devices.Student Adv. logo

If you already use the free portion of Office for iPad for reading, viewing and presenting, once you have a valid Office 365 ProPlus license, you can also create and edit Office documents on your iPad with Word, Excel and Powerpoint.

You can download the software here using your U of L username and password. For step-by-step instructions, visit our site.

For more information, contact the IT Solutions Centre at (403) 329-2490 or help@uleth.ca.

Student Email Survey Results

As part of the student email revitialization project, ITS along with the email project team, created and distributed a survey to determine what the students wanted in a new email system.  We received a very large response of almost 1500 students with approximately 30% of the surveys submitted with written comments.  It was a confirmation that this topic really matters to  students and we are are in the throes of conducting focus groups before making a solution recommendation.

The survey results revealed some interesting wants of the students, as well as areas that didn’t really matter as much as we thought they would.  For example:

1.  Storage capacity increases are considered a must.  Our current system does not meet the needs of our current population.

2.  Mobile device access to email is becoming a necessity.  The current platform does not support it sufficiently.

3.  Online productivity tools are a desired feature of any new email system.

4.  We need to consider privacy aspects of email, especially for students working in counselling or other sensitive areas of study.

5.  Video chat doesn’t really matter when considering an email solution.

This and other data will begin to shape our recommendations which we hope to have approved by the end of the calendar year.  Pilot projects will then be spun up during the spring semester, with full implementation being completed before the end of summer.

We would like to express our appreciation for all the feedback provided by the students, their participation in the focus groups and want to assure them that we are listening and paying attention to what they want in a new system.