AN INVESTIGATION ON THE DEPLOYMENT OF WIRELESS LAN
(WLAN) AT WALTER SISULU UNIVERSITY: IBIKA
CAMPUS RESIDENCE
Submitted by
Phila Tshaka
210127392
In partial fulfillment of the requirements of the Bachelor of Technology:
Communication Networks
IT Department, School of Computing, Faculty of Science, Engineering and Technology
Supervisor: Mr. N. Ndlovu
December 2013
Declaration
I hereby proclaim that “An Investigation on the deployment of wireless LAN (WLAN) at Walter
Sisulu University in Ibika campus residence” is my innovative work and it has not been
submitted before. All sources I have used are acknowledged in this project.
Signature: ……………………………
Acknowledgement
I am thankful to God who is giving me love, power and care for me .There is nothing impossible
in his name.
I would like to thankful my supervisors Dr. Jere Nobert and Mr.Nkanyiso Ndlovu for their help
and support. Their supervision, encouragement and advices made this project a success. I would
not have completed this project.
My grandmother is my source of encouragement and my achievements are due to the love, care,
and support of the family. They have always told me that “ayikho into engenabunzima ebomini”
I am thankful to Mrs. Andiswa Roji and Mr. Ricky Ngandu whose contribution during this
project was tremendous. I appreciate their advice, encouragement and motivations indeed.
I would like to articulate appreciation for the time, encouragement and guidance by Mrs. Pumla
Tshiki, Miss Lisa, Mrs. Magadla, Mr. T.Apleni and Mr. Fikile Dubula my former high school
teachers.
I am thankful to Miss Khumbula Siwundla who has been praying for me. She has shown the care
to me during this project.
Lastly, I am also recognized the support of my mates and friends Xolani Ntsiba, Mkumla TWG,
Luthando Ndongeni, Siphamandla Mpakato, Robe Mnoneleli and Bongekile Fotoyi.
Abstract
Wireless Local Areas Networks (WLANs) have speedily become fashionable, mostly in
education sectors. Understanding of the demand from students is essential for the people who
want to manage, develop or deploy and improve their networks at tertiary institutions.
The purpose of this study was an investigation about the suitability of deployment of wireless
network at Ibika campus (WSU) residence can be implemented and assess the suitability of
deployment of wireless network at WSU in the case of Ibika campus. This could enable the
deployment of a network that allows the students and the staff to access the intranet LAN
wirelessly no matter where they are on the campus, including student’s residence. Data was
collected through literature review and questionnaire. Questionnaires were based on the deployed
Wi-Fi hotspots and participants were asked to give views. Participants were the students who are
contemporary using the wired network and who are residing in the campus student village and
campus hostels, the off campus students were not considered in this study. D-link DWL 2100AP
access point, lenovo laptop were used in the creation of Wi-Fi hotspots and wireshark was used
to capture the frames and the packets in the network. Finally, the results show that it is feasible to
extend the current wired network at WSU. This involves the deployment of Wi-Fi hotspots and
both students and staff support the need for 27/7 connectivity at Ibika campus.
Key words: IEEE 802.11 series, Wireless Local Area Networks, Ibika campus residence,
WIMAX and Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi)
Contents
1. CHAPTER ONE ....................................................................................................................................... 1
1.1 Introduction .................................................................................................................................. 1
1.2 Problem statement ....................................................................................................................... 1
1.3 Research questions ....................................................................................................................... 2
1.4 Objectives of the study ................................................................................................................. 2
1.5 Significant and relevant ................................................................................................................ 3
1.6 Theoretical analysis of methods ................................................................................................... 3
1.7 Chapters organization ................................................................................................................... 4
1.8 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................................... 4
2 CHAPTER TWO ...................................................................................................................................... 5
2.1 Overview of wireless connectivity ................................................................................................ 5
2.2 Considerations for Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) ............................................................ 7
2.3 How Wi-Fi works ........................................................................................................................... 7
2.4 How WiMAX works ....................................................................................................................... 9
2.5 Standards of Choosing Wireless Technology for University Environments ................................ 10
2.6 Network Requirement Components ........................................................................................... 11
2.6.1 Hardware............................................................................................................................. 11
2.7 Wireless Controlling Methods or Technologies .......................................................................... 11
2.7.1 IEEE 802.11i ......................................................................................................................... 13
2.7.2 Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) ............................................................................................ 13
2.8 Network Topology ....................................................................................................................... 13
2.8.1 Infrastructure Network ....................................................................................................... 13
2.8.2 Ad hoc network ................................................................................................................... 14
2.9 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................... 15
3 CHAPTER THREE .................................................................................................................................. 17
3.1 Wireless access technologies ...................................................................................................... 17
3.1.1 Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11) .............................................................................................................. 18
3.1.2 WIMAX (IEEE 802.16) .......................................................................................................... 18
3.2 Wireless Access Technologies Comparison ................................................................................ 20
3.2.1 Wi-Fi and WiMAX ................................................................................................................ 20
3.2.2 WiMAX and VSAT ................................................................................................................ 20
3.2.3 Bluetooth and Wi-Fi ............................................................................................................ 21
3.2.4 Wi-Fi and 3G (UMTS) ........................................................................................................... 21
3.2.5 WiMAX and 3G (UMTS) ....................................................................................................... 21
3.2.6 3G (UMTS) and 4G (UMTS) ................................................................................................. 22
3.2.7 FHSS and DSSS ..................................................................................................................... 22
3.3 Wireless LAN standards comparison .......................................................................................... 23
3.4 Various Technologies used during the experiments ................................................................... 23
3.5 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................... 25
4 CHAPTER FOUR ................................................................................................................................... 26
4.1 Theoretical analysis of methods ................................................................................................. 26
4.2 LAN Technology .......................................................................................................................... 28
4.2.1 Type of Media ..................................................................................................................... 28
4.3 Software Specifications ............................................................................................................... 28
4.3.1 Network Protocols .............................................................................................................. 29
4.3.2 Server Operating System .................................................................................................... 29
4.3.3 Working Station Operating System ..................................................................................... 29
4.4 Hardware Specifications ............................................................................................................. 29
4.4.1 Number of Access Points .................................................................................................... 29
4.4.2 Backbone Needs .................................................................................................................. 30
4.4.3 Network Equipment ............................................................................................................ 30
4.4.4 Number of Servers .............................................................................................................. 31
4.5 User Specifications ...................................................................................................................... 31
4.5.1 Type of Users....................................................................................................................... 31
4.5.2 User Applications ................................................................................................................ 31
4.6 Data Collection ............................................................................................................................ 32
4.6.1 Data Collection Procedures ................................................................................................. 32
4.7 Summary of Qualitative research approaches: .......................................................................... 33
4.8 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................... 33
5 CHAPTER FIVE...................................................................................................................................... 35
5.1 Data findings and analysis ........................................................................................................... 35
5.2 Qualitative data findings ............................................................................................................. 35
5.2.1 Technical data analysis and connectivity test ..................................................................... 35
5.2.2 Connectivity test ................................................................................................................. 35
5.2.3 Packet and frame captured ................................................................................................. 38
5.2.4 User authentication ............................................................................................................ 39
5.2.5 Range of the network and Signal strength.......................................................................... 39
5.2.6 Configuration evaluation or results .................................................................................... 40
5.2.7 Throughput ......................................................................................................................... 42
5.3 Physical network testing ............................................................................................................. 43
5.4 Quantitative data findings .......................................................................................................... 44
5.4.1 Questionnaire analysis ........................................................................................................ 44
5.5 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................... 57
6 CHAPTER SIX ........................................................................................................................................ 58
6.1 Conclusion and Recommendations............................................................................................. 58
6.1.1 Research Question Declarations ......................................................................................... 58
6.1.2 Study limitations ................................................................................................................. 60
6.1.3 Future Work ........................................................................................................................ 61
7 REFERENCES ........................................................................................................................................ 62
8 Appendix A- Questionnaire ................................................................................................................. 64
List of figures
Figure 2.1: How Wi-Fi works ....................................................................................................................... 9
Figure 2.2: This figure shows how WIMAX works ..................................................................................... 10
Figure 2.3: Evolution of security (Ndlovu, 2011) ....................................................................................... 12
Figure 2.4: WLAN adapted from www.ecnmag.com, August 2013 ............................................................ 14
Figure 2.5: WLAN adapted from www.ecnmag.com, August 2013 ............................................................ 15
Figure 3.1: According to Ndlovu cited (Gumaste et al., 2004) ................................................................... 23
Figure 3.2: D-link DWL 2100AP ................................................................................................................ 24
Figure 4.1 : User authentication................................................................................................................. 32
FifFigure 5.1: ipconfig results .................................................................................................................... 36
FiFigure 5.2: Connectivity between the D-link access point and the working machine (lenovo) .............. 36
Figure 5.3: Connectivity between the working machine and domain name (google.co.za) ....................... 37
Figure 5.4: User successful login on Google ............................................................................................. 38
Figure 5.5: Frame captured on Wireshark software. ................................................................................. 38
Figure 5.6: User authentication.................................................................................................................. 39
Figure 5.7: Bandwidth of the wireless network .......................................................................................... 40
Figure 5.8: Access point setup Wizard configuration. ................................................................................ 41
Figure 5.9: Shows the access point information (status) after the configuration of this study .................. 42
Figure 5.10: WLAN 802.11G traffic statistics ............................................................................................ 43
Figure 5.11: Have you ever used computers and wireless internet access before? ................................... 45
Figure 5.12: How many years have you been using the computers and wireless internet access? ............ 46
Figure 5.13: How frequently do you use the internet per week? ................................................................ 47
Figure 5.14: How long do you use the internet per day? ........................................................................... 47
Figure 5.15: Do you use the internet and some other deployed applications during weekends?............... 48
Figure 5.16: Which method do you use to access the internet? ................................................................. 49
Figure 5.17: Which method is faster when accessing sites and accessing other applications such as wise
up? .............................................................................................................................................................. 50
Figure 5.18: Do you think introduction of Wi-Fi hotspots would interest you more in using computers and
the internet more often ................................................................................................................................ 51
Figure 5.19: Deployment and use of hotspot would be beneficial in improving student communication. . 52
Figure 5.20: Which are the common sites you like opening on a daily basis? ........................................... 53
Figure 5.21: Would Wi-Fi improve learning and education standards in campus. ................................... 54
Figure 5.22: Would hotspots be critical to students who want to use the resources after school hours and
during the weekends .................................................................................................................................... 55
Figure 5.23: Do you think the use of wireless network would improve communication levels in the
campus? ...................................................................................................................................................... 56
Figure 5.24: Speed of the network .............................................................................................................. 57
List of Acronyms and Abbreviations
AP Access Point
CPE Customer Premise Equipment
CSU Charleston Southern University
DAN Digital Access Node
DHCP Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol
DNS Domain Name System
DoS Denial of Service
DSSS Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum
FHSS Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum
FOSS Free and Open Source Software
FTP File Transfer Protocol
IEEE Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
IP Internet Protocol
IPSec Internet Protocol Security
ISP Internet Service Provider
LAN Local Area Network
LTE Long Term Evolution
MOFA Ministry Of Food and Agriculture
NLOS Non-Line-Of-Sight
PDA Personal Digital Assistant
QoS Quality of Service
RF Radio Frequency
TCP Transmission Control Protocol
UMTS Universal Mobile Telecommunications System
VPN Virtual Private Network
VSAT Very Small Aperture Terminal
WAP Wireless Access Point
WEP Wired Equivalent Privacy
Wi-Fi Wireless Fidelity
WiMAX Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access
WLAN Wireless Local Area Network
WPA Wi-Fi Protected Access
WSU Walter Sisulu University
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1. CHAPTER ONE
1.1 Introduction
Wireless Local Area Networks have become more and more fashionable, mainly in educational
institutions. There are several wireless technologies on the market today such as IEEE 802.11
sequence. Many laptops are wireless capable either in IEEE 802.11a or IEEE 802g standard
(Han, 2008). Furthermore, the new standard of IEEE 802.11n has been replacing the wired
networks and gradually taking over the network market today.
With wireless networking the cables are removed, the networks are well suited and the
connections become easier. With benefits of the wireless LAN, many institutions have offered
WLAN at campuses for students. The benefits of wireless networking are more understandable
in educational institutes because of elastic it offers. According to Rudsar, Joyce and Kolahi
(2006) stated that the elasticity of wireless networking allocates students greater access without
the expense of cabling new buildings or areas like computer laboratories where the student
would be restricted.
The researcher is a student and a user of a wired network at WSU in Ibika campus. The research
is to assess the suitability of deployment of wireless network at WSU in Ibika campus residence.
This could enable the deployment of a network that allows the students and the staff to access the
network wirelessly no matter where they are on the campus, including student’s residence.
1.2 Problem statement
There are number of problems that are facing Ibika campus students at WSU but this study is
focusing on one problem. The main problem where this study is focusing on is on the current
network of Ibika campus. The problem on the contemporary network is only designed for staff
office and student computer labs. This becomes a huge problem when the labs are closed because
students do not have access to the internet during night or after 10pm. This problem becomes
worse during weekends and holiday for students who are not going to their homes, because the
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students do not have any access to the internet, as a result, they feel that they are not fully
benefiting from the Ibika network.
1.3 Research questions
This research is focusing on the main research question of “what is the suitable implementation
methodology and design of a wireless network that would support students in their
residence?”The following are the three sub-questions developed to help understanding of the
main research question.
? What are wireless requirements to extend the wired network?
? How do students currently access the I bika network while at campus and in the residence?
? Which access technologies can be combined to develop or deploy a cost effectively and a
reliable wireless network suitable for I bika residence campus?
The research questions above were aimed to get answers from literature review because
participants of this study do not know wireless technologies or requirements to extend the wired
network. Some of the research questions were answered in the literature review. The questions
were required qualitative answers, for example this question was not answered by the literature
review “How do students currently access the I bika network while at campus and in the
residence?”
1.4 Objectives of the study
? To investigate how students currently access the network resources currently on the
wired network
? To describe a wireless enabled network that can be integrated into the existing
infrastructure.
? To explore the access technologies that can be combined to develop or deploy a cost
effectively and reliable wireless network suitable for Ibika residence campus.
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1.5 Significant and relevant
The significant and relevant of this research is that, this prototype can examine an area as a
group, communicate using centralized control, and offer a low cost solution. With more and
more of the wireless devices that can be used, there is a stable benefit to offer high quality,
reliable, interoperable and secure communication between devices. This benefit will allow
students to get access to the internet easier.
Another significant and relevant is that this prototype can support student cantered learning in
five aspects: mobility, elasticity, cooperation, communication and learning environment. In the
case of mobility, when the students want to study, they would not have to be limited to the desk
to do it and students would use the wireless internet to do their schoolwork such as projects,
research, etc while they are seating in their rooms. In learning environment, wireless internet will
let students to choose an encouraging learning environment. Elasticity, students can take place at
any time and therefore they can make extra competent use of their time. Students and staff can
work and study on schoolwork while doing other things. Cooperation, student can study with a
group of friends and do research and talk to other students using wireless LAN. Lastly, in the
case of communication wireless LAN would make it easier for them to communicate with other
students, their family and friends. The key thing is that students can send information back and
onward over wireless internet. This would enhance communication that in turn would improve
learning.
1.6 Theoretical analysis of methods
This study focuses on an investigation into the suitability of deployment of wireless LAN at
WSU in Ibika campus residence. Special research approaches that are used are:
? Literature review was conducted to understand the wireless technologies required to
extend the wired network and to gain the knowledge and fully understanding of the
wireless telecommunication network.
? Questionnaires were created and participants were asked questions based on their
experience after the experiments.
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? This study suggested wireless technologies, such as user applications and protocols that
could be used to extend the wired network after getting the outcomes from the
experiments performed.
1.7 Chapters organization
The literature review in this study is presented in chapter two. Chapter 2 discusses detailed
studies that are relevant to this study and it was used to determine the wireless technologies that
can be combined to develop a cost effectively and reliable wireless network. Chapter 2
mentioned various requirements needed to extend the wired network.
Chapter 4 of this research is the methodology chapter and is presented. Methodology chapter
describes methods used and discusses the literature review. Chapter 3 detailed explain network
components, user requirements and tools were used to create the Wi-Fi hotspots.
In chapter 5, the collected data is analyzed. Finally, chapter 6 discusses the results, limitations of
this study and set out the conclusion and the future work.
1.8 Conclusion
This chapter presented the introduction of the study and problem statement was outlined.
Furthermore, section 1.3 outlined the research problems, section 1.4 outlined the objectives of
the study and section 1.5 outlined the significant and relevant of the study. The methodology was
used to perform the investigation of deployment of wireless network and describes methods and
experiments used in this study. Section 1.7 outlined chapter organization of this study. Thus,
chapter two below presents literature review that discusses different studies that are relevant to
this research.
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2 CHAPTER TWO
2.1 Overview of wireless connectivity
Wireless Local Area Networks are being adopted in many universities all over the world. Han
(2008) believed that students could benefit from easier access and information technology
department could get the advantages because WLAN decrease the physical cabling requirements.
Wireless LAN make nowadays campuses more and more flexible by offering new features of
learning environment, mobility, collaboration and expanding areas of support.
