Penn State as a Sustainable City
McKean Hall Wireless Systems
Group Members:
Chris Krieg
Connor Luybli
Kevin Leimkuhler
Matt Vincent
Abstract
Browsing the internet on your phone or doing online homework on Penn State University
Park campus tends to never be a problem. Whether you’re in the HUB, the Creamery, or Library,
getting on to the internet is usually never a problem. This campus wide Wi-Fi access is also
helpful by keeping service charges down and battery lives longer. This freedom of internet
access though quickly ends once you enter McKean Hall in East freshmen dorms. McKean and a
few other East dorms are still without Wi-Fi and it is very limiting to the residents that live in
those dorms. Due to being plugged into their Ethernet cords for internet access, they are confined
to their dorms for all computer needs. More importantly Wi-Fi allows people to browse the
internet without having a large effect on the environment. The implementation of Wi-Fi
decreases the dependence on Ethernet cords, the outlets and plates to plug cords into, and the
excessive amount of wiring that must be used to reach every room. The main focus in the
proposed solution of having no Wi-Fi in McKean Hall is allowing students to have mobility with
quality internet connection while keeping the environmental impacts as low as possible. In
coming to the proposed solution, many Wi-Fi possibilities were looked over. Keeping in mind
the fact that there would not be any significant renovations on East dorms in the near future, we
had to work with the buildings we have right now. This limited our search to Wi-Fi meant for
medium sized buildings with heavy traffic. Including several other factors, we decided on a type
of system called ADAS. This Wi-Fi system allows for a large number of users (about 350) to be
connected in a medium sized building. This proposed solution is optimal for McKean Hall
because of what it will allow for residents to do while connected to the internet and keeping
environmental impacts low. Students will be allowed to do work in places other than their dorm
and work with other students on problems they may have. Environmentally, Wi-Fi connectivity
increases battery life longer so there will not be as large of a dependence on always being
plugged into a charger. It will decrease the dependence on Ethernet chords and wire usage in the
present and future. Overall, ADAS Wi-Fi system will be very beneficial for McKean Hall and is
the solution to internet mobility usage and environmental impacts.
Existing Conditions
Sustainability is defined by Sustainability.PSU as the simultaneous pursuit of human
health and happiness, environmental quality, and economic well-being for current and future
generations. Based on this definition it was decided that having free Wi-Fi in the McKean Hall
dorm would contribute to the sustainability of Penn State University Park. Having Wi-Fi in this
dorm meets all three criteria for sustainability. Students would be much happier with
unrestricting wife than with bothersome Ethernet cables. Environmentally, Wi-Fi is better than
Ethernet because it doesn’t require all the cables that Ethernet does and it is more space
effective. Economically, Wi-Fi is superior to Ethernet because you won’t have to pay for cables,
and more importantly, this said Wi-Fi would be free to the students of McKean. This is a
proposition that really isn’t too extravagant being that several universities comparable to Penn
State already offer Wi-Fi in the dorms, and even within Penn State itself, there are two dorms
that already have this Wi-Fi such as Curtin and Bigler. Some cities, like Sunnyvale, California,
even offer city-wide free Wi-Fi (Vos1). If Wi-Fi can be offered to a city for free, having it
available for an additional dorm shouldn’t be out of reach. In exploring what it would take to put
Wi-Fi in McKean Hall, much research had to be done. We saw that a given Wi-Fi access point
could cover a radius of 100 to 200 feet. (Noblet2) We also realized that the problem isn’t as
simple as just purchasing the Wi-Fi. There are other problems to consider like coverage,
capacity, density, and security (Noblet3). Besides the convenience of Wi-Fi, there is an added
benefit of reducing the number of wires needed in buildings. Less wires would make designing
easier, would be cheaper, and would make the building more visually appealing (Fuller1). The
stakeholders are the staff of Penn State and the students of McKean Hall.
Preferred Conditions
Students should not be linked to internet usage through an Ethernet port only available to
the owners of the room. Currently, students are forced to work in lounges or install their own
wireless router in order to use wireless internet. It would be preferable if Wi-Fi was available
not only in lounges, as there is often not enough space for the people trying to work. The
inconvenience associated with RESCOM installing wireless routers within specific rooms is also
far too much of a hassle. We should be able to have large amounts of people on the same
network without experiencing change in overall service quality. Mobility is preferred for most
people, and projects should not be tethered to individual rooms or physical connections. It
should be preferred that installation of any internet based system should be quick, un-intrusive,
and non-disruptive (an ADAS system fits these specifications). The system for wireless internet
should work optimally in large buildings, as the residence halls are relatively large buildings that
could be considered small skyscrapers. Wireless performance should be excellent regardless of
the broadcast frequency, and higher frequencies should not experience any loss. Data systems
should be affordable, and should be covered in enterprise costs, and not deferred directly to
client-side purchase (i.e. wireless data costs and system installation should be covered in tuition
rather than charging students individually based on their usage or benefit). Wireless internet
usage also increases laptop battery life, which is also preferred.
Importantly, the problems between transferring from existing to preferred conditions will
mostly involve deciding on specific systems. All possible improvements are pretty relative, and
specific systems will have to be decided upon by those who are paying for the station hubs. The
lowest cost system will most likely be the stakeholder preferred system. Stakeholders will most
likely also prefer the lowest cost equivalent optic cable as well. Due to this, as we have no idea
what range of the same product the stakeholders will purchase, we would have a very tough time
approximating a price with so many moving pieces.
