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Wireless LAN  installed at DCU
Tuesday, June 19 2001
by Kevin O' Brady


Dublin City University's School of Computer Applications is helping its visually
impaired students with a wireless local area network (LAN).

The school has installed the system throughout its three-storey building on DCU's
north city campus.



Although the system has been installed, it will not be fully operational until
the start of the next academic year, according to Donal Motherway, the school
manager.



"There are a number of disabled students in DCU generally, and we are trying to
incorporate them into the computer laboratories without having to supply
specialist equipment," said Motherway.



"Computing attracts more disabled students than any other discipline," he
added.



"Prior to installing the wireless LAN, we had an average of 40 workstations in
each laboratory which were fixed in place," said professor Alan Smeaton, head of
the school.



"Special needs students could only use machines in one area put aside for
plugging in portable laptops," he added.



"With the installation of the wireless LAN, students can now access the network
from anywhere in the building, and that allows full integration across our
student body," he explained.





"If you have a laptop, you usually have to root around for a connection," said
a spokesperson for Digital Communications Management (DCM), which installed the
system. 



"However, the wireless system means that the students can go on-line as soon as
they enter the building."



While the system is geared towards visually impaired students, the school hopes
to open the system to all students in time.



Students who wish to use the LAN must purchase a PC card, after which they are
ready to go on-line. Bandwidth is sufficiently high for up to 200 students to go
on-line at one time before line degradation starts to slow access.



The PC card typically costs in the region of IEP150 to IEP200, added the
spokesperson.



"The card fits into a PC laptop, there is a once-off configuration, and the
student can go on-line," he explained.



Before the system was installed, as survey was carried out to determine the
optimum deployment of the wireless base stations throughout the building, said
Oran Maher, director of DCM.



"The wireless LAN solution is capable of transmitting through concrete, but
optimising their positions maximises on performance throughout a building," he
explained.



"The decision to go with DCM was not based on price alone, although it must be
said that a wireless solution is much more cost effective than a wired solution,"
said Smeaton.



"Their expertise and experience in this area impressed the IT committee, in
particular in the extra touches, such as optimising the positioning of the base
stations."



DCM provides telephone systems and Internet working products for LANs and WANs,
and employs over 60 people in Dublin, Cork, Belfast and London.



DCU is at www.dcu.ie and DCM is at www.dcmgroup.com