Ball State University's thirst for advancing technology has reached a new height. University Computing Services recently extended wireless access to a shuttle bus with the intention of providing students the ability to travel throughout campus and not lose their mobile connection.
"We were proving a theory of point, but in kind of a fun way," said Vernon Draper, assistant director of Networking and Communication Services. "This definitely has implications for something very valuable later."
The shuttle bus provided an atmosphere to test whether existing wireless technology is capable of maintaining a connection during movement. On a national level, a new type of technology is currently being created to do just that. However UCS wanted to try a different approach.
Protocols are still in development to create a wireless connection that is able to move with the user. Ball State's goal was to use existing technology to create the same effect.
Ball State is a wireless campus that functions through a mesh network. This mesh network consists of wireless nodes, which function like cell phone towers, placed throughout the campus. These provide wireless access to places within their range.
In order to make this technology mobile, a node was placed on a shuttle bus. As the bus travels, the node on the bus connects to various nodes along the bus route. This provides continuous wireless access, allowing passengers to travel without losing their wireless connections.
The wireless connection will remain limited to one shuttle bus for experimentation purposes for the time being. Students are currently unable to obtain wireless access on shuttle buses.
The mesh networks allow for wireless connections in places that cables are unable to go, such as outdoors or on moving vehicles.
Firetide provides Ball State with its wireless mesh network. Mike Downes, who is in charge of media inquiries at Firetide, said he believes that his company could continue to help Ball State extend its technology to other areas of campus.
"Ball State is a very progressive university as far as wireless goes," Downes said. "It is very well recognized. Part of its goal is to maintain a technological edge over other universities, which it has done fairly well."
The unique aspect of putting this node on a shuttle bus is that it not only provides wireless access to passengers, but also enables the university to install a wireless surveillance system to ensure students' safety. The wireless mesh system allows the university to install video surveillance in places that they were previously unable to because wire installation was not possible.
The shuttle bus was used on campus as a testing module because of its constant movement.
"The idea was to put a node on a shuttle bus and connect it to part of the existing wireless mesh on McKinley Avenue," Draper said. "We wanted to see if we could maintain a connection and we were able to do that."
One node was put onto a shuttle bus and is currently active. UCS was able to receive a signal from the node that allowed them to see out the front window of the shuttle bus as it moved through campus.
Draper believes the next step is simply to improve the consistency of the signal from the shuttle bus. Wireless access will remain available on the test bus; however, it is unclear to an observer which bus contains the wireless node. This bus will continue to be used for further testing purposes.
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