Campus Information Technologies and Educational Services will begin to expand wireless Internet coverage in every public space on campus for University staff and students after receiving funding approval to install new hardware.

The University Board of Trustees approved more than $920,000 for CITES to purchase wireless networking hardware from Meru Networks to upgrade the current network to handle additional users.

“What we’re trying to do is react to the huge demand now, especially by students, to be able to access the campus network wirelessly,” said Beth Scheid, division director of communication technologies for CITES. “In order to do that, we have to have wireless equipment in various spots in the buildings.”

According to CITES, more than 40 buildings are likely to receive access to the UIUCnet wireless network by the end of 2006, provided no delays occur.

CITES currently has 57 buildings with at least one wireless access point, and the goal will be to have nearly double the number of buildings with wireless Internet by the end of the year, Scheid said. There are approximately 2,000 access points planned for installation by the end of the 2008 fiscal year.

“Our goal right now is to get wireless access points . in every public space on the campus,” Scheid said, defining public spaces on campus as every classroom, seminar room and non-private office or research laboratory.

An increase in demand has led to necessity to install a network in buildings not necessarily designed with a wireless network in mind, causing the need to build a new infrastructure and modify existing buildings to be upgrade-ready.

“You can’t just say ‘Here, I’m going to mount this wireless access point,’ because the signal penetration is a function of how thick the walls are, how much metal there is, how many bodies there are to absorb the signals,” Scheid said.

Scheid said CITES performed early tests on signal penetration during the 2002-2003 season when the Chicago Bears played at Memorial Stadium in Champaign, and also became the first in the NFL to offer wireless access to the media.

The upgrade of the wireless network is part of a larger, five-year campuswide initiative by CITES to upgrade the current University network in approximately 250 buildings.

“It has been roughly 20 years since the campus looked at upgrading the data infrastructure,” said Mike Smeltzer, director of network communications for CITES. “Twenty years ago it was kind of a guess that we would need something, but nobody had any clue what that would be.”

The Campus Network Upgrade Project has a budget of $20 million dollars, Scheid said, and will also make campus buildings better able to install new networks in the future.