This chapter details review different studies on campus wireless network and marginalizes areas.
This chapter also discusses the relations method of wireless adoption at universities and at rural
areas. This study has been inclined by the literature review allude the research questions and
research objectives that the researcher seek to accomplish. This chapter will make possible for
the researcher to identify the types of wireless technologies that are required to achieve the
wireless intranet connectivity and based on the resources available and location in order to
achieve the researcher’s mission. The next section discusses various studies that the researcher
had discussed.
Ktoridou (2010) reported that the University of California in Santa Cruz California had become
the first university to offer the wireless network to students and faculty. The coverage of the
wireless network was on the campus and integrated self-service restaurant and parking lot
(Ktoridou, 2010). Even in nowadays, many universities are not able to offer the wireless network
on campus or to offer it with such wide coverage. Many universities merely offer the wireless
networks in buildings, such as the UNITEC New Zealand University.
Bruns (2005) reported that Charleston Southern University (CSU) collaborated with CDW
Government to enhance its dial-up network to campus-wide wireless networks. It was essential
to spend less money and to provide a more productive learning environment for students and
faculty. By comparing the budget for escalating the dial-up system and building a wired network
with Category 5 cable (over $500,000), CSU calculated it would save at least $250,000 if
wireless technology was preferred. CSU decided to implement a wireless network and provide it
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to students and faculty (Bruns, 2005). Bruns (2005) stated that, test of wireless network was
initiated in 2001 and supports approximately about 500 students.
Executive summary: Proposal for ubiquitous campus WLAN for Buffalo State (n.d) had done the
proposal similar or related to this study for the Buffalo state campus where their proposal was
based on the new Wi-Fi standard (802.11n). Their aim or objective was to provide total campus
coverage and allow all “campus constituents” to access the network wirelessly without any
limitations. They recommended the implementation or deployment of the campus WLAN into
two phases. During the first phase they decided to install approximately 350 wireless access
points (APs) mainly in buildings with classrooms to provide reliable wireless coverage for the
students (Executive summary: Proposal for ubiquitous campus WLAN for Buffalo State, n.d).
During the second phase, they installed 300 more access points (APs) to cover the entire campus
and boost wireless LAN capacity and performance (Executive summary: Proposal for ubiquitous
campus WLAN for Buffalo State, n.d). The goals of the first phase of their research were:
? To offer wireless intranet to students in every classroom and its neighboring area, in
every study areas indoors and in outdoor areas between buildings (Executive summary:
Proposal for ubiquitous campus WLAN for Buffalo State, n.d)
? To offer wireless intranet for the visitors and companies in every conference room and
neighboring areas on campus (Executive summary: Proposal for ubiquitous campus
WLAN for Buffalo State, n.d). The estimated cost of their project was $1, 100, 00($650,
00 for phase one and $450, 00 for the second phase).
Deep et.al., (2010) indicated that technology with the emergence of cross manufacture industry
standards such as IEEE 802.11, has rapidly changed a number of popular and cost-effective
wireless solutions for schools and business where installing wired network is impractical, such as
in buildings and warehousing.
Deep et.al., (2010) also proposed method for planning for low cost wireless network where they
have been made to design a cost effectively WLAN of residential areas with a “population of 500
people, i.e. around 100 flats (2-3 floors) and bungalows”. Their objective was to provide wireless
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intranet connection to all the population there and cover all the residential area. The cost was
“(40000/-50000/-(INR/800-1000 USD)” (Deep et.al, 2010).
2.2 Considerations for Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN)
There are various considerations when designing the wireless LAN at university campuses or
environment. Roshan and Leary (2003) stated these various considerations for designing the
WLAN in an educational environment. The first consideration was the convenience: “WLANs
give them the opportunity to provide ubiquitous coverage so that they can bring networks to the
students instead of bringing the students to the network” (Roshan & Leary, 2003). The second
consideration was on the cost effectively: “as computers have become a larger part of the
learning process, the time and resource savings that wireless brings has proven to be rewarding”
(Roshan & Leary, 2003). The third consideration was no physical boundaries: “many school
buildings were designed before the computer revolution, it just might not be feasible to run wires
to the students” (Roshan & Leary, 2003). The fourth consideration was the challenge in
implementing or deploying wireless network at university environment, of “ensuring that the
infrastructure can support a multivendor client environment” (Roshan & Leary, 2003). The last
consideration was on the security. Roshan and Leary (2003) concluded by saying that, “The
easiest and most rapidly deployable solution might be to employ wireless bridges to connect the
remote network with the school network.”
Nisbet (2004) mentioned “four key questions that must be answered when planning a wireless
network for a campus. The first question was “Who will use it?” The second question was
“Where will they use it? The third question and the last question were “What services to deliver?
How will they use it” (Nisbet, 2004)? He believed that “the choice of wireless technology
available means that organizations need to decide on the standards that best suit their needs”
(Nisbet, 2004).
2.3 How Wi-Fi works
Wireless Fidelity technology is defined on the IEEE 802.11 standard (Sharma, 2008). This
means that primarily, this technology designed to offer wireless network in buildings with
8
broadband coverage approximately to 100 meters. Ofori-Dwumfuo and Salakpi (2011) stated,
“Wi-Fi has become the standard for broadband connectivity in homes, offices and public hotspot
locations.”
IEEE 802.11 LANs uses radio signals, wireless access points and Wi-Fi NIC. Han (2008) stated
that, “Wi-Fi receivers pick up the radio signals transmitted from antennas.” Wi-Fi card reads the
signals and establishes an internet connection between the client and the network without the use
of a card (Ofori-Dwumfuo & Salakpi, 2011). “Access points consist of antennas and routers
which transmit and receive radio wave” (Ofori-Dwumfuo & Salakpi, 2011). Ofori-Dwumfuo and
Salakpi (2011) believed that antennas are stronger in working with AP and have longer coverage
radio transmissions with radius 90 to 165m, while routers are more and more suitable for homes
with radio transmissions of 30 to 50m. Wi-Fi connects the laptops to the antenna for a direct link
to the intranet, and Wi-Fi hotspot is created by installing an AP to an intranet connection (Ofori-
Dwumfuo & Salakpi, 2011). When this technology enabled a device such as a laptop, encounters
a hotspot, the user can then connect to that network wirelessly.
Ofori-Dwumfuo and Salakpi (2011) showed the propose diagram of how Wi-Fi works, below is
the structure that illustrates the design of Wi-Fi:
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Figure 2.1: How Wi-Fi works
In the above illustrated example, an Access Point (AP) propagate the signals to the devices
which is connected to and AP is 100m indoors that means it accommodate the users that are
around that 100m coverage. There is also a device, which is 300m outdoor and is accessing the
internet from the AP.
2.4 How WiMAX works
WiMAX wireless technology consist of a system that encompasses two parts such as a receiver
and a base station or tower (Ofori-Dwumfuo & Salakpi, 2011). The tower station provides huge
wireless coverage to a large area called cell. Practical considerations radius of a cell is 10km, but
theoretical, it has the greatest radius of 50km (Curran et al., 2007). Ofori-Dwumfuo and Salakpi
(2011) indicated the important features of WiMAX as a backhaul, which facilitates the
10
connection both from the access point back to the tower station and to the connection from the
tower station to the core network.
Ofori-Dwumfuo and Salakpi (2011) have shown below how WIMAX works.
Figure 2.2: This figure shows how WI MAX works
The diagram above review how WiMAX work and represents the description that the researcher
discussed about it.
2.5 Standards of Choosing Wireless Technology for University Environments
Various factors must have to be reflected when one chooses technologies for University
environments. The following are some parameters that can be full taken into reflection:
? The technology has to be helpful, simple and more protected (Ndlovu, 2011).
? The suitability, vulnerabilities and strong point of the technology have to be taken into
account (Han, 2008).
? Costs of the design implementation and operation have to be very slow so that the
deployment of wireless network can be affordable to the community (Ndlovu, 2011).
? The technology must offer coverage over a long area irrespective of the nature of
university environments e.g. trees and buildings (Han, 2008).
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? Scalability and elasticity of wireless network are to be used together to work with other
technology (Ndlovu, 2011).
2.6 Network Requirement Components
Network components are needed when deploying any type of network. These network
components are Hardware and Software. In this study, there are number of hardware and
software components that could be used. However, the section below brief described the
hardware components that were used during the implementation of Wi-Fi and WiMAX SLL
network.
2.6.1 Hardware
? Wireless Access Points (APs): Access points which support IEEE 802.11b standard
include the Cisco Aironet 1100AP series, DWC 2100 AP and Cisco 1130AG, however
the Cisco 1130AG had an advantage because it also support the IEEE 802.11a/g (Ndlovu,
2011).
? Micro Base Station (BS): Ndlovu (2011) “this comes in two variants which are chassis
configuration and micro base station.” Ndlovu (2011) stated that micro base station was
deployed in Dwesa area access node and it has the ability and functionality of
communicating with the CPE. This component can connect to the backbone of the
internet service provider. Ndlovu (2011) stated that this component has an additional
advantage, functions such as traffic classification and connection establishment policy
based data switching, and service level agreement management over the BreezeMAX
modular Base Station such as TCP.
2.7 Wireless Controlling Methods or Technologies
This section provides and detailed discusses about the IEEE 802.11 security and feasible
methods for controlling wireless network technologies. We all know that WLANs are not
naturally secured and even the wired LANs are not naturally secured either. However, the key
portion to making a wireless LAN secured and keeping it secured is to educate those who deploy
and manage wireless LAN (Han, 2008). Brawn et al., (2004) stated that the 802.1x authentication
12
could be more secure for students and faculties while they are in the network. No matter whether
where they are in a wired or wireless network, the 802.1x is the suitable method for security
solutions in the campus networks (Brawn et al., 2004). Brawn et al., (2004) mentioned that
students and faculties desire to connect to secured campus network even with their own laptops
or other portable devices.
Ndlovu (2011) stated that security is a crucial aspect that one needs to consider when deploying
WLANs. There is number of wireless security methods exist that can be deployed when
implementing WLANs (Ndlovu, 2011). Vines (2002) mentioned these security methods or
solutions from the series of Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP), Virtual Private Network (VPN)
and Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) to IEEE 802.11i. Vines (2002) verified that these wireless
security methods are different in terms of security levels and each mechanism has its own
benefits and drawbacks that need to be fully understood before deployment of WLAN.
Karygiannis and Owens (2002) have shown the time-line of the evolution of wireless security,
below is the diagram that represents the evolution of wireless security:
Figure 2.3: Evolution of security (Ndlovu, 2011)
In 2003, Wi-Fi Alliance introduced the WPA to be temporary wireless security solution with an
RC4 algorithm (Karygiannis & Owens, 2002). Stanton (2005) mentioned that, “Some institutions
were still using VPNs as an alternative.” In June 2004, a suitable and a very strong encryption
scheme called IEEE 802.11i was introduced (Ndlovu, 2011).
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2.7.1 IEEE 802.11i
The method (IEEE 802.11i) developed in 2004 (Scholz, 2002). IEEE 802.11i has its weakness
just like any other wireless security methods. According to (Vines, 2002) mentioned that “it
usually experience Denial of Service (DoS) attacks, where an attacker forges the De-
authentication or Disassociated message.”
2.7.2 Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA)
There are various types of WPA authentication; these various types are WPA and WPA2.WPA
designed to work with wireless security, but it may not work with the oldest APs (Vines, 2002).
Vines (2002) reported that WPA2 is extra securing than WPA, but it does not work well with
older network adapters. Best (2003) stated that WPA2 is designed to be used amid on 802.1x
authentication server, which dispense different keys to each user.
Since WEP has many drawbacks, Wi-Fi Alliance introduced WPA in 2003 to act as the
provisional solution or method of wireless security to the weak security offered by WEP (Vines,
2002). Ndlovu (2011) stated that WEP has to be deployed in WLAN infrastructure and mobile
devices, which supports 802.1x EAPOL. However, WPA supports authentication for campus
users (Students and staff) and enterprise.
Brawn et al., (2004) reported that 802.1x authentication can boost wireless security for IEEE
802.11 wireless network and wired Ethernet. This wireless security network (802.1x) uses
authentication servers authenticates or legalizes users and provides network access Brawn et al.,
(2004). Brawn et al., (2004) summed by saying that 802.1x is usually used when connecting to a
network place of work and this type of security is too strong.
2.8 Network Topology
This section describes in details various types of network topology that could be used when
extending the wired network.
2.8.1 Infrastructure Network
In this type of wireless LAN topology, the WAP functions as a bridge between the wired
network and the wireless network. The AP can be linked to a switch (backbone) on the wired
14
network in order to offer wireless services to students (Tay, 2003). It can be used to wirelessly
bridge two wireless areas or wired sectors and this could be the good example in this prototype
extension because with the AP linked to the current network at Ibika each student could access
the server resources as well as to communicate to their lecturers and friends wirelessly. The
figure 2.5 below is an example of the infrastructure topology
Figure 2.4: WLAN adapted from www.ecnmag.com, August 2013
In figure 2.5 above each access point hold various users but the specific number depends on the
magnitude of users and the nature of transmissions concerned.
2.8.2 Ad hoc network
This network topology of a wireless LAN can be simple or complex (Tay, 2003). It is
uncomplicated because it consists of two or more PCs equipped with wireless adapter cards. Ad
hoc networks can be recognized when two users are within the range of each other, with each
devices being referred to as a “cell” (Tay, 2003). This network does not use a central resource
which is AP to manage the network and it has requires manual assignment and distribution of
15
unique address to devices (Tay, 2003). Below is the figure that represents the Ad hoc network
topology.
Figure 2.5: WLAN adapted from www.ecnmag.com, August 2013
2.9 Conclusion
In these campuses, which have adopted IEEE 802.11already or plan to upgrade their wired
network to wireless technology, there is no hesitation that wireless technology has become the
most fashionable mode of communication (Han, 2008). Each of them was seeking a suitable way
to upgrade their wireless and wired networks. Then provide the best service to their students,
faculty and staff (Han, 2008).
This chapter presented many studies; the first university to adopt the WLAN is the University of
California in Santa Cruz California on 1995 as stated above. The preview of these studies
showed the reason for deploying WLANs at areas such as universities, marginalized and the
16
reason was the demand from faculty and students but the main reason was based on the campus
students.
Two studies report the considerations that one need to consider when implementing the Wireless
Local Area Network at universities. The other study reports the wireless LAN extension at
university (Tay, 2003).
From the observation, the best way to extend the wired network is to supplement a Wireless
Access Point (WAP) with 802.11n to a wired LAN’s switch. Wireless access point can be
associated to a switch on the wired LAN (backbone) in order to offer wireless service to the
student’s rooms or blocks building. As stated above that wireless access point can also be used as
a bridge between the wired sectors and wireless sectors, with wireless access point linked to the
wired LAN, each student can access the server resources as well as communicate to each other
(Ndlovu, 2011).
Crucial wireless LAN equipment that one has to consider when extending the wired LAN is the
directional antenna (Tay, 2003). For instead, in the case of Ibika campus residence that has
several block buildings, the directional antenna could be helpful to extend the wireless LAN
from one block to another e.g. three mile away. Directional antenna could be one of the solutions
on that but what might be done is to install it on each block building and each antenna should be
targeting to each other. Thus, the antenna on one block can linked to the wired LAN by the use
of a wireless access point, in the same way to the other blocks or buildings can linked to a
wireless access point in that block, which would allow wireless LAN connectivity in the
residence.
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3 CHAPTER THREE
3.1 Wireless access technologies
This chapter detail describes various access technologies for both media of data transmission and
physical layer. It offer critical knowledge of technologies required for choosing wireless access
technologies and network components. Lastly, it presents the wireless access technologies used
during the experiments of this study.
Ndlovu (2011) who was, “Investigating wireless network deployment configurations for
Marginalized areas” in Dwesa stated that Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access
(WiMAX) and Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi) enable “the rapid deployment of network service as
well as their redistribution throughout these Marginalized areas”(Ndlovu,2011). He also
indicated that DAN could be another wireless technology when implementing WLAN because it
support long distances (Ndlovu, 2011). Ndlovu (2011) stated, “Deploying Wi-Fi hotspots around
the DAN boost the network path to neighboring communities.”
