University of Birmingham extends Wi-Fi network

The University of Birmingham is in the final phase of upgrading its wired and wireless networks to offer it students, staff and visitors fully redundant, campus-wide network and internet access.

The phased wireless network roll out was made possible three years ago, when the university upgraded its existing, wired network infrastructure to 10 gigabit Ethernet standard equipment from vendor Foundry Networks. This delivered savings of £87,000 and freed up enough fibre connections in its existing trunk link infrastructure to establish a parallel secure Wi-Fi network.

John Turnbull, University of Birmingham's head of networks, told IT PRO how the fixed network enabled the first phase of the organisation's wireless roll out, with 300 Foundry IronPoint access points (APs) and firewalls from Juniper Networks to its public areas.

"We were able to build the wireless network using only three separate IronPoint AP components and two Foundry mobility controllers, which improved the simplification of its management and the amount of spare parts' holding we have to do," he said. "And the savings we made with our 10 gigabit upgrade allowed us to build it in parallel to, not integrated with, the wired network, which also adds a level of resilience and redundancy."

The university is now in the process of working with Foundry partner Pervasive Networks to expand the wireless network by a further 350 APs to provide complete Wi-Fi coverage at its main 250 hectare Edgbaston campus, the 80 hectare Selly Oak campus and at the affiliated Shakespeare Institute in Stratford-upon-Avon. Turnbull added that this will make the project one of the largest academic Wi-Fi deployments in the UK to date.

Chris Lea, a senior network specialist at the university said the virtual cell technology capabilities of the Foundry kit has allowed for the Wi-Fi networks rapid expansion, because it means the various APs in one geographical area all use one channel. "This means user hand-off between access points is effectively seamless, as they see a range of 150 access points for instance as one big, virtual cell," he said.

"This also improved the ease of deployment," added Lea. "Using the virtual cell technology removed the need to do long-winded surveys in terms of where to actually place the access points to mitigate interference from other Wi-Fi-enabled devices such as our alarm and building access systems."

Turnbull added that, using the virtual cell technology, the Wi-Fi network has become key to supporting the running of the university and the work of its students.

The university has set up three service set identifiers (SSIDs) on the physical equipment for staff and students accessing the main Wi-Fi network, visiting academics that are part of the JANET network roaming service and a separate, redirected web service for visitors managed by Virgin Media.

Turnbull said the university has plans to support more voice over internet protocol (VoIP) functionality over its wireless network infrastructure as well as supporting key university initiatives, like those of its sports department.

"We're continuously being asked to extend the student portal's content to cover sports given we excel in golf, football, hockey and rugby," he said. "We've provided pod casts of key rugby matches and our intention is to offer multicast video of key games across the network, plus we're looking at IP-based TV."

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