That's all I've found over Spectrum24...It comes from Symbol official web site. " Over the past decade, wireless networking has reached the forefront of computing technology. In today's world, we use wireless technologies every dayto organize our lives, to stay connected to the Internet, and in almost every working environment.
Educational institutions have found that they too must stay at the forefront of this changing world. Top students are giving preference to schools that can provide a powerful network infrastructure and rapid information access. As a result, universities have started to install wireless local area networking into dorm rooms, classrooms, student lounges, even dining halls. Using a notebook computer equipped with a wireless LAN interface card (which many schools now require or provide upon entry), students sign up for classes, download and upload assignments, access campus libraries, collaborate on study projects, contact professors, conduct research, and connect to the Web from anywhere on campus.
As well as improving student connectivity, university administration greatly benefits from integrating wireless networking into their existing wired systems. Based on wireless technologies, schools can cost-effectively ease general administration, improve campus security, promote university activities via the Internet, and optimize supply chain processes for bookstores, cafeterias, and other student-oriented businesses.
Symbol Technologies is playing a leading role in bringing high-speed wireless networking to colleges. Symbol's Spectrum24® wireless LAN solution connects the campuses of highly regarded universities such as Wake Forest, New York Polytechnic University, Shenandoah University, Suffolk Community College, and Sacred Heart University. These large-scale installations are enabling a whole new level of opportunity to students and educators. This application brief examines ways in which Symbol wireless technologies can enhance administration and enable better learning environments at colleges and universities around the globe.
Better Technologies for Better Learning
The nature of education continues to change dramatically with the continued availability of instant communications. The Internet has proven an especially valuable learning tool, giving students access to a wealth of informationthe world's great art, new ideas, and most recent discoveriesnot to mention instant communications with people anywhere in the world. Instead of relying on standard lecture formats, instructors are providing more information via multimedia content such as graphics, video clips, animation, and online simulations. And today, teaching may take place anywhereon the campus, in the community, or out in the field. Symbol offers opportunities to extend learning wirelessly for more substantive instruction and learning.
Wireless networking provides high-speed Internet access to classrooms without expensive rewiring. Students have instantaneous online access to campus libraries (even off-campus libraries) from any campus location, allowing them to reserve library materials and consult online sources 24 hours a day. Multimedia content can be delivered over the intranet as well, giving students rapid access to class work even when they cannot be present. Students can turn in homework assignments over the Web. During off-campus trips, tours, or in the lab, students can continue to take effective notes, access online information, and gain a more thorough knowledge base. Easing Student Administration
The longest lines of students at any university are always in the administrative offices. Especially at the beginning of each semester, students may wait for hours to register for courses, drop or add classes, to make payments, or set up a student loan. They attend the first few days of class, only to find that the course is full, or not what they were looking for. Often they are still looking for housing, or attempting to sign up for an extra seminar. Symbol's wireless systems provide up-to-the-minute remote access to these services that make campus offices more responsive and speeds the enrollment process.
Providing general administrative services is greatly simplified based on Symbol's wireless technologies. Not only students but also administrators and faculty members can take advantage of real-time wireless services to verify classes, distribute syllabi and book lists, check student status, attendance records, and other critical information.
Using their notebook computer or a hand-held device provided by the university, students may register for classes, in real time, via the campus intranet. If a class or lab is full, students may sign up for another one on the spot, and organize their schedules from anywhere on campus. Students may check the status of their loans or tuition payments at any time to verify receipt of monies. They may also promptly ensure housing, medical services, parking, sports passes, and other campus services. Students may receive online, real-time technical support to assist them in using campus technical services from any location. Faculty and administrators can share information more quickly and manage classes and admissions more effectively. Enhancing Collaboration and Communication
A key benefit of wireless networking is the enormous potential for improving communication between students, faculty, administrators, and support staff. From any location on the campus, students and personnel are in touch with each other, in real time. Symbol Technologies' wireless solution also features international roaming technology. For example, Wake Forest University keeps its students studying abroad connected using Spectrum24 installations on European campuses in Venice, London, and Vienna.
