Wireless technology at NC State frees you from the confines of your desk or residence hall room. Now you can take your laptop or other wireless device out and about to various locations on campus and still have access to the NC State network! Check email in the Brickyard. Surf the Web in the study lounge. Communication and information is now portable and easier to fit into your busy schedule.

Projects:

802.11/802.11b Phase Out

Comtech is in the process of phasing out support for legacy 802.11 and 802.11b devices In order to prepare the wireless network for two major improvements. 802.11 and 802.11b devices are viewed as first and second generation WLAN (Wireless Local Area Network) technology while the industry is currently on fourth generation.

The first major improvement will come in the form of a secure WLAN. A pilot based on 802.1x and port-based authentication is currently being planned. Legacy devices lack support for this type of authentication and would present a security concern in an otherwise secure network. Secondly, as the University continues to build out its wireless infrastructure and replace aging equipment, 802.11n wireless devices are quickly becoming the commodity product. In order to deploy 802.11n in a configuration that takes advantage of its performance gains, support for legacy devices must be disabled.

The first phase will occur on December 20th at 7:00 am. This step will remove services for the lowest 802.11b data rates of 1,2, and 5.5 Mbs. This will only affect the original 802.11, first generation, wireless devices that were manufactured prior to 2000. Second generation 802.11b devices will continue to operate at the highest data rate of 11 Mbs. The last phase will occur summer 2011, removing support for 802.11b devices.

For a better understanding of how legacy devices affect performance please read the following Network World article: http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/60623