Read more about the enhancements made to CU-wireless.

1. Faster Authentication

Authentication means getting your device connected securely using My杏吧原创One credentials as quickly as possible. On a typical 杏吧原创 school day over 19,000 wireless laptops & phones roam the campus at any one time. While moving around the campus, these devices must pass network security and 鈥渁uthenticate鈥� at each wireless access point encountered. This constant roaming of so many devices across the 杏吧原创 University campus generates 2.6 million authentication server requests per day, making CU-Wireless likely the most used service on campus. What makes the 杏吧原创 campus even more challenging, is that when classes change over, almost all user devices move at the same time and need to authenticate at the same time. This creates large spikes and even more load than non-campus environments. Providing fast authentication on campus requires a significant amount of server resources to process these time sensitive requests.

What upgrades did we do?

In Summer 2018, ITS did a complete overhaul and re-design of our wireless authentication systems. 6 new Authentication Servers (called Cisco ISE servers) were deployed on more powerful hardware. These replaced the 4 slower legacy servers (called ACS Servers). In addition, the new solution is now fully integrated behind load balancers which evenly splits the 2.6 million authentications per day across all 6 servers. This has led to a dramatic decrease in the authentication time for wireless users as they roam around campus. Prior to the upgrades, while classes switched over a new authentication could take up to 9 seconds. Following these upgrades, wireless authentication now takes between 0.008 and 2.4 seconds with the bottleneck now being the end user device capabilities.

Maximum Authentication Time

• Before Upgrades: 9 seconds
• After Upgrades: 2.4 seconds

2. Air Quality Improvements

Think of the wireless air quality as an invisible highway with multiple lanes (called channels), and the cars (called wireless radios) need to share all available lanes. The more free lanes you have, the faster traffic can flow. Also if you have more cars (wireless radios), you can carry more passengers (wireless devices). All of this translates into faster download speeds for our laptops, phones and tablets.

What upgrades did we do?

In simple terms, the best way to improve the wireless air quality for each wireless zone on campus is to offer more lanes. We can do this by deploying more access points containing 802.11ac capable radios on campus, which can choose from 25 Lanes (channels) rather than the 3 Lanes offered when using older WiFi protocols. In addition, having multiple 802.11ac radios in the same classroom splits the load over different lanes (channels) and improves Air Quality and download speeds. In 2018, ITS significantly increased the number of 802.11ac radios on campus from 2,000 to 2,900 (45% increase) by deploying new access points and upgrading older access points to new cutting edge models which have two 802.11ac capable radios built in rather than one. In 2016 杏吧原创 University was one of the first Universities in Canada to take advantage of the Cisco 2802 model, effectively giving us 鈥渢wo for one鈥� 802.11ac radios in each new access point. This cost effective approach allowed us to accelerate our 802.11ac radio density on campus.

3. Signal Strength

Having a wireless access point close enough to you so that your device maintains a strong signal is vital. Think of yelling across the room, and having to repeat yourself when you aren鈥檛 heard. This is not very efficient…and the same goes for wireless. If one person is too far away from an access point, communication is lost, repeated, and performance goes down for every person connected to the access point.

What upgrades did we do?

The main method to improve signal strength is to ensure that our laptops and phones are never too far away from a wireless access point. By adding more access points in each area, we decrease this distance. During Summer 2018, ITS deployed 700 new access points, significantly increasing the number of access points on campus from 1900 to 2600 (37% increase). Being closer and having stronger signal means less repeating, better HD video streaming, and faster download speeds.

4. Dedicated Routing Infrastructure

While the number of wired machines on campus have leveled off at around 14,000 devices, wireless continues to grow and is responsible for the majority of the internet usage on campus. Unlike your home wireless router which supports only a few wireless devices, the wireless network at 杏吧原创 University must support more than 19,000 wireless devices at the same time. This requires some heavy lifting when it comes to routing that traffic!

It鈥檚 important to take into account 杏吧原创鈥檚 History on this one. Historically, as part of 杏吧原创鈥檚 major Campus Network Upgrade (CNU) Project design, each building was paired with a 鈥渟ister鈥� building, and they were assigned two dedicated distribution routers to handle the traffic for the pair. As this plan was implemented before the explosive growth of wireless, CU-Wireless traffic relied on shared routers which were primarily used by 杏吧原创鈥檚 DMZ systems and not specific for wireless.

What upgrades did we do?