Students can collaborate more effectively on joint projects, consult each other on homework assignments, and organize their daily schedules in real time. Wireless study groups enable a more collaborative, supportive learning environment, bringing together students around the campus (and even off-campus in some cases) to focus on specific topics. Students can access faculty more quickly by e-mail to ask questions and make comments; faculty and teaching assistants can even schedule online office hours to help students with special needs. Students can also stay more in touch with school activities, helping to ensure a well-rounded university experience. Over Symbol's high-speed wireless network, even collegiate sporting events can be broadcast live on the Web. Wireless networking also enhances a student's personal development: by combining cyber-access with mobility, students can stay connected to information including the Web in locations other than their dorm rooms. Enabling Faculty and Graduate Research
Students and administrators are not the only ones to benefit from the installation of a Symbol wireless network. Faculty members deliver more flexible course content, manage classrooms more effectively, and stay in closer contact with students; and at the same time are able to speed time-to-insight on vital research projects. Spectrum24 enables the wireless transfer of images and very large files, giving researchers faster access to information and experimental results regardless of where they are on campus.
Via wireless laptop computing, faculty members have instant remote access to databases and libraries, helping them to gain faster access to relevant research and online resources. Researchers are able to more quickly access the results of mainframe processing or extensive tests at any time while being able to monitor activities remotely. Faculty and graduate researchers can work more collaboratively in real-time wireless workgroups. More immediate information exchange can take place between laboratories and in outdoor experimental environments. Supporting the Campus Infrastructure
Symbol wireless networks have been used for over 10 years to support more than 70,000 installations in the areas of logistics, transportation, healthcare, distribution, retail, and security. These usages apply just as effectively to the university setting. Campus bookstores, restaurants, security, and hospitals are just a few of the areas where wireless solutions can help to cut costs, manage inventory, and assure the highest level of service to students.
Bookstores can track inventory in real time, making sure that critical textbooks and other inventory are available to all the students who need them. Networked wireless cash registers containing a slip-in, plug-and-play Spectrum24 adapter card can be temporarily installed to handle the rush of business at the beginning and end of each semester. Daily deliveries to restaurants and cafeterias can be more effectively managed end-to-end by personnel equipped with wireless hand-held devices, resulting in faster processing. Wireless networking also enables mail routing applications for more reliable and timely distribution of materials. Campus hospital personnel may wirelessly transfer informationeven large x-ray files or other high-resolution imagesand quickly access the latest medical files on each student patient. Campus security officers can stay in closer contact with each other, enabling emergency information exchange, providing real-time large file transfers to assist in investigations, and supporting wireless monitoring systems and remotely accessed cameras. Wireless Networking in Education: A Proven Technology
Many universities are already taking advantage of the many benefits of wireless networking. Symbol Technologies is in the vanguard of this important movement, providing reliable, cost-effective, proven installations to help support our next generation of leaders.
Spectrum24 High Rate Access Points strategically placed in select areas or throughout your campusfrom administrative offices to libraries to dormitories and outdoor plazasserve as the connectivity point to your wired network or the hub of a standalone wireless network.
Spectrum24 High Rate Access Points communicate with any number of devices equipped with Spectrum24 client adapters, including Symbol mobile computing devices.
Symbol Spectrum24 at Wake Forest University
Wake Forest University, located in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, is one of the country's most respected institutions of higher learning. Its more than 4,000 students are supported by a wireless infrastructure covering the student center, libraries, administrative areas, registration services, and all high-traffic student areas. Symbol has provided the university with wireless radio cards (for installation in notebook computers) and network access points to handle all wireless traffic. The network is managed by Symbol's Wireless Network Management System, the industry's leading wireless administration solution.
The Symbol wireless solution combines hardware, network management and services to ensure bandwidth and complete coverage.
Wake Forest University, in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, boasts a Symbol wireless network to keep students linked to information through their notebook computers, no matter where they are on campus.
Symbol at Polytechnic UniversityBrooklyn and Farmingdale, NY
At New York Polytechnic University, located at the foot of New York City's famous Brooklyn Bridge, twenty classrooms, the Metro Tech outdoor plaza, and the Dibner Library are covered by a Symbol wireless installation. Polytechnic's plan is to equip all 2,400 students and faculty with notebook computers enhanced with Symbol's wireless communications. The system is managed by Symbol's Wireless Network Management System integrated with Computer Associates' UniCenter.
Enabling the "Wireless University"
Symbol provides a unique wireless connectivity package designed especially for universities and colleges, based on a monthly fixed fee subscription that is typically included as part of the students' technology fee. This solution frees university and IT professionals from the day-to-day issues related to system operations, maintenance, bandwidth management, equipment availability, and engineering design. It includes site consultation and network design, equipment, training, ongoing support, and a supply of on-site spares.
