Why wither wired?


Abstract: Wireless technology may be a disruptive technology that is changing the face of networking. But for now, in some ways, it is not ready for prime time. So, why not put the needs of our existing users first where wired technology will best suit their needs?

Clayton M. Christensen in his book, "The Innovator's Dilemma" describes disruptive technologies that totally change the face of existing markets causing them to be replaced by new markets and products that ultimately drive older, established manufacturers out of business. To many, wireless networking is a classic disruptive technology.
It may be true that wireless and other disruptive technologies may change the face of education. I think distance learning, corporate and other in-house training programs, industry certificate programs and the growing possibilities of virtual omnipresence & collaboration (eliminating the need for physical attendance) made possible by wireless and other communication enabling technologies may actually eliminate higher education as an institution as we know it all together! However, in the present, in the classroom, we are faced with the need to meet our existing users needs.
Students and faculty members still expect to be able to print the papers that still constitute their school assignments. Also, multi-media and other time based media content is very bandwidth intensive and difficult to deliver on shared wireless networks. Lastly, there is a difficult balance between system reliability, security and ease of use with wireless networking that is simply not an issue with wired networking infra-structure.
For now, the university still exists and it is a bricks and mortar institution. There are literal bricks are in our buildings. Metaphorically, the desks and tables in our tables in our classrooms are hard points, bricks, that do not move. Students come and sit in the same chairs at the same places every class and that is where I think we need to provide power and ethernet. In my opinion, we should take a bricks and mortar approach to providing network services. But, we can't put power and data everywhere with wires. That is where wireless comes in, like mortar it fills the gaps between the bricks.
In my opinion we should put the high speed infrastructure capabilities, along with power, at the classroom desktops. Then, we should provide robust wireless to provide ubiquitous networking and Internet access to the places the wires won't reach. The hard wired network is the bricks, the wireless network is the mortar and together they can provide a solid network infrastructure that is both robust and ubiquitous.

Posted: Sat - November 15, 2003 at 08:36 AM      

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