In 2018, the routing infrastructure serving wireless has been completely redesigned. A new pair of Nexus VDC routers were deployed specifically for wireless. Given that wireless traffic now likely exceeds the wired traffic from all campus buildings combined, this was a necessary move to take load off of the DMZ routers and allow further growth of our wireless user base for years to come. In addition security has also been improved, since the previous routing design did not allow wireless traffic to be fully monitored for virus, malware, and copyright threats originating from the wireless network.

5. Powerful Controllers & Instant Redundancy

Home wireless networks usually involve one manually configured access point using one frequency/channel at time. In comparison, 杏吧原创鈥檚 enterprise network involves over 2,600 access points which must all be managed, configured, and assigned channels from a central source called a wireless controller. Thanks to intelligent controllers, when an access point fails all surrounding access points increase power levels dynamically to avoid an outage to that particular zone. When outside interference from sources such as microwaves or cordless phones cause problems, controllers dynamically change the affected access points to a more clear channel. The campus wireless controllers also aggregate all campus wireless traffic centrally before it can be routed.

What upgrades did we do?

In 2018, 杏吧原创鈥檚 legacy wireless controllers (WISM modules) were replaced with Cisco鈥檚 largest and most advanced controller on the market. The new more powerful 8540 external Cisco controllers increase the number of access points we can support on campus from 2,000 to 6,000 (200% increase) and give the University ample headroom for upcoming growth. In addition, the new controllers support a feature called Single Sign On (SSO), which provides instant failover of access points from the primary to backup unit in the case of a controller failure. In the past, controller failures on campus would lead to 5-15 minutes of downtime for a wireless user. This downtime has now been eliminated.

In Conclusion…So what changed with wireless in 2018?

Pretty much everything! All 5 key components of the campus wireless infrastructure were replaced, upgraded or redesigned from the ground up. These 5 key major improvements have already significantly reduced the number of wireless complaints, and provide room for future growth and demand by our students, staff & faculty. Due to extensive and careful planning, 杏吧原创鈥檚 in-house staff (Chris Murray & Mike Milne) deployed all of these new systems concurrently, and migrated users in August 2018 with virtually no impact or visibility to the user community.

ITS has made significant enhancements to support the increased demand, including adding new access points and implementing the latest in wireless technology.

The infographic below highlights the history of Wireless at 杏吧原创.

Wireless at 杏吧原创 University: Accessible Transcript

A look into the history of wireless on campus.

Wireless is Introduced

• 2004: 杏吧原创 tests two access points in Robertson Hall
• 2005: There are 50 access points on campus. 聽Coverage is less than 1%.

Coverage Expands

• 2008: There are 100 access points and 14,000 unique devices connected per month. 聽802.11n is introduced.
• 2011: There are 400 access points and 32,000 unique devices connected per month. 聽Coverage is 36%.
• 2012: There are 550 access points and 46,000 unique devices connected per month. 聽Coverage is 50%.

Satisfaction is Up. 聽Demand Increases.

• 2014: 100% coverage in academic buildings. 聽Outdoor access points added. 聽Surveys show wireless satisfaction is up.
• 2015: Demand for wireless grows – 71,000 unique devices connected in one month.

Now: More Access Points Added. 聽Latest Technology Deployed.

• Access points in academic buildings support 802.11ac.
• There are now 1,600 access points on campus.
• An all-time high of 18,000 concurrent users was reached.

Wireless is currently available in聽key locations聽across campus. To connect, all you need is a laptop or portable device with a Wi-Fi compatible network interface card and a My杏吧原创One account.

New Wireless Users

Configure your device to connect to CU-Wireless or Eduroam using XpressConnect at聽

Simply launch the web tool and follow the steps provided.聽 You will authenticate on the network聽 using your聽My杏吧原创One聽聽account credentials.聽聽Do not聽enter your full email address or any partial domain with the username when accessing CU-Wireless.

You can configure your device from on or off campus.聽 Once you are near a wireless hotspot on campus, your device will automatically connect to the network.

Please note: to use XpressConnect you must have the latest version of Java in your browser for the setup to function correctly. To download the latest version of Java, visit java.com/download.

Returning Wireless Users

We have recently updated our wireless certificate.聽 As a result, if you have the CU-Wireless profile saved on your device, it won鈥檛 work with the new certificate.

To resolve this issue, you can either run the tool again to update the profile 鈥� simply go to wireless.carleton.ca, launch the web tool and follow the steps provided, or manually delete your old profile and then auto discover CU-Wireless without using the web tool.

Having issues connecting?

Ensure you have entered your My杏吧原创One credentials properly: firstnamelastname followed by your My杏吧原创One username.