This unique subscription service provides an opportunity to derive an additional revenue stream for the university. In addition, universities may soon take advantage of the next generation of wireless technology: voice-over-IP. Over the same wireless Spectrum24 network, universities will be able to converge voice communications with data at a fraction of the cost of new wired phone installations.
Conclusion
It has been said that "Laptop computers are becoming the pencil box of the 21st century." The goal of education has remained constant over the yearsthe critical supply of informationbut the way we receive that information is forever changing. By integrating more effective delivery with current university infrastructures, schools can help to attract a higher standard of both students and faculty. Symbol Technologies is partnering with education to bring a world of wireless mobile information access to the next generation of student leaders.
A Day in the Life of the Wireless Student
Today's wireless student is getting up early these days his roommate has set the alarm clock for too early, as usual. At least it gives him time to check his e-mail and write that long-overdue letter to his parents. He boots up his notebook computer to send a quick message. "P.S. Dad, did you make the tuition payment for next semester? It's due tomorrow."
Half an hour later he's on campus, computer in his backpack. "Better buy those game tickets if you're going tomorrow!" calls a friend. "It's selling out fast!"
No sooner said than done. Our student takes out his notebook and accesses the campus box office, scoring the last two tickets in the B deck. He takes time to e-mail his girlfriend: "How about the game?" and also to check his college account. Still no tuition payment. "Dad?"
He also checks enrollment in Paleontology 101, a much-needed general ed requirement. He's been on the waiting list for a week. Yes! A place has opened up. He e-mails the instructor and enrolls on the spot. However, he's now a week behind on the homework, so he visits the professor's campus website to download the assigned reading list. An electronic jump to the online campus bookstore lets him reserve the textbooks. His schedule for the new semester is complete.
His first class is a botany lab, where he uses his wireless computer to take notes as the experiment progresses. The teacher refers to a well-respected botany guidea quick peek at the library's online catalog verifies that the book is available for checkout.
Over lunch in the quad, he logs on again, visiting the chatroom for Chem 1. The moderating professor is explaining some complex formulae. Our student joins in with some questions of his own, and copies the explanations into memory for further study.
Another check of his e-mail a few hours later finds an acceptance of his invitation to the game and an announcement that his study group is already meeting over a pizza. He's off to join them, though he quickly pops out another message: "Dad?"
As he heads off-campus, he notices that a too-rowdy argument over tomorrow's game has been quickly broken up by campus police, who are using PDAs and wireless phones to manage the incident. Campus is a lot safer these days, he reflects: almost as though officers had eyes in the back of their heads. He has heard that the new security cameras and phones are all tied into the same wireless system, meaning that security can cover the entire campus far more effectively. Crime rates are down as a result.
At dinner, the study group focuses on their new project. Several members can't be there, but are joining in online, sending materials and comments in real time. It looks as though their project should be finished well before midterms.
After a convivial and productive evening, our student returns to his dorm. A couple of homework assignments are soon finished and uploaded to the class website for grading. Just before turning in, he checks his campus account one more time and heaves a sigh of relief. The balance is now zero; Dad has paid the tuition.
About Symbol Technologies
Symbol, winner of the 2000 National Medal of Technology, is a global leader in mobile data transaction systems, providing innovative wireless LAN solutions for data and voice, application-specific mobile computing, and bar code data capture. Today, some 10 million Symbol bar code scanners, mobile computers and wireless LANs are utilized worldwide in markets ranging from retailing to transportation and distribution logistics, manufacturing, parcel and postal delivery, government, healthcare and education. Symbol's systems and products are used to increase productivity from the factory floor to the retail store, to the enterprise and out to the home.
About Symbol Wireless
Symbol Technologies, Inc. is the developer of the award-winning Spectrum24 wireless local area network (LAN) solutions, featuring high-speed data communications and robust voice-over-IP technologies for applications in industries ranging from education to manufacturing. These solutions offer all the advantages of industry-leading intelligent network traffic management, fast wireless Internet access, worldwide roaming, powerful data security, large file transfer capabilities, and rugged equipment designed for combined voice/data communications in real time. Spectrum24 supports IEEE 802.11/802.11b wireless LAN standards and operates in the 2.4 GHz band using spread-spectrum modulation."
I you've some questions : abourgoignie@freegates.be (brussels, belgium) I've basic knowledges in designing mobile WLAN using Spectrum24 and in data transfer. That could be usefull for you.
