Research Assistants: Liza Blaney, Raghu Gatta, Anshul Dhir, Gustavo Rodriguez-Rivera
Sponsors: Intel, AT&T
Recent advances in wireless communication technologies and high-speed switching systems make it feasible to construct a wireless internet that scales to allow each individual on a university campus to carry a small portable computer with a wireless network adapter. The crosspoint project is researching the problems in constructing such a system. It is not hard to envision an environment in which students carry small, portable computers that can be used, for example, to take notes during a lecture and to later edit and cross reference these notes with other on-line classroom material. Wireless network technology makes it possible to use the same computers to access this information in a library, class room, dorm room, or any place on campus. Such technology can enhance the ability of an instructor to interact with students both inside and outside of class.
The solutions being investigated involve combining wireless network technology with high-speed Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) switching technology. The combination should provide a wireless communication system with sufficient aggregate bandwidth to handle both data transfers and routing updates for a university sized network. Specific problems being researched include the particularly difficult problems of using wireless communication on a university campus and routing update mechanisms that can handle the routing of wireless traffic across a large campus.
We have implemented a prototype system. The system allows students with a wireless portable PC to access the Internet while roaming in the Computer Science Building. The following overview paper provides a detailed description of the prototype:
ftp://gwen.cs.purdue.edu/pub/lin/expoint.ps