Campus to increase bandwidth, add wireless
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Student Senate approved two tech proposals last week that will improve the online experience for SCC students.
The proposals were backed by members of Technology Support Services (TSS) and were aimed at improving Internet performance and access on campus. One of those proposals, submitted by Gary Kalbfleisch, director of Systems & Information Assurance at TSS, will increase Internet bandwidth from about six megabytes per second to anywhere between 15 and 20 megabytes per second and possibly more. The other proposal, submitted by Jim Miller, also of TSS will fund 7 new wireless access points that will be installed in strategic locations throughout the campus. These proposals will be implemented next fall.
In total the Student Senate reviewed 11 technology proposals, which were submitted by SCC students and employees. Six were approved for full or partial funding, and five received no funding. The projects will be paid for using funds generated by student tech fees.
SCC students attending campus next year will notice increases in speed in web page browsing and other web related activities. Restrictions currently placed on streaming audio and video will also be relaxed. However this increase in bandwidth easily be offset if the number of students using the web on campus increases especially during peak hours.
"As we open up the bandwidth, more people will use it, therefore we'll need more" said Kalbfleisch who monitors bandwidth usage on campus. "It's a never ending battle"
Kalbfleisch expects that he will increase bandwidth reserved for streaming content from 1 megabyte, which is just enough to support 2 to 4 high quality streams, to 5 plus megabytes, which is enough to support more than 10 high-quality video streams, or up to 40 low to medium quality streams. Most of the remaining bandwidth will be reserved for general web browsing. A minimal amount of bandwidth is reserved for administrative functions and other activities considered essential to SCC. The Student Senate decided to fund the proposal in full for a total of $20,000.
In addition to increased bandwidth students with Wi-Fi capable laptops will have more choices of locations to do their web browsing. The locations of the seven access points are yet to be determined but Kalbfleisch says they will focus on high student use areas on the west and north areas of the campus were current Wi-Fi coverage is currently minimal. The original proposal requested $31,772, which TSS calculated was the cost to outfit the entire campus. In the end the Student Senate approved $8,400 for the project. There are currently 13 Wi-Fi access points on campus with 3 more to be installed within the next few weeks.
The student tech fees used to fund these projects are collected from students based on how many credits they are taking. Students are charged $2.50 per credit for up to 10 credits or $25 for all full time students. Upon the conclusion of the school year the remaining balance is forwarded to the next school year.
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