Ofori-Dwumfuo and Salakpi (2011) were “Investigates the feasibility of deploying combined
Wi-Fi and WiMAX technologies” in the Ministry Of Food and Agriculture(MOFA), in Ghana
stated that “WiMAX allows broadband connectivity beyond individual buildings to provide
blanket coverage of an entire area” (Ofori-Dwumfuo & Salakpi, 2011). They also continue
saying that “in some applications, WiMAX and Wi-Fi can be successfully combined; to benefit
from the advantages each technology has to offer” (Ofori-Dwumfuo & Salakpi, 2011). They also
stated that, the advantages of these emerged technologies include “cost effective backhaul, with
long distance range, interference-free, licensed WiMAX and the cost effective access of Wi-Fi
clients” (Ofori-Dwumfuo & Salakpi, 2011). Ofori-Dwumfuo and Salakpi (2011) also mentioned
that Wi-Fi has various advantages, but one of the benefits is “Wi-Fi wireless LAN technology is
very easy and cheap to deploy in comparison to wired systems” (Ofori-Dwumfuo & Salakpi,
2011). They stated that Wi-Fi can offer or distribute network access in urban as well as in rural
areas where it is complicated or impossible to run cables for the wire network (Ofori-Dwumfuo
& Salakpi, 2011). In addition, they concluded by saying that “a vast majority of laptops, PDAs,
18
cordless phones, cellular phones, cameras and media players today have built-in Wi-Fi interface,
therefore enable easy connectivity” (Ofori-Dwumfuo & Salakpi,2011). The interesting thing is
that “Wi-Fi is the hotspot created”, he continued saying that “instead of having to be restricted to
the wired or wireless LAN, one can enjoy the internet in public places such as Airport, Hotels,
Schools and B&B” (Han, 2008). Han (2008) concluded by saying that Wi-Fi also support
roaming where one can access the internet around the buildings from one access point(AP) to
another.
3.1.1 Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11)
Best (2003) and Gumaste et al. (2004) listed some advantages of Wi-Fi:
? It offers low cost and easy deployment (Best, 2003 & Gumaste et al., 2004).
? It support hotspot establishment, which will allow students and staff to access the internet
for 24 hours a day (Best, 2003).
? It offers less financial pressure due to minimal infrastructure deployment as compared to
wire technology (Best, 2003 & Gumaste et al., 2004).
? Wi-Fi is the ability for 802.11b, 802.11g and 802.11n standards to frequency hop
(Ndlovu, 2011).
? It reduces the use of cable network deployment and expansion cost (Best, 2003).
Wi-Fi presents a number of disadvantages or constraints such as low signal strength as the
distance increases, short range coverage (Han, 2008). Thus, the researcher decided to review
some wireless LAN technologies that could support or aids Wi-Fi in order to increase the reliable
of its use. This study found that WiMAX could be an alternative to Wi-Fi, therefore the next
section below detail discusses about this wireless technology since it is considered as an
alternative to Wi-Fi. The researcher reviewed various studies that discusses about WiMAX
technology.
3.1.2 WIMAX (IEEE 802.16)
WiMAX stands for Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (Sweeney, 2007). This
wireless technology offers multiple access modes, which are: mobile communication across
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wireless and wired connectivity, it offers the last mile connectivity to many networks (Han,
2008). WiMAX technology offers much higher bandwidth and range as compared to other
wireless broadband access technologies (Sweeney, 2007). Ofori-Dwumfuo and Salakpi (2011)
stated that, “Theoretical coverage is put at 50km radius with a data rate of up to 75mbps.” Ofori-
Dwumfuo and Salakpi (2011) indicated that WiMAX emerge its wide coverage with Quality of
Service potentials for proving several applications services such as VoIP, data service, IPTV and
streaming media service. They also indicated that WiMAX use Air Interface technology to allow
point-to-multipoint connectivity with the aid of non-line-of-sight (NLOS) from the base station.
There are number of advantages of WiMAX. The advantages are: “The deployment of WiMAX
is easy and cost effective.” Second benefit was that “it supports very high bandwidth solutions
with various spectrum deployment choices.” Third and the fourth benefits were “it also provides
wide range coverage and quality of service (QoS) capabilities for applications and it provides
broadband wireless access in metropolitan areas which fills the gap between Wireless Wide Area
Network (WWAN) and Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN)” (Ofori-Dwumfuo & Salakpi,
2011). They continue saying that this “ allows operators to have special market segments for
WiMAX, for example, wireless broadband access service in rural areas as alternatives to DSL
and cable modems” (Ofori-Dwumfuo & Salakpi, 2011).
Wong and Chou (2006) mentioned that although WiMAX has greater advantages it also has
disadvantages, below are these drawbacks of WiMAX:
? WiMAX offers lower data rates in comparison to other wired technologies like optical
fiber cable (Wong & Chou, 2006).
? Trees, buildings, can affect the signal strength and atmospheric conditions, such as rain
could interrupt the signal, other wireless equipment could cause interference. This
degrades the performance of WiMAX (Wong & Chou, 2006).
? Few companies offer pre-WiMAX products in South Africa. As a result, the products
have to be ship into the country that makes them costly (Best, 2003).
? WiMAX network is very important in structure therefore need much electrical maintain
for running the overall network (Ndlovu, 2011).
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? The data rate speed of WiMAX as compared to other network such as fiber optics,
satellite is very slow (Ofori-Dwumfuo & Salakpi, 2011).
3.2 Wireless Access Technologies Comparison
This section presents different comparison of wireless access technologies. Some of these
technologies discussed in detailed in the above sections, such as Wi-Fi and WiMAX.
3.2.1 Wi-Fi and WiMAX
Ndlovu (2011) stated that Wi-Fi and WiMAX technologies have many similarities. However, the
major difference in these wireless access technologies is the range of communication (Wong &
Chou, 2006). In theoretical, Wi-Fi designed to support short-range coverage of approximately
100m or less and WiMAX can cover distances of close to 70km and above depending on the
environment (Wong & Chou, 2006). These technologies have shown below in the table 3-1.
Table 3-1: Comparison of Wi-Fi and WiMAX (Wong & Chou, 2006).
WiMAX Wi-Fi
? Throughput: 75 Mbps
? Range : 70 km, covers a
small city with one base
station
? Security: Multi-level
encryption
? QoS: Limited
? Throughput: 11-15 Mbps
? Range :80-100 m, covers a
coffee shop, one floor of an
office building
? Security: Limited
? QoS: Dynamic bandwidth
allocation, good for voice and
video
3.2.2 WiMAX and VSAT
Ndlovu (2011) indicated that, “VSAT can be used for backhaul Internet connectivity in remote
rural areas”. WiMAX can then act as the backbone for the provision of a point-to-multi-point
service to surrounding areas such as hotels, B&B, schools and clinics (Muchenje, 2008). He
continued by saying that “However, in such a connection, there is a need to use Ethernet or Wi-
21
Fi technologies as end user access technologies” Ndlovu (2011). Ndlovu (2011) concluded by
saying that “this type of convergence shows that different access technologies such as VSAT,
WiMAX and Wi-Fi can be merged to supply ever present Internet access in remote rural areas.”
VSAT has high levels of security, which achieved with VPN/IPSec as its security mechanisms
(Muchenje, 2008). However, as the researcher said that earlier when there is an advantage there
is also a disadvantage, however, VSAT is very expensive when it come installation process
(Ndlovu, 2011).
3.2.3 Bluetooth and Wi-Fi
These are wireless technologies that allow nodes to connect and communicate with each other
(Yu & Cheng, 2006). Bluetooth designed for short coverage range communications with
approximately 10 meters (Ndlovu, 2011). Both technologies use 2.4GHz unlicensed radio
spectrum and exist in different devices such as laptops, printers and PDA (Yu & Cheng, 2006).
Thus, for remote applications Bluetooth is not effective to set up a network because of the low
bandwidth it has (Muchenje, 2008). Wi-Fi other side allows faster data transfer rate
approximately between 10-54mbps and has a range of about 100 meters (Yu & Cheng, 2006).
Lastly, 802.11i security used in Wi-Fi is robust as compared to 16 bit PIN used for Bluetooth
authentication and data encryption (Ndlovu, 2011).
3.2.4 Wi-Fi and 3G (UMTS)
Wi-Fi has a disadvantage of short distance coverage range compared to 3G (Ndlovu, 2011).
These wireless access technologies provide the mobility or roaming and flexibility to end users
(Morrow, 2004). The short distance coverage range of Wi-Fi restricts or limits its application
around hotspot areas, but it allows user-friendly interfaces to use an IP-based broadband access
device (Esmailzadeh, 2006a). In fact, Wi-Fi and 3G work enhanced as balancing access
technology (Ndlovu et al., 2010a; Esmailzadeh, 2006a).
3.2.5 WiMAX and 3G (UMTS)
“Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) is a common mobile wireless
technology with data speeds of 384Kbps” (Muchenje, 2008). The UMTS cellular system has an
advantage over WiMAX in that its infrastructure for (3G), “GRPS and Evolutionarily Distinct
22
and Globally Endangered (EDGE) already exists while WiMAX needs a new infrastructure to be
put up for it to function” ( Morrow, 2004). 3G has a very low data speed as compared to that of
WiMAX, which can go to 75Mbps for coverage of 50km (Ndlovu, 2011).
3.2.6 3G (UMTS) and 4G (UMTS)
4G network is highly improbable will change the fundamental dynamic. The 4G system currently
expected to dominate, Long Term Evolution (LTE), is an IP centric data network with
impressive capabilities and a platform network architecture (Bogineni, 2009b). While LTE
provides substantial improvements in spectral efficiency relative to current 3G systems, it also
allows increased per-user capabilities that expected to contribute to demand growth (Bogineni,
2009b). The careful study of the balance between user demand growth and technology
improvements concluded that meeting user demand would require an additional 500 to 1000
MHZ of commercial spectrum in the USA in the next seven years from now, all below 5GHz
(ITU-T, 2006).
3.2.7 FHSS and DSSS
Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum technology is comprised from spread spectrum technology
and it uses a narrowband carrier that changes frequency in a model known sender and receiver
(Tay, 2003). FHSS appears to be short length impulse.
Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum technology functions by separating the data into various
pieces and concurrently transmitting the sufficient, unlike FHSS, which transmit on a partial
number of frequencies (Tay, 2003). This process allows for greater transmission rates than the
other spread spectrum technology, but it is disadvantages because it is vulnerable to greater
occurrence of interference (Tay, 2003). This is because the data is on both sides of a larger part
of spectrum at any given time as compared to FHSS. DSSS floods all spectrums concurrently,
whereas FHSS transmit over certain frequencies (Tay, 2003). DSSS has better bandwidth
currently from 2Mbps up to 11Mbps and range and it is much more flexible to interference than
FHSS (Tay, 2003). Thus, DSSS is widely deployed in commercial wireless LAN products.
Therefore, one needs to consider DSSS technology when deploying wireless network.
23
3.3 Wireless LAN standards comparison
This section presents the evolution of wireless local area network standards (IEEE 802.11) and
the description of each standard. The figure below represents these standards:
IEEE 802.11 standard Specifications
802.11 Defines as the original WLAN standard that supports 1 to 2 Mbps.
802.11a Refers as high-speed WLAN standard for 5 GHz band that supports 54
Mbps.
802.11b WLAN standard for 2.4 GHz band that supports 11 Mbps.
802.11d The international roaming automatically configures nodes to meet
local RF regulations.
802.11e This standard addresses Quality of Service supplies for all IEEE
Wireless LAN radio interfaces.
802.11f This standard describes inter-access-point communications to ease
multiple-vendor spread WLAN networks.
802.11g creates an extra modulation technique for the 2.4 GHz band;
supports speeds up to 54 Mbps.
802.11h This standard defines the spectrum management of the 5 GHz band.
802.11i It addresses the existing security vulnerabilities for both authentication
and encryption protocols; the standard encompasses 802.1X, and AES
protocols.
802.11n offers higher throughput enhancements; planned to provide speeds up
to 500 Mbps.
Figure 3.1: According to Ndlovu cited (Gumaste et al., 2004)
3.4 Various Technologies used during the experiments
During the wireless deployments experiments this study used various technologies, such as D-
link DWL 2100AP access point, lenovo laptop, straight through cable and wireshark software.
24
Wireshark software is a network packet analyzer. It was used to capture network packets, frames
and to display packet data as detailed as possible. It can be used to troubleshoot the network
problems and debug protocol implementations.
Lenovo laptop used to configure the D-link 2100AP access point and the wireless deployments
was managed through this device.
D-link DWL 2100AP is an access point, a hardware component that acts as communication hub
for users of wireless device to connect to a wired network. This device offered sensitive wireless
security and for extending the physical range of service, a wireless user has access to. It also
supports IEEE 802.11g and IEEE 802.11n Wi-Fi standards.
D-link 2100AP access point supports 330 feet for indoors and 1310 feet for open space. The
researcher measured this distance, researcher was moving from one place to other testing the
strength of signals and speed of the network using the lenovo laptop. The D-link access point
shown below:
Figure 3.2: D-link DWL 2100AP
25
3.5 Conclusion
This chapter discussed and compared different wireless technologies required for extending wire
LAN. The advantages and disadvantages of these technologies proved to be more profitable than
the wire ones in terms of providing internet connectivity.
From the experiment and comparison of wireless access technologies performed, this study
chose the merged of Wi-Fi and WiMAX although this study could not have enough resources to
prove the combination of these technologies. Wi-Fi and WiMAX grouped as service provider for
students.
Lastly, Wi-Fi and WiMAX cost effectively, that simple mean there is less financial pressure due
to minimal infrastructure deployment as compared to wire technology (Best, 2003 & Gumaste et
al., 2004).
26
4 CHAPTER FOUR
4.1 Theoretical analysis of methods
This chapter first describes the purpose of this study; research methods used in this study to
collect the data and why and/ or how consistent it is. This chapter also describes the place where
the data was conducted; how many participants were participating or involved.
Purpose of this research is to investigate about how the suitability of deployment of wireless
network at Ibika residence campus can be implemented and explore possibilities of integrating
the emerging technology into the curriculum. Investigate how students are currently using the
wired network for their learning and what benefits and barriers they have encountered. Then
investigate how would be the effectiveness of wireless network in their residence if it can be
deployed or implemented.
This research focuses on the main research question of “What is the suitable implementation
methodology and design of a wireless network that would support students in their residence?”
The following are the three sub-questions developed to help understanding of the main research
question.
? What are wireless network requirements to extend the wired network?
? How do students currently access the I bika network while at campus and in the
residence?
? Which access technologies can be combined to develop or deploy a cost effectively and
a reliable wireless network suitable for I bika residence campus?
The methods used to collect the data were the both literature review and the questionnaire. The
objective of the literature review was to determine the wireless requirements technologies
required to extend wired and to answer some of the study questions. The questionnaires were
given out at the end of the experiment and were distributed to students who were using the Wi-Fi
hotspot that was created by this study.
27
This study used students as the participants and those students are residing at WSU (Ibika
campus). The students are currently using the wired network. There was a technical section
where the researcher was creating the wireless hotspots using an access point called D-link
DWL-2100AP which support 13 channels. After the researcher had created the wireless hotspot
in the IT department, 40 students were called upon to come and access the internet wirelessly
and without any constraints. The participants were prompted to answer the questionnaires based
on their experience after the experiments.
Questionnaires were used to collect the data, such as the common or general information about
the wired network and wireless network on the campus from each student. The questionnaires
were closed ended questions and since the questionnaires were closed ended. Furthermore,
literature review was used to determine the best wireless technology suitable or required to
extend the wired network at Ibika campus residence.
The researcher knew which residence had more students using wired LAN and therefore on that
information, the researcher would expect more results on that residence when doing the
questionnaires. These results were used to find out the expectations of students because this
study was trying to get students expectations on this prototype.
This study used cross literature analysis in order to determine the suitable wireless technology
requirements needed to extend the wired LAN. This was because students do not know what
wireless LAN requirements to extend the wired LAN are.
Chapter 2 presented various studies and these studies were different. The first study mentioned
the University of California as the first university to offer WLAN to student’s residence and
faculty. As the researcher mentioned above that literature review chapter was used to review
different studies about wireless network and then identify the suitable wireless technologies or
requirements needed to expand wired network. Thus, two studies were reviewed to discuss
different cost that might be used to extend the wired network. From the observation, cost of
deploying wireless network is very low as compared of deploying wired network in the
university or other environments especial if the institution has various buildings (Ndlovu, 2011).
28
Roshan and Leary and Nisbet were discussing the considerations for extending wired network
and things that one should consider when planning to extend the network, these studies helped
the researcher to know what is needed to extend the wired network and what wireless
technologies or requirements are needed.
Therefore, assisting the literature review process; the facts is that wireless LAN’s requirements
are closely related to the same sort of requirements typical of wired LAN or any LAN (Han,
2008). Chapter 2 evaluated wireless LAN’s requirements include broadcast capability, high
capacity and the most common one is the ability to cover long distance even short distances. The
following list provides the principal specific suitable requirements to extend the Ibika wired
LAN to a wireless LAN:
4.2 LAN Technology
This section describes different types of media that one need to consider when intends to deploy
wireless network.
4.2.1 Type of Media
Spread spectrum was the first parameter to consider by the researcher and this media is using the
2.4 GHz band for the wireless LAN. In addition, Ethernet Cat 5 cables in general are used to
connect the wireless access points to a switch and the switch to the server but in this study Cat 5
or straight through cables were used to connect an access point to the laptop that was used to
create the wireless intranet (Han, 2008). This media has up to 11 Mbps for 802.11 standard and
100Mbps for Ethernet cables and they have been used in various environments (Ndlovu, 2011).
4.3 Software Specifications
This section outlines various software that is required in order to test and deploy network.
Software’s such as network protocols, server operating system, working station operating
system. These software specifications are outlined and discussed in chapter 2.
29
4.3.1 Network Protocols
DNS and TCP/ IP are the protocols that were used during the configuration of an access point.