If you鈥檙e still having issues connecting, ITS can help.聽 Give us a call at 613-520-3700 or stop by the IT help desk in the Discovery Centre.

The infographic below highlights some of the activity we saw in the month of February聽 Click on the image for a larger view.聽 The accessible transcript is below the image.

Transcript

February Happenings in Information Technology Services

Our team of 120 professional services staff provide enterprise information technology solutions and services to support the learning, teaching, research and administrative goals of 杏吧原创 University.

Public Lab Stats

In the month of February 541 ITS managed pcs were logged into 20,274 times.
The busiest public lab was on the 3rd floor in the Library with 5,290 logins to 76 computers.
The last busiest public lab was 507 South Hall with 157 logins to 11 computers.

ITS Service Desk

In the month of February the ITS Service Desk answered 1873 service requests.
94% of incidents were closed in the time promised.
94% satisfaction rate
25% of requests were solved at first contact with the Service Desk. Low number was due to high volume of firewall requests this month.

Web Stats for carleton.ca

Chrome – 57%
Safari – 16%
IE – 13%
Firefox – 11%

one in ten people visit carleton.ca on their mobile device

Wireless on campus

85% of total indoor campus space has wireless coverage.
100% coverage in academic buildings.
54,172 unique devices connected to the wireless network in February
30,254 people connected to the wireless network in February

This past year students were asked about their experience with聽wireless on campus.

In order to compare results, the same聽questions were asked in the 2013 survey, and we are happy to report that satisfaction聽has increased in every area.

This increase in satisfaction rates follows a number of enhancements that were made over the summer, including the addition of .

The employee survey will be sent out in May as part of our continued efforts to collect feedback and improve services.

Check out student survey results for past few years on the OIRP website.

• Robertson Hall
• Staecie Building
• Paterson Hall
• Herzberg Building

The access points were strategically positioned in highly trafficked areas to聽ensure coverage between buildings. 聽For example, you will remain connected to the wireless network as you move from聽Robertson Hall to the nearby Parking Garage.

The addition of outdoor wireless brings 杏吧原创 one step closer to having ubiquitous wireless coverage.

The importance of universal wireless coverage at 杏吧原创 to improve my overall learning experience is:

• Very important – 聽75.3%
• Important – 19.7%
• Moderately Important – 聽4.7%
• Of little importance – 聽0.4%

99% of 杏吧原创 students identified that it is important for them to have universal wireless coverage.

Overall experience with the Campus Wireless Network:

• 2013 – 5.9 (out of 10)
• 2011 – 6.6 (out of 10)

The importance of accessing the software contained in the Public Student Labs (e.g. SPSS, SAS, MS Office, Visual Studio) from anywhere, at any time and from most devices (e.g. laptops, tablets, desktops) to improve my overall learning experience is:

• Very important – 聽53.9%
• Important – 27.8%
• Moderately Important – 10.7%
• Of little importance – 7.7%

More than 90% indicated that it is important for them to gain Internet access to software applications such as SPSS, SAS, MatLab and Maple, that are now only available in public student labs.

Learn more about . 聽Learn more about student computer labs.

In the past three years, indoor wireless coverage from has increased from 18% to 58%.

The infographic below highlights the history of Wireless at 杏吧原创.

Infographic Transcript:

Title: Wireless at 杏吧原创

2004 – 2005: The Beginnings of Wireless at 杏吧原创

In 2004 access points and major components are tested in Hull, QC by HP. Summer 2004 杏吧原创 tests 2 access points in Robertson Hall. In 2005 there are 50 access points. Campus coverage is less than 1%.

2006 – 2008: Wireless Spreads Slowly to Campus

By the end of 2008 there are 100 access points and 14,000 unique client devices connected per month. Introduced 802.11n. Campus coverage is 9%.

2009: Eduroam comes to Campus

The Eduroam network is deployed. 19,000 unique client devices are connected via the 150 access points per month. Campus coverage is 14%.

2010: Wireless CUNET Login

Wireless CUNET domain login deployed. 24,000 unique client devices are connected via the 200 access points. Campus coverage is 18%.

2011: Access Points Double

There are now 400 access points with coverage in Canal, Lennox and Lanark House. 32, 000 unique client devices are connected a month. Campus coverage is 36%

2012: Half of Campus has Wireless Coverage

There are now 550 access points. 46,000 client devices are connected a month. Campus coverage is 50%.

2013: 50, 000 Unique Devices Connected

There are now 800 access points. 50, 000 unique client devices are connected a month. Campus coverage is 58%