Residence Halls and Commons Wireless Networking
Audience
Members of the University of Chicago community residing in campus residence halls and commons.
Policy
The purpose of this policy is to provide the best possible wireless and wired network service in campus residence halls and ensure network stability and maintainability. Wireless access is provided as a convenient adjunct to the wired network available in each residence hall room.
In residence halls where NSIT provides complete wireless coverage, residents are not permitted to install personal wireless network devices which are connected to the campus wired infrastructure. As of September 2007, all undergraduate residence halls and commons except Shoreland have wireless coverage in rooms as well as the common areas.
Only Shoreland residents are permitted to install personal wireless network devices. The devices must be configured to restrict their use to only eligible members of the University as defined in the Eligibility and Acceptable User Policy. PRIOR to the installation of these devices, residents must contact their Resident Computing Assistant to register their wireless device and receive instructions on the proper way to install and operate the wireless devices on the campus network.
Background
NSIT has been deploying wireless networking devices throughout the campus to provide convenient access to the campus network. The approach has been to deploy wireless access to those areas not easily accessible by the wired network. Since 2003 the majority of the residence hall common areas have had wireless access. We have previously allowed students to place wireless data network access points in their dorm rooms. Through experience we have determined that a number of those access points were incorrectly configured and disrupted network service to an entire residence hall for extended periods of time. For this reason, we are now requiring that residents in partially wireless residence halls register their wireless devices and receive instruction from the residence halls and commons information technology staff PRIOR to installing them .
During the summer of 2004 NSIT has deployed the wireless data network throughout three residence halls, Burton-Judson, Max Palevsky and Pierce. By the Fall of 2007 all residence halls with the exception of Shoreland have wireless coverage throughout. The wireless technology being used for data networking is limited to the use of three non overlapping frequencies. In order for wireless coverage to be deployed throughout a building we use all three frequencies. If two or more devices in an area are operating on the same frequency, minimally performance degrades for clients attempting to operate in the same area. Potentially, clients in those areas may be unable to operate at all. For this reason, we must prohibit residents of all residence halls other than Shoreland from deploying wireless devices.
Original Issue Date September 15, 2004
Revised Date September 10, 2007