DNS is an automated system used to interpret computer names into corresponding IP address
(Han, 2008). TCP/IP is a protocol suite used in the intranet to offer application programs with
access to a connection-oriented communication service that simple means that, this protocol
establishes connection before sending any data or packets and therefore students were used these
protocols to send request to another computer or server.
4.3.2 Server Operating System
Windows 2003 server would be suitable since the backbone LAN or wired network (Ibika
campus network) is currently using the windows 2003 server. This server operating system was
not discussed in the literature review but during the researcher’s observation found out that it is
still in use at (WSU) Ibika LAN.
4.3.3 Working Station Operating System
During the experiments, this study used windows 7 as the working station operating system
where the testing of network connectivity was done on it.
4.4 Hardware Specifications
This section describes the hardware specifications, such as number of APs, backbone needs,
network equipments and number of servers that are required to deploy the suitable wireless
network.
4.4.1 Number of Access Points
The Access Point (AP) was used to connect students to the wireless LAN. AP using 802.11b/n
standard could be the best in this prototype as compared to other standards because it cover a
long distance and most network adapter cards or laptops support these wireless standards
whereas this used D-link DWL 2100AP which support 802.11g/n standards. Therefore, 5 to10
access points with 300 coverage feet would be satisfactory to the Ibika main campus residence
area. These access points could be also act as redundancy for one another whenever one is down
to make the network to be more reliable and flexible. There should be also 10 to 20 access points
30
for student village residence (which is another residence). The coverage at Ibika is not that large
but is not relatively small; therefore, no RF site survey was required. However, the suitable
approach to determine the number of APs required is to perform a radio frequency survey but
due to time, the researcher could not perform the RF survey (Han, 2008).
4.4.2 Backbone Needs
Ibika network is made up of a large LAN’s spread all over the main campus except the residence
area. Therefore, the Ibika network uses fiber optic-cables as a media transmission that allows a
high bandwidth and lower delay to intersect its building to each other and to make possible their
communications with the outside world through switches. The fiber optic-cables are directly
connected to Gigabit Ethernet switches that are located on the administrative building (network
center). As we know that, every LAN or network center has its own cabinet that consists of
switches (patch panel); thus, the Ibika cabinets are linked through Cat 5 that intersects either
individual workstation or switches that form a LAN. Furthermore, Ibika uses approximately 10
servers to support its educational and administrative functions and each department has its own
server but it is implemented and controlled in the administrative building or network center.
The backbone requirements for the wireless LAN at Ibika would be straightforward; thus, there
will be no additional switches will be purchased for the wireless network. The mentioned Cisco
AP can be linked to the existing Ethernet switch and router or LAN, which belong to the wired
LAN at Ibika. The researcher concluded by saying that the only requirement intended for
wireless connection with the network administrator is to register the port numbers of the switch
so that this prototype (wireless LAN) could be lawfully established.
4.4.3 Network Equipment
The existing network at Ibika is already equipped with 24 and 48 port Ethernet Cisco switches.
Therefore, from that, there are sufficient ports left and the proposed prototype could use these
ports in order to avoid purchasing the Ethernet Cisco switch. The fiber optic-cables or Cat 5
cables would be needed to connect the APs to the LAN and the laptop that has network interface
card would be also required for network test or configuration as the researcher has already did
that.
31
4.4.4 Number of Servers
Existing wired LAN has seven servers for educational and administrative functions; application
software and share printing requirements. Thus, this research could share one server LAN.
However, to eliminate delay of applications, this study could use its own server LAN.
4.5 User Specifications
This section introduces the type of users that should be allowed to use the network and the
applications that were used during the experiments and testing of the network.
4.5.1 Type of Users
This research consists of students who enrolled and staff members at (WSU) Ibika campus. Then
if the students do not know, the password or they not registered at Ibika he/she will not be
allowed connect to this network.
4.5.2 User Applications
Trace route, telnet, ping and FTP are examples of the software and applications that were used
during configuration of an access point and these protocols were used to test the connectivity of
the network and for monitoring and managing the important application tools and other
applications.
Ping program was used to test the wireless network connectivity. Trace route program identifies
intermediate PC along a path to a remote destination. Telnet stand for Terminal Emulation, this
program is for IP/TCP networks such as the intranet (Ndlovu, 2011). Telnet client links the PC to
a server on the network. File Transfer Protocol is a protocol used to upload documents or files
from a student to a FTP server. It is also a way that files are transported from one device to
another. Then in order to transfer files, FTP servers need to require the user to log on to the
server by providing the credentials (username and the password). Below is an example of a
window that prompts the user to enter his/her credentials.
32
Figure 4.1 : User authentication
4.6 Data Collection
Data collection methods of this study were literature review and questionnaires as mentioned
above. The researcher collected data and the data collected from the second week of October
2013 through the third week of October 2013 from the students. Total of 40 students were
involved in the data collection.
4.6.1 Data Collection Procedures
Miles and Huberman (1994) mentioned four parts of research involving human participants as
the process, setting of the study, events and the actors involved in the study.
? Setting: The research was conducted at Ibika campus. More than 5000 students study on
this campus
? Events: Using case study research method, the focus of this research will be the daily
activities undertaken by students using the wired LAN on the campus and this includes
the data collected by literature review as stated above, and questionnaires.
? Process: The process is the investigating into the suitability of deployment of wireless
network at Ibika campus residence. Attention was paid to the decision making of what is
the suitable implementation methodology and design of a wireless network that would
33
support students in their residence. Moreover, what are wireless requirements are needed
to extend the wired LAN.
? Actors: The participants in this research were students who are contemporary using the
wired network on the campus. The researcher asked students questions and list of
questionnaires were provided to them.
4.7 Summary of Qualitative research approaches:
Table 4-1 below represents summary of different methods, its purposes and numbers of
participants for each method that were conducted during this study.
Table 4-1: Represents the summary research approaches used in this study
Methods Purpose Number of Participants
Literature review ? To provide understanding of
associated studies that had been
reported
? to determine the suitable way and
requirements to extend wired
LAN
None
Questionnaires ? to collect quantitative data and
were closed ended questions (see
Appendix A)
40
4.8 Conclusion
The research approach for this research is case study. Questionnaire and literature review are
qualitative research approaches but since the questionnaires were closed ended, the researcher
used both approaches such as qualitative and quantitative techniques. Literature review was used
to obtain fully understanding and knowledge of the suitable wireless technologies requirements
to extend the wired network. Questionnaires were created after the technical or experiments
34
testing of the wireless network and participants (students) were asked questions based on their
experience after the experiments.
Lastly, data collection procedures were intended in advance. Data analysis of this study will be
represented in the next chapter (chapter four) below.
35
5 CHAPTER FIVE
5.1 Data findings and analysis
This chapter presents the data analysis of the approaches used in chapter three. It outlines the
experiments data analysis where it presents different techniques used to test the network
connectivity and the outcomes. Section 5.3 outlines the quantitative data findings, which are
outcomes from the questionnaires that answered by the participants after their experience from
the experiments. Section 5.2 below represents qualitative data findings from the experiment and
later section 5.3 is presented.
5.2 Qualitative data findings
Data analysis from the experiments was undertaken by this study. Software that was used to
capture network packets and results are presented in section below.
5.2.1 Technical data analysis and connectivity test
In this study, DLink DWL-2100AP access point was used create the temporary wireless
hotspots. Then performance technical tests were performed and these technical results tests are
presented in this section. Different connection networking tests procedures were conducted, the
section below represents these procedures. These procedures involved pinging, tracert and
nslookup applications.
5.2.2 Connectivity test
The study used Lenovo laptop to tests the wireless network connection between the devices. This
study used ipconfig command, the reason behind that was to display all the contemporary
TCP/IP network configuration values. This command gives the user basic information of the
configurations that were performed by the researcher. The results of this command have shown
below:
36
Fif
Figure 5.1: ipconfig results
The above results were performed in command prompt window.
The pinging application was conducted to check whether if the connection between the devices is
established or not and to determine whether they can communicate to each other. This
application was performed between the D-link Access Point and the Lenovo laptop and the
connection was established, results have shown below:
Fi
Figure 5.2: Connectivity between the D-link access point and the working machine (lenovo)
37
This command sent four packets, received four and loss zero, therefore it simple means that the
wireless card is working properly and it is capable to ping the IP addresses. The second attempt
was to check the internet access by pinged the domain name “Google.co.za” but during this
study, the researcher pinged various domain names, such as “gmail.com”, “hotmail.com”, and
“yahoo.com” Thus, “Google.co.za” command was used in this study and have shown the
following results:
Figure 5.3: Connectivity between the working machine and domain name (google.co.za)
Figure 5.4 below shows the user successful login on google.co.za.
38
Figure 5.4: User successful login on Google
5.2.3 Packet and frame captured
In this study, Wireshark was used to capture the packets and the frames that are running on the
network. The figure 5.5 below showed the results that were displayed by this software:
Figure 5.5: Frame captured on Wireshark software.
39
5.2.4 User authentication
In order for a user to transfer files, FTP servers require the user to log on to the server by
providing the credentials (username and the password). Even if the users wants to access
internet or login on face book, they were asked to enter their credentials and in this study the
username was the student number and password was the barcode of the student card.
Authentication required window is shown below:
Figure 5.6: User authentication
5.2.5 Range of the network and Signal strength
This section identifies various actions that have been undertaken by this study to determine the
distance that this access point supports. First attempt, the researcher was at about 46 meters away
from the access point carrying the laptop, the signal strength was fair, the speed or bandwidth of
the network was 18.0 Mbps, and there were ten laptops connected. Second attempt, researcher
was at about 56 meters, there were no signal strength but the connection was still available.
Thus, the researcher concluded by saying that the distance supported by this device is about 1 to
40
46 meters if the access point is inside house. Still it is difficult for the researcher to determine the
exactly distance that this device support because students in residence said sometimes the
connection was available but they were unable to connect on it because signals were very weak
(poor). The figure 5.7 below shows the adapter name that‘s connected to the network and speed
of the network when researcher was at about 36 meters away from the access point:
Figure 5.7: Bandwidth of the wireless network
5.2.6 Configuration evaluation or results
This section shows the basic configurations performed by this study. As it is said above that, the
D-link access point was used to create the wireless internet access (hotspots) in this study.
41
The researcher will show the readers of this research the steps performed when configuring this
access point. This device was on default mode and the researcher tried to get the default IP
address (192.168.0.50) of this device first. Then researcher opened the internet browser and
typed in that default IP address. Below is the window that was appearing after requesting that
default IP address:
Figure 5.8: Access point setup Wizard configuration.
The figure 5.8 above shows the steps that were performed during configuration of the AP. The
password, SSID, channels and encryption were set. This study set 13 channels and more than ten
users were concurrently connected to the network and access the internet smoothly without any
limitations.
The figure 5.9 below shows the access point information (status) after the configuration of this
study.
42
Figure 5.9: Shows the access point information (status) after the configuration of this study
5.2.7 Throughput
This is the last section of the technical data analysis and it shown the throughput of the network
and WLAN 802.11g traffic statistics. This section also showed the transmitted frame count, the
received frame count and the WEP frame error count. The figure below showed the throughput:
43
Figure 5.10: WLAN 802.11G traffic statistics
5.3 Physical network testing
This section presents the physical results of the network connectivity test and various procedures
that were taken into consideration during the network testing.
Firstly, during the network testing, lenovo laptop was carried by the researcher and moving away
from the AP. When the researcher was approximately 46 meters away from the AP, signal
strength was fair and the bandwidth was 18.0Mbps but both signal strength and bandwidth were
not stable or rigid.
Second test was checking how the bandwidth and signal strength of the network is when ten
users are being connected to the network. Hence, the bandwidth was 24.0Mbps and the strength
of signal was good.
44
Lastly, was to check how network behavior when more than ten users being connected at
different places about to 45-50 meters away from the AP, thus, since the AP was located indoors
the signal strength was poor and the bandwidth was 11.0Mbps but still both signal and
bandwidth were not consistence.
Weather condition was the main issue for instead; weather condition that was having the greatest
effect on the network signal was rainfall. When it was raining and windy the researcher had a
crappy connection and could not get a good ping nor stay connected.
5.4 Quantitative data findings
Data analysis of the quantitative data from the questionnaires that were asked after an
experiments represented in section 5.1 above are presented. Lastly, questionnaire was consists of
thirteen questions, section below presents the results from these questions.
5.4.1 Questionnaire analysis
? Have you ever used computers and wireless internet access before?
The participants of the questionnaire were the students who are studying at Walter Sisulu
University in Ibika campus and who used the temporary deployed wireless network.
Total of 40 students who were involved in the experiments or temporary deployed
wireless network that had created by the researcher in the Information Technology (IT)
department completed the questionnaires. The results based on the above question are
represented below.
45
Figure 5.11: Have you ever used computers and wireless internet access before?
Based on the 40 students, about 95% (38) students who used wireless network, computers before
and only 5% (2) students never used the wireless network and computers. This is simple telling
the researcher that there might be no need to teach the students on how to connect to the wireless
network using their laptops.
? How many years have you been using the computers and wireless internet access?
The researcher after knowing the number of students who used the computers and
wireless internet access, then the researcher was interested to know how many years they
have been using these two.
46
Figure 5.12: How many years have you been using the computers and wireless internet
access?
Total of 30% (13) of students who have less than a year using the computers and wireless
network and some of them were unable to connect to the network because they were new on it.
37% (15) of students who have been more than two years using the computers and wireless
network and 33% (12) of students who have been one to two years using these resources in their
lives.
? How frequently do you use the internet per week?
Eight percent of students used the internet once a week and 92% (37) of students used the
internet more than once a week and 8% (3) of students used internet once a week. This is
simple means that many students use the internet often per week and one participant
asked the researcher “what is the availability of this network because it’s easy to use it
and you do not have to go to the lab in order to get the internet?”
47
Figure 5.13: How frequently do you use the internet per week?
? How long do you use the internet per day?
Most students have their specific time on how they usually use the internet per day.
About 82% (33) of students used the network more than one hour per day and 18% (7) of
students used the internet about one hour or less as shown below.
Figure 5.14: How long do you use the internet per day?
48
? Do you use the internet and some other deployed applications during weekends?
Total number of 92% (37) of students used the internet and other applications after the
temporary deployed of wireless LAN during the weekends. Total number of 8% (3) of
them did not use internet and other applications during the weekends. Many students
were benefiting during that deployment of wireless network.
Figure 5.15: Do you use the internet and some other deployed applications during weekends?
? Which method do you use to access the internet?
All participants of this study were students and LAN and WLAN users during this
research. Approximately 52% (21) students used both methods to access the internet,
28% (11) students were using the Wi-Fi connections using their laptops and 20% ( 8)
students were using LAN method from the labs to access the internet due to some reasons
they had. The figure 5.16 represents method that had more often used.
49
Figure 5.16: Which method do you use to access the internet?
? Which method is faster when accessing sites and accessing other applications such as wise
up?
The fastest method when one accessing the internet is Wi-Fi connection based on the
results of this study because 52% (21) of students said, “Wi-Fi connection is faster than
LAN from the labs” when they were accessing the temporary deployed wireless network
in the department. Total number of 23% (10) of students said LAN from labs is faster
than Wi-Fi and 25% (9) of them said they are similar. Thus, Wi-Fi seems to be a suitable
method when access the sites and other applications and participants were convinced to
use it. These results are answering of the research questions of this study and yet the
researcher knows which method the students would like to use.
50
Figure 5.17: Which method is faster when accessing sites and accessing other applications
such as wise up?
? Do you think introduction of Wi-Fi hotspots would interest you more in using computers
and the internet more often
Total number of 72% (29) of students strongly agreed that the introduction of Wi-Fi
hotspots would interest them more in using the internet daily. Total number of 25% (10)
of students merely agreed that Wi-Fi would interest them in using the internet often and
3% (1) of them were disagreed about it. Then these results are telling us as the
researchers that Wi-Fi hotspots are needs of students especially in tertiary institutions
because students would benefit on it.
51
Figure 5.18: Do you think introduction of Wi-Fi hotspots would interest you more in using
computers and the internet more often
? Deployment and use of hotspot would be beneficial in improving student communication.
Participants agreed that implementation or deployment and use of wireless hotspots
would be beneficial in terms of improving their communication. Therefore, 60% (24) of
them agreed and 40% (16) of them strongly agreed that they would benefit on it.
52
Figure 5.19: Deployment and use of hotspot would be beneficial in improving student
communication.
? Which are the common sites you like opening on a daily basis?
Most of participants like opening Google and its application such as YouTube and Gmail
on a daily basis. Total number of 77% (31) of participants likes to use Google and its
application on a daily basis. Total number of 20% (8) of them like opening face book on
a daily basis and 3% (1) of them like to open other sites on a daily basis.
53
Figure 5.20: Which are the common sites you like opening on a daily basis?
? Introduction of Wi-Fi hotspots would improve the learning and education standards in the
campus at large?
It seems to be possible to extend the current wired network at WSU. Based on figure 5.21
below, 50% (25) of students strongly agreed that wireless hotspots would improve their
learning and standards of education in their campus at large. Total number of 45% (14) of
them agreed and 5% (1) of them strongly disagreed about it.
