Challenges

The primary challenge that the Network and Communications Services group faced was convincing each separate support group to embrace the solution in its entirety. "The issue that caused me the most trouble was support," says Bruce Scott. Personalized attention was critical, as was ensuring that the support organizations were part of the first deployments; this included those inside Scott's group and those from other departments. This solution ensured that the IT staff, who would be responsible for the success of the solution, were among the first to benefit from the WLAN. Scott's team continues to provide training and transfer of information (TOI) sessions to all technical organizations within the university on a periodic basis.

Another challenge was simply delaying the adoption and widespread deployment of WLANs in general, until such time as an approved, secure, and supportable solution and architecture was developed by the network and Communications Services group. "[We] caught a beating in the early days," recounts Scott, "but it was worth it in the end." The university now enjoys a robust solution based on proven technology, and it avoided much of the security and technical risks associated with early adoption and trailblazing.

Finally, although the university's technical teams defined a very secure solution (based on a VPN overlay), the physical security of the access points was of particular concern in an open educational environment. Many of the access points are placed in open areas, with a high degree of public foot traffic, whereas others are in more secluded areas. Both locations present potential vulnerabilities to theft of or interference with the access points. To address this problem, the university chose to conceal the physical location of the access points and to secure them with locks. This solution has been successfulwith more than 300 access points installed and more than 30,000 students, not a single incident of physical theft or disruption has occurred.