The Office of Information Technology’s multi-year project to upgrade the wireless network at Ohio University is more than halfway complete, and a Post investigation found that the upgrade is seven times faster than the previous wireless network.
The average download speed on the NextGen network according to speed tests was 64 MB per second compared with the 9 MB per second download speeds on the previous network.
Upload speeds for the new network benchmarked in at 23 MB per second compared with 6 MB per second for the old network.
“You can see a significant difference in speed from the old network,” said Michael Dixon, operations supervisor within OIT. “With the NextGen Internet, we will triple the number of access points than what we had before.”
According to Dixon, there will be about 4,500 access points on OU’s Athens and regional campuses. The access points are organized by population density.
“Approximately, there is one access point for every eight students in the dorm environment,” Dixon said. “We were very particular with how we approached the upgrade, and before, we just stretched the signals as far as they could go, but for the new upgrade, we used a headcount per building to figure out how many access points were needed.”
According to O’Malley, the list price for each access point is $699. The approximate cost for the wireless upgrade is $2.2 million, and the approximate cost for the entire network upgrade project is $17 million. The upgrades are funded by the information system and network fee students pay.
Download speeds on both networks depend on a number of variables, such as how many people are connected at a given time, how close users are to the signal, and what type of wireless radio is installed in their electronic device.
“Apple’s wireless radios tend to be bleeding edge and come with newer radios much sooner than those that are in PCs,” said Sean O’Malley, OIT’s communications manager.
Before the upgrade, many students at OU struggled to connect to the wireless network, including at Alden Library.
“When you have rooms full of tablets, laptops, desktops and smartphones, the demand was much higher than the bandwidth we had,” O’Malley said. “Alden got so bad, but we were able to get the new wireless running there almost immediately.”
The OIT is halfway complete with upgrading the wireless networks in the residence halls, said O’Malley, adding that the wireless upgrades are prioritized by demand.
“West Green is complete; we anticipate East Green to be finished at the end of October,” he said. “In November, we will start on South Green, and we are trying to get South Green done in December.”
Dixon said the NextGen network “feels better” and is much more effective.
“It really changes the way you work,” he said.
bc822010@ohiou.edu