54
Figure 5.21: Would Wi-Fi improve learning and education standards in campus.
? Do you think that using hotspots would be critical especially for those who want to utilize
the resources after school hours and during the weekends?
The students think that using hotspots would be crucial especially for them who want to
utilize the resource during weekends and after school hours. Then 50% (20) of the
students strongly agreed about it. Total number of 45% (18) of them was merely agreed
and 5% (2) of the participants were disagreed on it as can be seen in the figure 5.22
below.
55
Figure 5.22: Would hotspots be critical to students who want to use the resources after school
hours and during the weekends
? Do you think the use of wireless network would improve communication levels in the
campus?
Total number of 52% (21) of participants strongly agreed that wireless network would
improve communication level in their campus and 48% (19) of them agreed on that.
56
Figure 5.23: Do you think the use of wireless network would improve communication levels in
the campus?
? Speed of the network
Total number of 25% (10) of participants said that the speed of the network is excellent
and 32% (13) of participants showed a greater percentage, they said speed of the network
is good but 3% (1) of participants said speed of the network is poor. Lastly two groups of
participants have the same percentage which 20% (8) (fair and Very good). These results
clearly presented in figure 5.24 below.
57
Figure 5.24: Speed of the network
5.5 Conclusion
This chapter presented the information collected from the questionnaire and temporary deployed
wireless network or experiments. The information from questionnaire grouped as the quantitative
data because it involved numerical numbers to analyze the data. The information from the
technical data analysis or experiments results grouped as the qualitative information. In this
chapter, questionnaires were based on the deployed wireless network that the students were
accessing during this study. Approximately to 40 participants were given the questionnaire and it
was consists of thirteen questions. The connectivity test of the experiments performed and
different commands and applications used to test the network connectivity. Wireshark was the
best software in capturing the network packets and frames.
Lastly, the researcher shown the readers of this study the steps that were undertaken to configure
the D-link DWL 2100AP access point in this study.
58
6 CHAPTER SIX
6.1 Conclusion and Recommendations
This research is based on an Investigation of the deployment of wireless network at WSU in
Ibika campus residence. This section presents an abstract of the results of the task undertaken in
this study. It also offers the outline of the accomplishment and constraint skilled during this
project. The last section of this chapter provides the future work.
The primarily quantitative and qualitative approaches were taken and the literature review
performed in order to determine the suitable wireless technologies required to extend the wired
network. Literature review helped this study to choose the wireless technologies required in
expanding any wired network. It was very useful in this project because research questions
answered by it. Questions like “what are the suitable implementation and methodology and
design of wireless network that would support students in their residence?”
Furthermore, the status of deploying wireless network at universities reviewed and technologies
and security concerns were discussed in chapter two of this study above.
Therefore, chapter two of this study established the basis of this project. Forth participants were
given questionnaires and these questionnaires were conducted based on the experiments or
deployed wireless network that this study discusses above in chapter four and was based on the
findings of wireless technologies required in expanding the LAN. Forty students were
questionnaire randomly, reason behind that was to avoid bias from the group of students. Data
collected by the literature review and questionnaire. The information collected by literature
review grouped as qualitative data and information collected by questionnaire grouped as
quantitative data.
6.1.1 Research Question Declarations
Research question outlined in chapter one section 1.3 and in this section are presented as the
same sequence they are presented in chapter one above. Research questions have answered as
follows:
59
? What are the suitable implementation, methodology, and design of wireless network
that would support students in their residence?
Chapter 2 presented various implementations and methodology of wireless network at
educational institutes. Thus, this research first chose Wi-Fi hotspots as the suitable design for
Ibika extension of the LAN. Because, in this study participants (students) were convinced and
satisfied with the way Wi-Fi works and it offers a cost effectively and secure telecommunication
network. Another reason, it is said that Wi-Fi is interoperable and it can be easily combined with
other technologies when needed. The Ibika campus residence has various buildings, therefore,
Wi-Fi could be suitable and that is the reasons why this study chose wireless network over the
wired network. It is said that, deployment of wired LAN in buildings is very expensive as
compared to wireless because it involves a lot of cabling. Furthermore, Wi-Fi will easily extend
created wired network (Alliance, 2005).
? What are wireless requirements to extend the wired network?
Earlier to deploying wireless telecommunication for educational institutions, network designers
need to take into consideration different fundamentals related to institutional communication. In
Chapter 2, various considerations when one want to deploy wireless network and wireless
technologies required to extend wired network were discussed. Without disbeliefs, this study did
experiments using wireless technologies and requirements. Thus, an access point seems to be the
suitable wireless technology to extend the wired network but it cannot achieve that alone.
? How do students currently access the I bika network while they are in campus and in
their residence?
From the data analysis (chapter four), it was clearly shown that students access internet from the
labs when they are in the campus and then when they are on their residence they do not even
have any internet access. Even when they are in the campus they have limitations on the network
because at 10pm labs are closed as it was stated on the problem statement in chapter one. Thus,
students have access on the network from 8am to 10pm in the campus.
60
? Which access technologies can be combined to develop a cost effectively and a reliable
wireless network suitable I bika campus residence?
In chapter three, different wireless access technologies were compared to each other such
Bluetooth versus Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi versus WIMAX, 3G versus 4G, Wi-Fi versus VSAT, WIMAX
versus 3G, and Wi-Fi versus 3G. From the comparison of these wireless access technologies
combination of Wi-Fi and WIMAX was the suitable choice after the comparison of these
technologies. Wi-Fi and WIMAX both have interoperability and can be easily combined to offer
a secure telecommunication network and a cost effectively. Each technology contributes better
efficiency and broader coverage. Thus, this research made the best selection of the suitable
technologies for the Ibika network.
This project performed an experiments and D-link DWL 2100AP access point was used to create
the Wi-Fi hotspots and questionnaires were created based on the experiments or deployment of
Wi-Fi hotspots. The configurations and connectivity tests were conducted and had shown in
chapter four. Ping application was used to test the connectivity of the network. Researcher
initially pinged the D-link DWL 2100AP access point ip address. Afterwards, pinged the domain
names such as “Google.co.za” and “gmail.com”, connection was successful. Wireshark was the
only software used to capture network packets. Participants (students) were happy during the
time they were accessing the internet wirelessly and therefore, wireless network in their
residences would definitely improve communication between them and the staff. Hence,
participants were asked this question “Do you think the use of wireless network would improve
communication levels in the campus?” and they were strongly agreed and shown interests.
6.1.2 Study limitations
This research was on an investigation of the deployment of wireless LAN at Walter Sisulu
University in Ibika campus residence. Questionnaires were conducted on the students
(participants) who are currently using the wired network and who are residing in the campus
student village and campus hostels, the off campus students were ignored in this project.
61
Due to limited resources, this study used only one access point to do the experiments or to create
Wi-Fi hotspots. Therefore, this study was unable to bring the wireless network to students at
their residences because D-link DWL 2100AP supports 330 feet for indoors and 1310 feet for
open space. The distance from the place, where the access point was situated to the student’s
residences is approximately 120 meters away. Hence, students were accessing the internet
wirelessly in the Information Technology (IT) department where the access point was placed.
Thus, these were the limitations of this project.
6.1.3 Future Work
In this project, it is proved that the combination of wireless access technologies, such as Wi-Fi
and WiMAX has a vast advantage as compared to other access technologies. This project created
Wi-Fi hotspots using only one access point and used various applications to test the connectivity.
It is recommended that many universities adopt wireless network to student’s residences because
it offer affordable and reliable broad connectivity for educational institutions. Further research
could start where this project ends.
Thus, further work could be on deployment of wireless in the student campus residence since
this project could not have enough resources to do so. Furthermore, future work could be where
the research would use perhaps four access points then test the speed, distance and the signal
strength they could supports.
62
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8 Appendix A- Questionnaire
I am a B.tech student in Information Technology at Walter Sisulu University. I am doing the
research on an Investigation into the suitability of deployment of wireless LAN at WSU Ibika
campus residence in Butterworth in the province of Eastern Cape.
This study will be performed by Phila Tshaka and will be under supervision of Nkanyiso Ndlovu
and Nobert Jere. Those supervisors had approved the research proposal. This research will take
over 6 month’s period from June 2013 to November 2013.
Data collection will be performed through questionnaire and the analysis of documentations such
as, articles, thesis, books and other related information.
Submission of a completed questionnaire will be taken as demonstration of blessing.
The information that may classify you will be kept confidential and any access to your
information is by the researcher and my supervisors.
Signature of Participant…………………………………
Thank you!
Please tick with (X).
1. Have you ever used computers and the wireless Internet access before?
Yes
No
65
2. How many years have you been using computers and the wireless Internet access?
Never before
Less than a year
1-2 years
More than 2
years
3. How frequently do you use the Internet per week?
Once
More than once
4. How long do you use the Internet per day?
1 hour or less
More than 1
hour
5. Do you use the Internet and some other deployed applications during weekends?
Yes
No
6. Which method do you use to access the Internet?
LAN from labs
Wi-Fi
connections
using laptop
Both
7. Which method is faster when accessing sites and accessing other applications such as wise up?
66
LAN from labs
Wi-Fi
connections
Similar
8. Do you think the introduction of Wi-Fi hotspots would interest you more in using computers and
the Internet more often?
Strongly agree
Agree
Disagree
Strongly
disagree
9. Do you think deployment and use of hotspots would be beneficial in terms of the improving
your communication?
Strongly agree
Agree
Disagree
Strongly
disagree
10. Which are the common sites you like opening on a daily basis?
Google and its
applications e.g.
Gmail
Face book
Daily dispatch
newspaper
Other
67
11. Do you think the introduction of Wi-Fi hotspots would improve the learning and education
standards in the campus?
Strongly agree
Agree
Disagree
Strongly
disagree
12. Do you think that using hotspots is convenient and would be critical especially for people who
want to utilize the resources after school hours and during the weekends?
Strongly agree
Agree
disagree
Strongly
disagree
13. Do you think the use of wireless network would improve communication levels in the campus?
Strongly agree
Agree
Disagree
Strongly
disagree
68
14. How is the speed of the internet?
Excellent
Very Good
Good
Fair
Poor
Very Poor
doc_454911620.pdf
(WLAN) AT WALTER SISULU UNIVERSITY: IBIKA
CAMPUS RESIDENCE
Submitted by
Phila Tshaka
210127392
In partial fulfillment of the requirements of the Bachelor of Technology:
Communication Networks
IT Department, School of Computing, Faculty of Science, Engineering and Technology
Supervisor: Mr. N. Ndlovu
December 2013
Declaration
I hereby proclaim that “An Investigation on the deployment of wireless LAN (WLAN) at Walter
Sisulu University in Ibika campus residence” is my innovative work and it has not been
submitted before. All sources I have used are acknowledged in this project.
Signature: ……………………………
Acknowledgement
I am thankful to God who is giving me love, power and care for me .There is nothing impossible
in his name.
I would like to thankful my supervisors Dr. Jere Nobert and Mr.Nkanyiso Ndlovu for their help
and support. Their supervision, encouragement and advices made this project a success. I would
not have completed this project.
My grandmother is my source of encouragement and my achievements are due to the love, care,
and support of the family. They have always told me that “ayikho into engenabunzima ebomini”
I am thankful to Mrs. Andiswa Roji and Mr. Ricky Ngandu whose contribution during this
project was tremendous. I appreciate their advice, encouragement and motivations indeed.
I would like to articulate appreciation for the time, encouragement and guidance by Mrs. Pumla
Tshiki, Miss Lisa, Mrs. Magadla, Mr. T.Apleni and Mr. Fikile Dubula my former high school
teachers.
I am thankful to Miss Khumbula Siwundla who has been praying for me. She has shown the care
to me during this project.
Lastly, I am also recognized the support of my mates and friends Xolani Ntsiba, Mkumla TWG,
Luthando Ndongeni, Siphamandla Mpakato, Robe Mnoneleli and Bongekile Fotoyi.
Abstract
Wireless Local Areas Networks (WLANs) have speedily become fashionable, mostly in
education sectors. Understanding of the demand from students is essential for the people who
want to manage, develop or deploy and improve their networks at tertiary institutions.
The purpose of this study was an investigation about the suitability of deployment of wireless
network at Ibika campus (WSU) residence can be implemented and assess the suitability of
deployment of wireless network at WSU in the case of Ibika campus. This could enable the
deployment of a network that allows the students and the staff to access the intranet LAN
wirelessly no matter where they are on the campus, including student’s residence. Data was
collected through literature review and questionnaire. Questionnaires were based on the deployed
Wi-Fi hotspots and participants were asked to give views. Participants were the students who are
contemporary using the wired network and who are residing in the campus student village and
campus hostels, the off campus students were not considered in this study. D-link DWL 2100AP
access point, lenovo laptop were used in the creation of Wi-Fi hotspots and wireshark was used
to capture the frames and the packets in the network. Finally, the results show that it is feasible to
extend the current wired network at WSU. This involves the deployment of Wi-Fi hotspots and
both students and staff support the need for 27/7 connectivity at Ibika campus.