Another problem that could arise is the signal flow between rooms, as a building using
concrete or brick might not transmit the wireless signal as well as one with thinner walls. It is
also unknown how many users could migrate to the system, so the server would be required to
have wireless capacity for many people over the amount that live within the building. The
problems that we chose to address earliest, mobility, standardized quality, and affordability are
the most visible and easily measured or observed, and the results of the upgrade can be observed
almost immediately. We are limited in how we can test these concept systems, as we do not
have availability to the kind of hardware we would like to install.
Methodology
Before anything took place in the formulation of the idea, we first discussed the existing
problems and conditions of the lack of Wi-Fi availability in McKean hall. For this we needed to
find out if these existing problems were hindering us from making progress on our
concept. After we figured out our existing conditions and the obstacles we would have to
overcome we figured out what our preferred conditions would be from our concept. Once we
had made a list of our preferred conditions we needed a way to measure the conditions. Some of
the things that were put on the list of our preferred conditions were to have Wi-Fi access
throughout McKean Hall as well as have it be fast and secure and affordable. We then received
data from OPP and IST that we could analyze and took into account the stakeholders in this
process, such as the administration and the users (students), and created a needs-and-specs chart
to represent this.
Data Analysis
We started our concept generation by finding the different types of servers and their
functionality and what best suits their use. We had two concepts that we came up with for our
concept generation. Our current existent concept is our hardwired internet connections within
rooms, with the option of RESCOM installation of a wireless router. This is not a preferable
situation, as each person is forced to purchase their own router before getting it installed by
RESCOM officials, and wireless internet only extends within the boundaries of the room. This
also takes up RESCOM resources, and is not preferable from a University standpoint either. One
available system is Passive Distributed Antenna Systems
(PDAS), which is built like a sprinkler system of sorts. Large
coaxial cables extend throughout the building to distribute
wireless telecommunicative signals, and thus the long cables
create lossy signals. This limits the size of the systems, as higher
frequencies of broadcast have higher loss. The most preferable
system would be the concept of Active
Distributed Antenna Systems
(ADAS). ADAS utilizes fiber optic cables,
and works like a LAN system. Installation is
relatively undisruptive. There is no loss over
distance due to signal amplification at the
antenna points, meaning that there are huge
performance advantages in larger sized
buildings. Performance is constant regardless of frequency
(Young2). This is the preferred concept.
Within our group we need to identify and rank the
needs of the stakeholders. We first needed to address our
preferred conditions. The preferred conditions from the
students in McKean Hall were to actually have a fast and
secure Wi-Fi connection throughout the building that allowed for mobility inside the dorm. The
administration’s needs were the Wi-Fi would have to not be costly as well as fast and secure.
Speed and security were our main concerns when it came to Wi-Fi accessibility. Speed was a
main concern because if the Wi-Fi was slow there would be no point of changing the current use
of internet in McKean Hall. Security was another main concern because if the Wi-Fi connection
was not secure that could potentially expose the stakeholders to hackers and viruses that come
with most Wi-Fi connections. Based on the already stated preferred, our goal for our concept was
to have the strongest, fastest, most secure, and least expensive Wi-Fi connection possible. After
further research of the concepts of different servers and their functionality and prices our team
decided on a server to be better for the needs of the stakeholders, the ADAS (Active Distributed
Antenna System).
Conclusion
Overall ADAS is the perfect system to fit the needs for a student to have mobile and
reliable internet access while having as low of an effect on the environment as possible. Because
ADAS uses fiber optic cables, installation is very easy and non-intrusive. Fiber optics can be
installed by any general electrician and does not require a specific installer. ADAS also provides
a better foundation for Wi-Fi in a dorm building that has lots of users in a small space.
Connection to Wi-Fi also increases battery life which decreases the dependence on always being
plugged in and charging. Wi-Fi decreases the overall use and need of wires which will have a
very positive impact on our environment. Graphically, a Wi-Fi system is difficult to represent in
anyway because it is a single system that has a onetime installation process. This is why this
specific topic of Wi-Fi in McKean is so important and crucial to a sustainable campus. Coming
to the conclusion of using ADAS as our Wi-Fi system was difficult. We all had to do a lot of
research about how Wi-Fi actually worked, and learn about many different types of systems. We
had to sort through systems used for all different types of buildings, user numbers, and many
other factors. Once we narrowed down our choices though we had a pretty obvious choice and it
is definitely worth it. Enacting this plan in McKean Hall will be very beneficial to the students
and environment and will serve as a good model for the rest of the halls in East.
Works Cited
Fuller, Simon. "Free Wi-Fi Advantages." EHow. Demand Media, 22 May 2011. Web. 22 Apr.
2013.
Noblet, Bradley. "The Whys and Hows of Deploying Large-Scale Campus-wide Wi-Fi
Networks." Arubanetworks.com. Aruba Networks, Inc, 2012. Web. 12 Apr. 2013.
Vos, Esme. "MetroFi Provides Free Citywide Wi-Fi in Sunnyvale." MuniWireless.
MuniWireless, 6 Dec. 2005. Web. 22 Apr. 2013.
Young, Gary. "The Fundamentals of In-Building Wireless Solutions." Bicsi.org. ADC, n.d.
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