Key words: IEEE 802.11 series, Wireless Local Area Networks, Ibika campus residence,
WIMAX and Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi)
Contents
1. CHAPTER ONE ....................................................................................................................................... 1
1.1 Introduction .................................................................................................................................. 1
1.2 Problem statement ....................................................................................................................... 1
1.3 Research questions ....................................................................................................................... 2
1.4 Objectives of the study ................................................................................................................. 2
1.5 Significant and relevant ................................................................................................................ 3
1.6 Theoretical analysis of methods ................................................................................................... 3
1.7 Chapters organization ................................................................................................................... 4
1.8 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................................... 4
2 CHAPTER TWO ...................................................................................................................................... 5
2.1 Overview of wireless connectivity ................................................................................................ 5
2.2 Considerations for Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) ............................................................ 7
2.3 How Wi-Fi works ........................................................................................................................... 7
2.4 How WiMAX works ....................................................................................................................... 9
2.5 Standards of Choosing Wireless Technology for University Environments ................................ 10
2.6 Network Requirement Components ........................................................................................... 11
2.6.1 Hardware............................................................................................................................. 11
2.7 Wireless Controlling Methods or Technologies .......................................................................... 11
2.7.1 IEEE 802.11i ......................................................................................................................... 13
2.7.2 Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) ............................................................................................ 13
2.8 Network Topology ....................................................................................................................... 13
2.8.1 Infrastructure Network ....................................................................................................... 13
2.8.2 Ad hoc network ................................................................................................................... 14
2.9 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................... 15
3 CHAPTER THREE .................................................................................................................................. 17
3.1 Wireless access technologies ...................................................................................................... 17
3.1.1 Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11) .............................................................................................................. 18
3.1.2 WIMAX (IEEE 802.16) .......................................................................................................... 18
3.2 Wireless Access Technologies Comparison ................................................................................ 20
3.2.1 Wi-Fi and WiMAX ................................................................................................................ 20
3.2.2 WiMAX and VSAT ................................................................................................................ 20
3.2.3 Bluetooth and Wi-Fi ............................................................................................................ 21
3.2.4 Wi-Fi and 3G (UMTS) ........................................................................................................... 21
3.2.5 WiMAX and 3G (UMTS) ....................................................................................................... 21
3.2.6 3G (UMTS) and 4G (UMTS) ................................................................................................. 22
3.2.7 FHSS and DSSS ..................................................................................................................... 22
3.3 Wireless LAN standards comparison .......................................................................................... 23
3.4 Various Technologies used during the experiments ................................................................... 23
3.5 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................... 25
4 CHAPTER FOUR ................................................................................................................................... 26
4.1 Theoretical analysis of methods ................................................................................................. 26
4.2 LAN Technology .......................................................................................................................... 28
4.2.1 Type of Media ..................................................................................................................... 28
4.3 Software Specifications ............................................................................................................... 28
4.3.1 Network Protocols .............................................................................................................. 29
4.3.2 Server Operating System .................................................................................................... 29
4.3.3 Working Station Operating System ..................................................................................... 29
4.4 Hardware Specifications ............................................................................................................. 29
4.4.1 Number of Access Points .................................................................................................... 29
4.4.2 Backbone Needs .................................................................................................................. 30
4.4.3 Network Equipment ............................................................................................................ 30
4.4.4 Number of Servers .............................................................................................................. 31
4.5 User Specifications ...................................................................................................................... 31
4.5.1 Type of Users....................................................................................................................... 31
4.5.2 User Applications ................................................................................................................ 31
4.6 Data Collection ............................................................................................................................ 32
4.6.1 Data Collection Procedures ................................................................................................. 32
4.7 Summary of Qualitative research approaches: .......................................................................... 33
4.8 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................... 33
5 CHAPTER FIVE...................................................................................................................................... 35
5.1 Data findings and analysis ........................................................................................................... 35
5.2 Qualitative data findings ............................................................................................................. 35
5.2.1 Technical data analysis and connectivity test ..................................................................... 35
5.2.2 Connectivity test ................................................................................................................. 35
5.2.3 Packet and frame captured ................................................................................................. 38
5.2.4 User authentication ............................................................................................................ 39
5.2.5 Range of the network and Signal strength.......................................................................... 39
5.2.6 Configuration evaluation or results .................................................................................... 40
5.2.7 Throughput ......................................................................................................................... 42
5.3 Physical network testing ............................................................................................................. 43
5.4 Quantitative data findings .......................................................................................................... 44
5.4.1 Questionnaire analysis ........................................................................................................ 44
5.5 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................... 57
6 CHAPTER SIX ........................................................................................................................................ 58
6.1 Conclusion and Recommendations............................................................................................. 58
6.1.1 Research Question Declarations ......................................................................................... 58
6.1.2 Study limitations ................................................................................................................. 60
6.1.3 Future Work ........................................................................................................................ 61
7 REFERENCES ........................................................................................................................................ 62
8 Appendix A- Questionnaire ................................................................................................................. 64
List of figures
Figure 2.1: How Wi-Fi works ....................................................................................................................... 9
Figure 2.2: This figure shows how WIMAX works ..................................................................................... 10
Figure 2.3: Evolution of security (Ndlovu, 2011) ....................................................................................... 12
Figure 2.4: WLAN adapted from www.ecnmag.com, August 2013 ............................................................ 14
Figure 2.5: WLAN adapted from www.ecnmag.com, August 2013 ............................................................ 15
Figure 3.1: According to Ndlovu cited (Gumaste et al., 2004) ................................................................... 23
Figure 3.2: D-link DWL 2100AP ................................................................................................................ 24
Figure 4.1 : User authentication................................................................................................................. 32
FifFigure 5.1: ipconfig results .................................................................................................................... 36
FiFigure 5.2: Connectivity between the D-link access point and the working machine (lenovo) .............. 36
Figure 5.3: Connectivity between the working machine and domain name (google.co.za) ....................... 37
Figure 5.4: User successful login on Google ............................................................................................. 38
Figure 5.5: Frame captured on Wireshark software. ................................................................................. 38
Figure 5.6: User authentication.................................................................................................................. 39
Figure 5.7: Bandwidth of the wireless network .......................................................................................... 40
Figure 5.8: Access point setup Wizard configuration. ................................................................................ 41
Figure 5.9: Shows the access point information (status) after the configuration of this study .................. 42
Figure 5.10: WLAN 802.11G traffic statistics ............................................................................................ 43
Figure 5.11: Have you ever used computers and wireless internet access before? ................................... 45
Figure 5.12: How many years have you been using the computers and wireless internet access? ............ 46
Figure 5.13: How frequently do you use the internet per week? ................................................................ 47
Figure 5.14: How long do you use the internet per day? ........................................................................... 47
Figure 5.15: Do you use the internet and some other deployed applications during weekends?............... 48
Figure 5.16: Which method do you use to access the internet? ................................................................. 49
Figure 5.17: Which method is faster when accessing sites and accessing other applications such as wise
up? .............................................................................................................................................................. 50
Figure 5.18: Do you think introduction of Wi-Fi hotspots would interest you more in using computers and
the internet more often ................................................................................................................................ 51
Figure 5.19: Deployment and use of hotspot would be beneficial in improving student communication. . 52
Figure 5.20: Which are the common sites you like opening on a daily basis? ........................................... 53
Figure 5.21: Would Wi-Fi improve learning and education standards in campus. ................................... 54
Figure 5.22: Would hotspots be critical to students who want to use the resources after school hours and
during the weekends .................................................................................................................................... 55
Figure 5.23: Do you think the use of wireless network would improve communication levels in the
campus? ...................................................................................................................................................... 56
Figure 5.24: Speed of the network .............................................................................................................. 57
List of Acronyms and Abbreviations
AP Access Point
CPE Customer Premise Equipment
CSU Charleston Southern University
DAN Digital Access Node
DHCP Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol
DNS Domain Name System
DoS Denial of Service
DSSS Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum
FHSS Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum
FOSS Free and Open Source Software
FTP File Transfer Protocol
IEEE Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
IP Internet Protocol
IPSec Internet Protocol Security
ISP Internet Service Provider
LAN Local Area Network
LTE Long Term Evolution
MOFA Ministry Of Food and Agriculture
NLOS Non-Line-Of-Sight
PDA Personal Digital Assistant
QoS Quality of Service
RF Radio Frequency
TCP Transmission Control Protocol
UMTS Universal Mobile Telecommunications System
VPN Virtual Private Network
VSAT Very Small Aperture Terminal
WAP Wireless Access Point
WEP Wired Equivalent Privacy
Wi-Fi Wireless Fidelity
WiMAX Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access
WLAN Wireless Local Area Network
WPA Wi-Fi Protected Access
WSU Walter Sisulu University
1
1. CHAPTER ONE
1.1 Introduction
Wireless Local Area Networks have become more and more fashionable, mainly in educational
institutions. There are several wireless technologies on the market today such as IEEE 802.11
sequence. Many laptops are wireless capable either in IEEE 802.11a or IEEE 802g standard
(Han, 2008). Furthermore, the new standard of IEEE 802.11n has been replacing the wired
networks and gradually taking over the network market today.
With wireless networking the cables are removed, the networks are well suited and the
connections become easier. With benefits of the wireless LAN, many institutions have offered
WLAN at campuses for students. The benefits of wireless networking are more understandable
in educational institutes because of elastic it offers. According to Rudsar, Joyce and Kolahi
(2006) stated that the elasticity of wireless networking allocates students greater access without
the expense of cabling new buildings or areas like computer laboratories where the student
would be restricted.
The researcher is a student and a user of a wired network at WSU in Ibika campus. The research
is to assess the suitability of deployment of wireless network at WSU in Ibika campus residence.
This could enable the deployment of a network that allows the students and the staff to access the
network wirelessly no matter where they are on the campus, including student’s residence.
1.2 Problem statement
There are number of problems that are facing Ibika campus students at WSU but this study is
focusing on one problem. The main problem where this study is focusing on is on the current
network of Ibika campus. The problem on the contemporary network is only designed for staff
office and student computer labs. This becomes a huge problem when the labs are closed because
students do not have access to the internet during night or after 10pm. This problem becomes
worse during weekends and holiday for students who are not going to their homes, because the
2
students do not have any access to the internet, as a result, they feel that they are not fully
benefiting from the Ibika network.
1.3 Research questions
This research is focusing on the main research question of “what is the suitable implementation
methodology and design of a wireless network that would support students in their
residence?”The following are the three sub-questions developed to help understanding of the
main research question.
? What are wireless requirements to extend the wired network?
? How do students currently access the I bika network while at campus and in the residence?
? Which access technologies can be combined to develop or deploy a cost effectively and a
reliable wireless network suitable for I bika residence campus?
The research questions above were aimed to get answers from literature review because
participants of this study do not know wireless technologies or requirements to extend the wired
network. Some of the research questions were answered in the literature review. The questions
were required qualitative answers, for example this question was not answered by the literature
review “How do students currently access the I bika network while at campus and in the
residence?”
1.4 Objectives of the study
? To investigate how students currently access the network resources currently on the
wired network
? To describe a wireless enabled network that can be integrated into the existing
infrastructure.
? To explore the access technologies that can be combined to develop or deploy a cost
effectively and reliable wireless network suitable for Ibika residence campus.
3
1.5 Significant and relevant
The significant and relevant of this research is that, this prototype can examine an area as a
group, communicate using centralized control, and offer a low cost solution. With more and
more of the wireless devices that can be used, there is a stable benefit to offer high quality,
reliable, interoperable and secure communication between devices. This benefit will allow
students to get access to the internet easier.
Another significant and relevant is that this prototype can support student cantered learning in
five aspects: mobility, elasticity, cooperation, communication and learning environment. In the
case of mobility, when the students want to study, they would not have to be limited to the desk
to do it and students would use the wireless internet to do their schoolwork such as projects,
research, etc while they are seating in their rooms. In learning environment, wireless internet will
let students to choose an encouraging learning environment. Elasticity, students can take place at
any time and therefore they can make extra competent use of their time. Students and staff can
work and study on schoolwork while doing other things. Cooperation, student can study with a
group of friends and do research and talk to other students using wireless LAN. Lastly, in the
case of communication wireless LAN would make it easier for them to communicate with other
students, their family and friends. The key thing is that students can send information back and
onward over wireless internet. This would enhance communication that in turn would improve
learning.
1.6 Theoretical analysis of methods
This study focuses on an investigation into the suitability of deployment of wireless LAN at
WSU in Ibika campus residence. Special research approaches that are used are:
? Literature review was conducted to understand the wireless technologies required to
extend the wired network and to gain the knowledge and fully understanding of the
wireless telecommunication network.
? Questionnaires were created and participants were asked questions based on their
experience after the experiments.
4
? This study suggested wireless technologies, such as user applications and protocols that
could be used to extend the wired network after getting the outcomes from the
experiments performed.
1.7 Chapters organization
The literature review in this study is presented in chapter two. Chapter 2 discusses detailed
studies that are relevant to this study and it was used to determine the wireless technologies that
can be combined to develop a cost effectively and reliable wireless network. Chapter 2
mentioned various requirements needed to extend the wired network.
Chapter 4 of this research is the methodology chapter and is presented. Methodology chapter
describes methods used and discusses the literature review. Chapter 3 detailed explain network
components, user requirements and tools were used to create the Wi-Fi hotspots.
In chapter 5, the collected data is analyzed. Finally, chapter 6 discusses the results, limitations of
this study and set out the conclusion and the future work.
1.8 Conclusion
This chapter presented the introduction of the study and problem statement was outlined.
Furthermore, section 1.3 outlined the research problems, section 1.4 outlined the objectives of
the study and section 1.5 outlined the significant and relevant of the study. The methodology was
used to perform the investigation of deployment of wireless network and describes methods and
experiments used in this study. Section 1.7 outlined chapter organization of this study. Thus,
chapter two below presents literature review that discusses different studies that are relevant to
this research.
5
2 CHAPTER TWO
2.1 Overview of wireless connectivity
Wireless Local Area Networks are being adopted in many universities all over the world. Han
(2008) believed that students could benefit from easier access and information technology
department could get the advantages because WLAN decrease the physical cabling requirements.
Wireless LAN make nowadays campuses more and more flexible by offering new features of
learning environment, mobility, collaboration and expanding areas of support.
This chapter details review different studies on campus wireless network and marginalizes areas.
This chapter also discusses the relations method of wireless adoption at universities and at rural
areas. This study has been inclined by the literature review allude the research questions and
research objectives that the researcher seek to accomplish. This chapter will make possible for
the researcher to identify the types of wireless technologies that are required to achieve the
wireless intranet connectivity and based on the resources available and location in order to
achieve the researcher’s mission. The next section discusses various studies that the researcher
had discussed.
Ktoridou (2010) reported that the University of California in Santa Cruz California had become
the first university to offer the wireless network to students and faculty. The coverage of the
wireless network was on the campus and integrated self-service restaurant and parking lot
(Ktoridou, 2010). Even in nowadays, many universities are not able to offer the wireless network
on campus or to offer it with such wide coverage. Many universities merely offer the wireless
networks in buildings, such as the UNITEC New Zealand University.
Bruns (2005) reported that Charleston Southern University (CSU) collaborated with CDW
Government to enhance its dial-up network to campus-wide wireless networks. It was essential
to spend less money and to provide a more productive learning environment for students and
faculty. By comparing the budget for escalating the dial-up system and building a wired network
with Category 5 cable (over $500,000), CSU calculated it would save at least $250,000 if
wireless technology was preferred. CSU decided to implement a wireless network and provide it
6
to students and faculty (Bruns, 2005). Bruns (2005) stated that, test of wireless network was
initiated in 2001 and supports approximately about 500 students.
Executive summary: Proposal for ubiquitous campus WLAN for Buffalo State (n.d) had done the
proposal similar or related to this study for the Buffalo state campus where their proposal was
based on the new Wi-Fi standard (802.11n). Their aim or objective was to provide total campus
coverage and allow all “campus constituents” to access the network wirelessly without any
limitations. They recommended the implementation or deployment of the campus WLAN into
two phases. During the first phase they decided to install approximately 350 wireless access
points (APs) mainly in buildings with classrooms to provide reliable wireless coverage for the
students (Executive summary: Proposal for ubiquitous campus WLAN for Buffalo State, n.d).
During the second phase, they installed 300 more access points (APs) to cover the entire campus
and boost wireless LAN capacity and performance (Executive summary: Proposal for ubiquitous
campus WLAN for Buffalo State, n.d). The goals of the first phase of their research were:
? To offer wireless intranet to students in every classroom and its neighboring area, in
every study areas indoors and in outdoor areas between buildings (Executive summary:
Proposal for ubiquitous campus WLAN for Buffalo State, n.d)
? To offer wireless intranet for the visitors and companies in every conference room and
neighboring areas on campus (Executive summary: Proposal for ubiquitous campus
WLAN for Buffalo State, n.d). The estimated cost of their project was $1, 100, 00($650,
00 for phase one and $450, 00 for the second phase).
Deep et.al., (2010) indicated that technology with the emergence of cross manufacture industry
standards such as IEEE 802.11, has rapidly changed a number of popular and cost-effective
wireless solutions for schools and business where installing wired network is impractical, such as
in buildings and warehousing.
Deep et.al., (2010) also proposed method for planning for low cost wireless network where they
have been made to design a cost effectively WLAN of residential areas with a “population of 500
people, i.e. around 100 flats (2-3 floors) and bungalows”. Their objective was to provide wireless
7
intranet connection to all the population there and cover all the residential area. The cost was
“(40000/-50000/-(INR/800-1000 USD)” (Deep et.al, 2010).
2.2 Considerations for Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN)
There are various considerations when designing the wireless LAN at university campuses or
environment. Roshan and Leary (2003) stated these various considerations for designing the
WLAN in an educational environment. The first consideration was the convenience: “WLANs
give them the opportunity to provide ubiquitous coverage so that they can bring networks to the
students instead of bringing the students to the network” (Roshan & Leary, 2003). The second
consideration was on the cost effectively: “as computers have become a larger part of the
learning process, the time and resource savings that wireless brings has proven to be rewarding”
(Roshan & Leary, 2003). The third consideration was no physical boundaries: “many school
buildings were designed before the computer revolution, it just might not be feasible to run wires
to the students” (Roshan & Leary, 2003). The fourth consideration was the challenge in
implementing or deploying wireless network at university environment, of “ensuring that the
infrastructure can support a multivendor client environment” (Roshan & Leary, 2003). The last
consideration was on the security. Roshan and Leary (2003) concluded by saying that, “The
easiest and most rapidly deployable solution might be to employ wireless bridges to connect the
remote network with the school network.”
Nisbet (2004) mentioned “four key questions that must be answered when planning a wireless
network for a campus. The first question was “Who will use it?” The second question was
“Where will they use it? The third question and the last question were “What services to deliver?
How will they use it” (Nisbet, 2004)? He believed that “the choice of wireless technology
available means that organizations need to decide on the standards that best suit their needs”
(Nisbet, 2004).
2.3 How Wi-Fi works
Wireless Fidelity technology is defined on the IEEE 802.11 standard (Sharma, 2008). This
means that primarily, this technology designed to offer wireless network in buildings with
8
broadband coverage approximately to 100 meters. Ofori-Dwumfuo and Salakpi (2011) stated,
“Wi-Fi has become the standard for broadband connectivity in homes, offices and public hotspot
locations.”
IEEE 802.11 LANs uses radio signals, wireless access points and Wi-Fi NIC. Han (2008) stated
that, “Wi-Fi receivers pick up the radio signals transmitted from antennas.” Wi-Fi card reads the
signals and establishes an internet connection between the client and the network without the use
of a card (Ofori-Dwumfuo & Salakpi, 2011). “Access points consist of antennas and routers
which transmit and receive radio wave” (Ofori-Dwumfuo & Salakpi, 2011). Ofori-Dwumfuo and
Salakpi (2011) believed that antennas are stronger in working with AP and have longer coverage
radio transmissions with radius 90 to 165m, while routers are more and more suitable for homes
with radio transmissions of 30 to 50m. Wi-Fi connects the laptops to the antenna for a direct link
to the intranet, and Wi-Fi hotspot is created by installing an AP to an intranet connection (Ofori-
Dwumfuo & Salakpi, 2011). When this technology enabled a device such as a laptop, encounters
a hotspot, the user can then connect to that network wirelessly.
Ofori-Dwumfuo and Salakpi (2011) showed the propose diagram of how Wi-Fi works, below is
the structure that illustrates the design of Wi-Fi:
9
Figure 2.1: How Wi-Fi works
In the above illustrated example, an Access Point (AP) propagate the signals to the devices
which is connected to and AP is 100m indoors that means it accommodate the users that are
around that 100m coverage. There is also a device, which is 300m outdoor and is accessing the
internet from the AP.
2.4 How WiMAX works
WiMAX wireless technology consist of a system that encompasses two parts such as a receiver
and a base station or tower (Ofori-Dwumfuo & Salakpi, 2011). The tower station provides huge
wireless coverage to a large area called cell. Practical considerations radius of a cell is 10km, but
theoretical, it has the greatest radius of 50km (Curran et al., 2007). Ofori-Dwumfuo and Salakpi
(2011) indicated the important features of WiMAX as a backhaul, which facilitates the
10
connection both from the access point back to the tower station and to the connection from the
tower station to the core network.
Ofori-Dwumfuo and Salakpi (2011) have shown below how WIMAX works.
Figure 2.2: This figure shows how WI MAX works
The diagram above review how WiMAX work and represents the description that the researcher
discussed about it.
2.5 Standards of Choosing Wireless Technology for University Environments
Various factors must have to be reflected when one chooses technologies for University
environments. The following are some parameters that can be full taken into reflection:
? The technology has to be helpful, simple and more protected (Ndlovu, 2011).
? The suitability, vulnerabilities and strong point of the technology have to be taken into
account (Han, 2008).
? Costs of the design implementation and operation have to be very slow so that the
deployment of wireless network can be affordable to the community (Ndlovu, 2011).
? The technology must offer coverage over a long area irrespective of the nature of
university environments e.g. trees and buildings (Han, 2008).
11
? Scalability and elasticity of wireless network are to be used together to work with other
technology (Ndlovu, 2011).
2.6 Network Requirement Components
Network components are needed when deploying any type of network. These network
components are Hardware and Software. In this study, there are number of hardware and
software components that could be used. However, the section below brief described the
hardware components that were used during the implementation of Wi-Fi and WiMAX SLL
network.
2.6.1 Hardware
? Wireless Access Points (APs): Access points which support IEEE 802.11b standard
include the Cisco Aironet 1100AP series, DWC 2100 AP and Cisco 1130AG, however
the Cisco 1130AG had an advantage because it also support the IEEE 802.11a/g (Ndlovu,
2011).
? Micro Base Station (BS): Ndlovu (2011) “this comes in two variants which are chassis
configuration and micro base station.” Ndlovu (2011) stated that micro base station was
deployed in Dwesa area access node and it has the ability and functionality of
communicating with the CPE. This component can connect to the backbone of the
internet service provider. Ndlovu (2011) stated that this component has an additional
advantage, functions such as traffic classification and connection establishment policy
based data switching, and service level agreement management over the BreezeMAX
modular Base Station such as TCP.
2.7 Wireless Controlling Methods or Technologies
This section provides and detailed discusses about the IEEE 802.11 security and feasible
methods for controlling wireless network technologies. We all know that WLANs are not
naturally secured and even the wired LANs are not naturally secured either. However, the key
portion to making a wireless LAN secured and keeping it secured is to educate those who deploy
and manage wireless LAN (Han, 2008). Brawn et al., (2004) stated that the 802.1x authentication
12
could be more secure for students and faculties while they are in the network. No matter whether
where they are in a wired or wireless network, the 802.1x is the suitable method for security
solutions in the campus networks (Brawn et al., 2004). Brawn et al., (2004) mentioned that
students and faculties desire to connect to secured campus network even with their own laptops
or other portable devices.
Ndlovu (2011) stated that security is a crucial aspect that one needs to consider when deploying
WLANs. There is number of wireless security methods exist that can be deployed when
implementing WLANs (Ndlovu, 2011). Vines (2002) mentioned these security methods or
solutions from the series of Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP), Virtual Private Network (VPN)
and Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) to IEEE 802.11i. Vines (2002) verified that these wireless
security methods are different in terms of security levels and each mechanism has its own
benefits and drawbacks that need to be fully understood before deployment of WLAN.
Karygiannis and Owens (2002) have shown the time-line of the evolution of wireless security,
below is the diagram that represents the evolution of wireless security:
Figure 2.3: Evolution of security (Ndlovu, 2011)
In 2003, Wi-Fi Alliance introduced the WPA to be temporary wireless security solution with an
RC4 algorithm (Karygiannis & Owens, 2002). Stanton (2005) mentioned that, “Some institutions
were still using VPNs as an alternative.” In June 2004, a suitable and a very strong encryption
scheme called IEEE 802.11i was introduced (Ndlovu, 2011).
13
2.7.1 IEEE 802.11i
The method (IEEE 802.11i) developed in 2004 (Scholz, 2002). IEEE 802.11i has its weakness
just like any other wireless security methods. According to (Vines, 2002) mentioned that “it
usually experience Denial of Service (DoS) attacks, where an attacker forges the De-
authentication or Disassociated message.”
2.7.2 Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA)
There are various types of WPA authentication; these various types are WPA and WPA2.WPA
designed to work with wireless security, but it may not work with the oldest APs (Vines, 2002).
Vines (2002) reported that WPA2 is extra securing than WPA, but it does not work well with
older network adapters. Best (2003) stated that WPA2 is designed to be used amid on 802.1x
authentication server, which dispense different keys to each user.
Since WEP has many drawbacks, Wi-Fi Alliance introduced WPA in 2003 to act as the
provisional solution or method of wireless security to the weak security offered by WEP (Vines,
2002). Ndlovu (2011) stated that WEP has to be deployed in WLAN infrastructure and mobile
devices, which supports 802.1x EAPOL. However, WPA supports authentication for campus
users (Students and staff) and enterprise.
Brawn et al., (2004) reported that 802.1x authentication can boost wireless security for IEEE
802.11 wireless network and wired Ethernet. This wireless security network (802.1x) uses
authentication servers authenticates or legalizes users and provides network access Brawn et al.,
(2004). Brawn et al., (2004) summed by saying that 802.1x is usually used when connecting to a
network place of work and this type of security is too strong.
2.8 Network Topology
This section describes in details various types of network topology that could be used when
extending the wired network.
2.8.1 Infrastructure Network
In this type of wireless LAN topology, the WAP functions as a bridge between the wired
network and the wireless network. The AP can be linked to a switch (backbone) on the wired
14
network in order to offer wireless services to students (Tay, 2003). It can be used to wirelessly
bridge two wireless areas or wired sectors and this could be the good example in this prototype
extension because with the AP linked to the current network at Ibika each student could access
the server resources as well as to communicate to their lecturers and friends wirelessly. The
figure 2.5 below is an example of the infrastructure topology
Figure 2.4: WLAN adapted from www.ecnmag.com, August 2013
In figure 2.5 above each access point hold various users but the specific number depends on the
magnitude of users and the nature of transmissions concerned.
2.8.2 Ad hoc network
This network topology of a wireless LAN can be simple or complex (Tay, 2003). It is
uncomplicated because it consists of two or more PCs equipped with wireless adapter cards. Ad
hoc networks can be recognized when two users are within the range of each other, with each
devices being referred to as a “cell” (Tay, 2003). This network does not use a central resource
which is AP to manage the network and it has requires manual assignment and distribution of
15
unique address to devices (Tay, 2003). Below is the figure that represents the Ad hoc network
topology.
Figure 2.5: WLAN adapted from www.ecnmag.com, August 2013
2.9 Conclusion
In these campuses, which have adopted IEEE 802.11already or plan to upgrade their wired
network to wireless technology, there is no hesitation that wireless technology has become the
most fashionable mode of communication (Han, 2008). Each of them was seeking a suitable way
to upgrade their wireless and wired networks. Then provide the best service to their students,
faculty and staff (Han, 2008).
This chapter presented many studies; the first university to adopt the WLAN is the University of
California in Santa Cruz California on 1995 as stated above. The preview of these studies
showed the reason for deploying WLANs at areas such as universities, marginalized and the
16
reason was the demand from faculty and students but the main reason was based on the campus
students.
Two studies report the considerations that one need to consider when implementing the Wireless
Local Area Network at universities. The other study reports the wireless LAN extension at
university (Tay, 2003).
From the observation, the best way to extend the wired network is to supplement a Wireless
Access Point (WAP) with 802.11n to a wired LAN’s switch. Wireless access point can be
associated to a switch on the wired LAN (backbone) in order to offer wireless service to the
student’s rooms or blocks building. As stated above that wireless access point can also be used as
a bridge between the wired sectors and wireless sectors, with wireless access point linked to the
wired LAN, each student can access the server resources as well as communicate to each other
(Ndlovu, 2011).
Crucial wireless LAN equipment that one has to consider when extending the wired LAN is the
directional antenna (Tay, 2003). For instead, in the case of Ibika campus residence that has
several block buildings, the directional antenna could be helpful to extend the wireless LAN
from one block to another e.g. three mile away. Directional antenna could be one of the solutions
on that but what might be done is to install it on each block building and each antenna should be
targeting to each other. Thus, the antenna on one block can linked to the wired LAN by the use
of a wireless access point, in the same way to the other blocks or buildings can linked to a
wireless access point in that block, which would allow wireless LAN connectivity in the
residence.
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3 CHAPTER THREE
3.1 Wireless access technologies
This chapter detail describes various access technologies for both media of data transmission and
physical layer. It offer critical knowledge of technologies required for choosing wireless access
technologies and network components. Lastly, it presents the wireless access technologies used
during the experiments of this study.
Ndlovu (2011) who was, “Investigating wireless network deployment configurations for
Marginalized areas” in Dwesa stated that Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access
(WiMAX) and Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi) enable “the rapid deployment of network service as
well as their redistribution throughout these Marginalized areas”(Ndlovu,2011). He also
indicated that DAN could be another wireless technology when implementing WLAN because it
support long distances (Ndlovu, 2011). Ndlovu (2011) stated, “Deploying Wi-Fi hotspots around
the DAN boost the network path to neighboring communities.”
Ofori-Dwumfuo and Salakpi (2011) were “Investigates the feasibility of deploying combined
Wi-Fi and WiMAX technologies” in the Ministry Of Food and Agriculture(MOFA), in Ghana
stated that “WiMAX allows broadband connectivity beyond individual buildings to provide
blanket coverage of an entire area” (Ofori-Dwumfuo & Salakpi, 2011). They also continue
saying that “in some applications, WiMAX and Wi-Fi can be successfully combined; to benefit
from the advantages each technology has to offer” (Ofori-Dwumfuo & Salakpi, 2011). They also
stated that, the advantages of these emerged technologies include “cost effective backhaul, with
long distance range, interference-free, licensed WiMAX and the cost effective access of Wi-Fi
clients” (Ofori-Dwumfuo & Salakpi, 2011). Ofori-Dwumfuo and Salakpi (2011) also mentioned
that Wi-Fi has various advantages, but one of the benefits is “Wi-Fi wireless LAN technology is
very easy and cheap to deploy in comparison to wired systems” (Ofori-Dwumfuo & Salakpi,
2011). They stated that Wi-Fi can offer or distribute network access in urban as well as in rural
areas where it is complicated or impossible to run cables for the wire network (Ofori-Dwumfuo
& Salakpi, 2011). In addition, they concluded by saying that “a vast majority of laptops, PDAs,
18
cordless phones, cellular phones, cameras and media players today have built-in Wi-Fi interface,
therefore enable easy connectivity” (Ofori-Dwumfuo & Salakpi,2011). The interesting thing is
that “Wi-Fi is the hotspot created”, he continued saying that “instead of having to be restricted to
the wired or wireless LAN, one can enjoy the internet in public places such as Airport, Hotels,
Schools and B&B” (Han, 2008). Han (2008) concluded by saying that Wi-Fi also support
roaming where one can access the internet around the buildings from one access point(AP) to
another.
3.1.1 Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11)
Best (2003) and Gumaste et al. (2004) listed some advantages of Wi-Fi:
? It offers low cost and easy deployment (Best, 2003 & Gumaste et al., 2004).
? It support hotspot establishment, which will allow students and staff to access the internet
for 24 hours a day (Best, 2003).
? It offers less financial pressure due to minimal infrastructure deployment as compared to
wire technology (Best, 2003 & Gumaste et al., 2004).
? Wi-Fi is the ability for 802.11b, 802.11g and 802.11n standards to frequency hop
(Ndlovu, 2011).
? It reduces the use of cable network deployment and expansion cost (Best, 2003).
Wi-Fi presents a number of disadvantages or constraints such as low signal strength as the
distance increases, short range coverage (Han, 2008). Thus, the researcher decided to review
some wireless LAN technologies that could support or aids Wi-Fi in order to increase the reliable
of its use. This study found that WiMAX could be an alternative to Wi-Fi, therefore the next
section below detail discusses about this wireless technology since it is considered as an
alternative to Wi-Fi. The researcher reviewed various studies that discusses about WiMAX
technology.
3.1.2 WIMAX (IEEE 802.16)
WiMAX stands for Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (Sweeney, 2007). This
wireless technology offers multiple access modes, which are: mobile communication across
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wireless and wired connectivity, it offers the last mile connectivity to many networks (Han,
2008). WiMAX technology offers much higher bandwidth and range as compared to other
wireless broadband access technologies (Sweeney, 2007). Ofori-Dwumfuo and Salakpi (2011)
stated that, “Theoretical coverage is put at 50km radius with a data rate of up to 75mbps.” Ofori-
Dwumfuo and Salakpi (2011) indicated that WiMAX emerge its wide coverage with Quality of
Service potentials for proving several applications services such as VoIP, data service, IPTV and
streaming media service. They also indicated that WiMAX use Air Interface technology to allow
point-to-multipoint connectivity with the aid of non-line-of-sight (NLOS) from the base station.
There are number of advantages of WiMAX. The advantages are: “The deployment of WiMAX
is easy and cost effective.” Second benefit was that “it supports very high bandwidth solutions
with various spectrum deployment choices.” Third and the fourth benefits were “it also provides
wide range coverage and quality of service (QoS) capabilities for applications and it provides
broadband wireless access in metropolitan areas which fills the gap between Wireless Wide Area
Network (WWAN) and Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN)” (Ofori-Dwumfuo & Salakpi,
2011). They continue saying that this “ allows operators to have special market segments for
WiMAX, for example, wireless broadband access service in rural areas as alternatives to DSL
and cable modems” (Ofori-Dwumfuo & Salakpi, 2011).
Wong and Chou (2006) mentioned that although WiMAX has greater advantages it also has
disadvantages, below are these drawbacks of WiMAX:
? WiMAX offers lower data rates in comparison to other wired technologies like optical
fiber cable (Wong & Chou, 2006).
? Trees, buildings, can affect the signal strength and atmospheric conditions, such as rain
could interrupt the signal, other wireless equipment could cause interference. This
degrades the performance of WiMAX (Wong & Chou, 2006).
? Few companies offer pre-WiMAX products in South Africa. As a result, the products
have to be ship into the country that makes them costly (Best, 2003).
? WiMAX network is very important in structure therefore need much electrical maintain
for running the overall network (Ndlovu, 2011).
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? The data rate speed of WiMAX as compared to other network such as fiber optics,
satellite is very slow (Ofori-Dwumfuo & Salakpi, 2011).
3.2 Wireless Access Technologies Comparison
This section presents different comparison of wireless access technologies. Some of these
technologies discussed in detailed in the above sections, such as Wi-Fi and WiMAX.
3.2.1 Wi-Fi and WiMAX
Ndlovu (2011) stated that Wi-Fi and WiMAX technologies have many similarities. However, the
major difference in these wireless access technologies is the range of communication (Wong &
Chou, 2006). In theoretical, Wi-Fi designed to support short-range coverage of approximately
100m or less and WiMAX can cover distances of close to 70km and above depending on the
environment (Wong & Chou, 2006). These technologies have shown below in the table 3-1.
Table 3-1: Comparison of Wi-Fi and WiMAX (Wong & Chou, 2006).
WiMAX Wi-Fi
? Throughput: 75 Mbps
? Range : 70 km, covers a
small city with one base
station
? Security: Multi-level
encryption
? QoS: Limited
? Throughput: 11-15 Mbps
? Range :80-100 m, covers a
coffee shop, one floor of an
office building
? Security: Limited
? QoS: Dynamic bandwidth
allocation, good for voice and
video
3.2.2 WiMAX and VSAT
Ndlovu (2011) indicated that, “VSAT can be used for backhaul Internet connectivity in remote
rural areas”. WiMAX can then act as the backbone for the provision of a point-to-multi-point
service to surrounding areas such as hotels, B&B, schools and clinics (Muchenje, 2008). He
continued by saying that “However, in such a connection, there is a need to use Ethernet or Wi-
21
Fi technologies as end user access technologies” Ndlovu (2011). Ndlovu (2011) concluded by
saying that “this type of convergence shows that different access technologies such as VSAT,
WiMAX and Wi-Fi can be merged to supply ever present Internet access in remote rural areas.”
VSAT has high levels of security, which achieved with VPN/IPSec as its security mechanisms
(Muchenje, 2008). However, as the researcher said that earlier when there is an advantage there
is also a disadvantage, however, VSAT is very expensive when it come installation process
(Ndlovu, 2011).
3.2.3 Bluetooth and Wi-Fi
These are wireless technologies that allow nodes to connect and communicate with each other
(Yu & Cheng, 2006). Bluetooth designed for short coverage range communications with
approximately 10 meters (Ndlovu, 2011). Both technologies use 2.4GHz unlicensed radio
spectrum and exist in different devices such as laptops, printers and PDA (Yu & Cheng, 2006).
Thus, for remote applications Bluetooth is not effective to set up a network because of the low
bandwidth it has (Muchenje, 2008). Wi-Fi other side allows faster data transfer rate
approximately between 10-54mbps and has a range of about 100 meters (Yu & Cheng, 2006).
Lastly, 802.11i security used in Wi-Fi is robust as compared to 16 bit PIN used for Bluetooth
authentication and data encryption (Ndlovu, 2011).
3.2.4 Wi-Fi and 3G (UMTS)
Wi-Fi has a disadvantage of short distance coverage range compared to 3G (Ndlovu, 2011).
These wireless access technologies provide the mobility or roaming and flexibility to end users
(Morrow, 2004). The short distance coverage range of Wi-Fi restricts or limits its application
around hotspot areas, but it allows user-friendly interfaces to use an IP-based broadband access
device (Esmailzadeh, 2006a). In fact, Wi-Fi and 3G work enhanced as balancing access
technology (Ndlovu et al., 2010a; Esmailzadeh, 2006a).
3.2.5 WiMAX and 3G (UMTS)
“Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) is a common mobile wireless
technology with data speeds of 384Kbps” (Muchenje, 2008). The UMTS cellular system has an
advantage over WiMAX in that its infrastructure for (3G), “GRPS and Evolutionarily Distinct
22
and Globally Endangered (EDGE) already exists while WiMAX needs a new infrastructure to be
put up for it to function” ( Morrow, 2004). 3G has a very low data speed as compared to that of
WiMAX, which can go to 75Mbps for coverage of 50km (Ndlovu, 2011).
3.2.6 3G (UMTS) and 4G (UMTS)
4G network is highly improbable will change the fundamental dynamic. The 4G system currently
expected to dominate, Long Term Evolution (LTE), is an IP centric data network with
impressive capabilities and a platform network architecture (Bogineni, 2009b). While LTE
provides substantial improvements in spectral efficiency relative to current 3G systems, it also
allows increased per-user capabilities that expected to contribute to demand growth (Bogineni,
2009b). The careful study of the balance between user demand growth and technology
improvements concluded that meeting user demand would require an additional 500 to 1000
MHZ of commercial spectrum in the USA in the next seven years from now, all below 5GHz
(ITU-T, 2006).
3.2.7 FHSS and DSSS
Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum technology is comprised from spread spectrum technology
and it uses a narrowband carrier that changes frequency in a model known sender and receiver
(Tay, 2003). FHSS appears to be short length impulse.
Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum technology functions by separating the data into various
pieces and concurrently transmitting the sufficient, unlike FHSS, which transmit on a partial
number of frequencies (Tay, 2003). This process allows for greater transmission rates than the
other spread spectrum technology, but it is disadvantages because it is vulnerable to greater
occurrence of interference (Tay, 2003). This is because the data is on both sides of a larger part
of spectrum at any given time as compared to FHSS. DSSS floods all spectrums concurrently,
whereas FHSS transmit over certain frequencies (Tay, 2003). DSSS has better bandwidth
currently from 2Mbps up to 11Mbps and range and it is much more flexible to interference than
FHSS (Tay, 2003). Thus, DSSS is widely deployed in commercial wireless LAN products.
Therefore, one needs to consider DSSS technology when deploying wireless network.
23
3.3 Wireless LAN standards comparison
This section presents the evolution of wireless local area network standards (IEEE 802.11) and
the description of each standard. The figure below represents these standards:
IEEE 802.11 standard Specifications
802.11 Defines as the original WLAN standard that supports 1 to 2 Mbps.
802.11a Refers as high-speed WLAN standard for 5 GHz band that supports 54
Mbps.
802.11b WLAN standard for 2.4 GHz band that supports 11 Mbps.
802.11d The international roaming automatically configures nodes to meet
local RF regulations.
802.11e This standard addresses Quality of Service supplies for all IEEE
Wireless LAN radio interfaces.
802.11f This standard describes inter-access-point communications to ease
multiple-vendor spread WLAN networks.
802.11g creates an extra modulation technique for the 2.4 GHz band;
supports speeds up to 54 Mbps.
802.11h This standard defines the spectrum management of the 5 GHz band.
802.11i It addresses the existing security vulnerabilities for both authentication
and encryption protocols; the standard encompasses 802.1X, and AES
protocols.
802.11n offers higher throughput enhancements; planned to provide speeds up
to 500 Mbps.
Figure 3.1: According to Ndlovu cited (Gumaste et al., 2004)
3.4 Various Technologies used during the experiments
During the wireless deployments experiments this study used various technologies, such as D-
link DWL 2100AP access point, lenovo laptop, straight through cable and wireshark software.
24
Wireshark software is a network packet analyzer. It was used to capture network packets, frames
and to display packet data as detailed as possible. It can be used to troubleshoot the network
problems and debug protocol implementations.
Lenovo laptop used to configure the D-link 2100AP access point and the wireless deployments
was managed through this device.
D-link DWL 2100AP is an access point, a hardware component that acts as communication hub
for users of wireless device to connect to a wired network. This device offered sensitive wireless
security and for extending the physical range of service, a wireless user has access to. It also
supports IEEE 802.11g and IEEE 802.11n Wi-Fi standards.
D-link 2100AP access point supports 330 feet for indoors and 1310 feet for open space. The
researcher measured this distance, researcher was moving from one place to other testing the
strength of signals and speed of the network using the lenovo laptop. The D-link access point
shown below:
Figure 3.2: D-link DWL 2100AP
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3.5 Conclusion
This chapter discussed and compared different wireless technologies required for extending wire
LAN. The advantages and disadvantages of these technologies proved to be more profitable than
the wire ones in terms of providing internet connectivity.
From the experiment and comparison of wireless access technologies performed, this study
chose the merged of Wi-Fi and WiMAX although this study could not have enough resources to
prove the combination of these technologies. Wi-Fi and WiMAX grouped as service provider for
students.
Lastly, Wi-Fi and WiMAX cost effectively, that simple mean there is less financial pressure due
to minimal infrastructure deployment as compared to wire technology (Best, 2003 & Gumaste et
al., 2004).
26
4 CHAPTER FOUR
4.1 Theoretical analysis of methods
This chapter first describes the purpose of this study; research methods used in this study to
collect the data and why and/ or how consistent it is. This chapter also describes the place where
the data was conducted; how many participants were participating or involved.
Purpose of this research is to investigate about how the suitability of deployment of wireless
network at Ibika residence campus can be implemented and explore possibilities of integrating
the emerging technology into the curriculum. Investigate how students are currently using the
wired network for their learning and what benefits and barriers they have encountered. Then
investigate how would be the effectiveness of wireless network in their residence if it can be
deployed or implemented.
This research focuses on the main research question of “What is the suitable implementation
methodology and design of a wireless network that would support students in their residence?”
The following are the three sub-questions developed to help understanding of the main research
question.
? What are wireless network requirements to extend the wired network?
? How do students currently access the I bika network while at campus and in the
residence?
? Which access technologies can be combined to develop or deploy a cost effectively and
a reliable wireless network suitable for I bika residence campus?
The methods used to collect the data were the both literature review and the questionnaire. The
objective of the literature review was to determine the wireless requirements technologies
required to extend wired and to answer some of the study questions. The questionnaires were
given out at the end of the experiment and were distributed to students who were using the Wi-Fi
hotspot that was created by this study.
27
This study used students as the participants and those students are residing at WSU (Ibika
campus). The students are currently using the wired network. There was a technical section
where the researcher was creating the wireless hotspots using an access point called D-link
DWL-2100AP which support 13 channels. After the researcher had created the wireless hotspot
in the IT department, 40 students were called upon to come and access the internet wirelessly
and without any constraints. The participants were prompted to answer the questionnaires based
on their experience after the experiments.
Questionnaires were used to collect the data, such as the common or general information about
the wired network and wireless network on the campus from each student. The questionnaires
were closed ended questions and since the questionnaires were closed ended. Furthermore,
literature review was used to determine the best wireless technology suitable or required to
extend the wired network at Ibika campus residence.
The researcher knew which residence had more students using wired LAN and therefore on that
information, the researcher would expect more results on that residence when doing the
questionnaires. These results were used to find out the expectations of students because this
study was trying to get students expectations on this prototype.
This study used cross literature analysis in order to determine the suitable wireless technology
requirements needed to extend the wired LAN. This was because students do not know what
wireless LAN requirements to extend the wired LAN are.
Chapter 2 presented various studies and these studies were different. The first study mentioned
the University of California as the first university to offer WLAN to student’s residence and
faculty. As the researcher mentioned above that literature review chapter was used to review
different studies about wireless network and then identify the suitable wireless technologies or
requirements needed to expand wired network. Thus, two studies were reviewed to discuss
different cost that might be used to extend the wired network. From the observation, cost of
deploying wireless network is very low as compared of deploying wired network in the
university or other environments especial if the institution has various buildings (Ndlovu, 2011).
28
Roshan and Leary and Nisbet were discussing the considerations for extending wired network
and things that one should consider when planning to extend the network, these studies helped
the researcher to know what is needed to extend the wired network and what wireless
technologies or requirements are needed.
Therefore, assisting the literature review process; the facts is that wireless LAN’s requirements
are closely related to the same sort of requirements typical of wired LAN or any LAN (Han,
2008). Chapter 2 evaluated wireless LAN’s requirements include broadcast capability, high
capacity and the most common one is the ability to cover long distance even short distances. The
following list provides the principal specific suitable requirements to extend the Ibika wired
LAN to a wireless LAN:
4.2 LAN Technology
This section describes different types of media that one need to consider when intends to deploy
wireless network.
4.2.1 Type of Media
Spread spectrum was the first parameter to consider by the researcher and this media is using the
2.4 GHz band for the wireless LAN. In addition, Ethernet Cat 5 cables in general are used to
connect the wireless access points to a switch and the switch to the server but in this study Cat 5
or straight through cables were used to connect an access point to the laptop that was used to
create the wireless intranet (Han, 2008). This media has up to 11 Mbps for 802.11 standard and
100Mbps for Ethernet cables and they have been used in various environments (Ndlovu, 2011).
4.3 Software Specifications
This section outlines various software that is required in order to test and deploy network.
Software’s such as network protocols, server operating system, working station operating
system. These software specifications are outlined and discussed in chapter 2.
29
4.3.1 Network Protocols
DNS and TCP/ IP are the protocols that were used during the configuration of an access point.
DNS is an automated system used to interpret computer names into corresponding IP address
(Han, 2008). TCP/IP is a protocol suite used in the intranet to offer application programs with
access to a connection-oriented communication service that simple means that, this protocol
establishes connection before sending any data or packets and therefore students were used these
protocols to send request to another computer or server.
4.3.2 Server Operating System
Windows 2003 server would be suitable since the backbone LAN or wired network (Ibika
campus network) is currently using the windows 2003 server. This server operating system was
not discussed in the literature review but during the researcher’s observation found out that it is
still in use at (WSU) Ibika LAN.
4.3.3 Working Station Operating System
During the experiments, this study used windows 7 as the working station operating system
where the testing of network connectivity was done on it.
4.4 Hardware Specifications
This section describes the hardware specifications, such as number of APs, backbone needs,
network equipments and number of servers that are required to deploy the suitable wireless
network.
4.4.1 Number of Access Points
The Access Point (AP) was used to connect students to the wireless LAN. AP using 802.11b/n
standard could be the best in this prototype as compared to other standards because it cover a
long distance and most network adapter cards or laptops support these wireless standards
whereas this used D-link DWL 2100AP which support 802.11g/n standards. Therefore, 5 to10
access points with 300 coverage feet would be satisfactory to the Ibika main campus residence
area. These access points could be also act as redundancy for one another whenever one is down
to make the network to be more reliable and flexible. There should be also 10 to 20 access points
30
for student village residence (which is another residence). The coverage at Ibika is not that large
but is not relatively small; therefore, no RF site survey was required. However, the suitable
approach to determine the number of APs required is to perform a radio frequency survey but
due to time, the researcher could not perform the RF survey (Han, 2008).
4.4.2 Backbone Needs
Ibika network is made up of a large LAN’s spread all over the main campus except the residence
area. Therefore, the Ibika network uses fiber optic-cables as a media transmission that allows a
high bandwidth and lower delay to intersect its building to each other and to make possible their
communications with the outside world through switches. The fiber optic-cables are directly
connected to Gigabit Ethernet switches that are located on the administrative building (network
center). As we know that, every LAN or network center has its own cabinet that consists of
switches (patch panel); thus, the Ibika cabinets are linked through Cat 5 that intersects either
individual workstation or switches that form a LAN. Furthermore, Ibika uses approximately 10
servers to support its educational and administrative functions and each department has its own
server but it is implemented and controlled in the administrative building or network center.
The backbone requirements for the wireless LAN at Ibika would be straightforward; thus, there
will be no additional switches will be purchased for the wireless network. The mentioned Cisco
AP can be linked to the existing Ethernet switch and router or LAN, which belong to the wired
LAN at Ibika. The researcher concluded by saying that the only requirement intended for
wireless connection with the network administrator is to register the port numbers of the switch
so that this prototype (wireless LAN) could be lawfully established.
4.4.3 Network Equipment
The existing network at Ibika is already equipped with 24 and 48 port Ethernet Cisco switches.
Therefore, from that, there are sufficient ports left and the proposed prototype could use these
ports in order to avoid purchasing the Ethernet Cisco switch. The fiber optic-cables or Cat 5
cables would be needed to connect the APs to the LAN and the laptop that has network interface
card would be also required for network test or configuration as the researcher has already did
that.
31
4.4.4 Number of Servers
Existing wired LAN has seven servers for educational and administrative functions; application
software and share printing requirements. Thus, this research could share one server LAN.
However, to eliminate delay of applications, this study could use its own server LAN.
4.5 User Specifications
This section introduces the type of users that should be allowed to use the network and the
applications that were used during the experiments and testing of the network.
4.5.1 Type of Users
This research consists of students who enrolled and staff members at (WSU) Ibika campus. Then
if the students do not know, the password or they not registered at Ibika he/she will not be
allowed connect to this network.
4.5.2 User Applications
Trace route, telnet, ping and FTP are examples of the software and applications that were used
during configuration of an access point and these protocols were used to test the connectivity of
the network and for monitoring and managing the important application tools and other
applications.
Ping program was used to test the wireless network connectivity. Trace route program identifies
intermediate PC along a path to a remote destination. Telnet stand for Terminal Emulation, this
program is for IP/TCP networks such as the intranet (Ndlovu, 2011). Telnet client links the PC to
a server on the network. File Transfer Protocol is a protocol used to upload documents or files
from a student to a FTP server. It is also a way that files are transported from one device to
another. Then in order to transfer files, FTP servers need to require the user to log on to the
server by providing the credentials (username and the password). Below is an example of a
window that prompts the user to enter his/her credentials.
32
Figure 4.1 : User authentication
4.6 Data Collection
Data collection methods of this study were literature review and questionnaires as mentioned
above. The researcher collected data and the data collected from the second week of October
2013 through the third week of October 2013 from the students. Total of 40 students were
involved in the data collection.
4.6.1 Data Collection Procedures
Miles and Huberman (1994) mentioned four parts of research involving human participants as
the process, setting of the study, events and the actors involved in the study.
? Setting: The research was conducted at Ibika campus. More than 5000 students study on
this campus
? Events: Using case study research method, the focus of this research will be the daily
activities undertaken by students using the wired LAN on the campus and this includes
the data collected by literature review as stated above, and questionnaires.
? Process: The process is the investigating into the suitability of deployment of wireless
network at Ibika campus residence. Attention was paid to the decision making of what is
the suitable implementation methodology and design of a wireless network that would
33
support students in their residence. Moreover, what are wireless requirements are needed
to extend the wired LAN.
? Actors: The participants in this research were students who are contemporary using the
wired network on the campus. The researcher asked students questions and list of
questionnaires were provided to them.
4.7 Summary of Qualitative research approaches:
Table 4-1 below represents summary of different methods, its purposes and numbers of
participants for each method that were conducted during this study.
Table 4-1: Represents the summary research approaches used in this study
Methods Purpose Number of Participants
Literature review ? To provide understanding of
associated studies that had been
reported
? to determine the suitable way and
requirements to extend wired
LAN
None
Questionnaires ? to collect quantitative data and
were closed ended questions (see
Appendix A)
40
4.8 Conclusion
The research approach for this research is case study. Questionnaire and literature review are
qualitative research approaches but since the questionnaires were closed ended, the researcher
used both approaches such as qualitative and quantitative techniques. Literature review was used
to obtain fully understanding and knowledge of the suitable wireless technologies requirements
to extend the wired network. Questionnaires were created after the technical or experiments
34
testing of the wireless network and participants (students) were asked questions based on their
experience after the experiments.
Lastly, data collection procedures were intended in advance. Data analysis of this study will be
represented in the next chapter (chapter four) below.
35
5 CHAPTER FIVE
5.1 Data findings and analysis
This chapter presents the data analysis of the approaches used in chapter three. It outlines the
experiments data analysis where it presents different techniques used to test the network
connectivity and the outcomes. Section 5.3 outlines the quantitative data findings, which are
outcomes from the questionnaires that answered by the participants after their experience from
the experiments. Section 5.2 below represents qualitative data findings from the experiment and
later section 5.3 is presented.
5.2 Qualitative data findings
Data analysis from the experiments was undertaken by this study. Software that was used to
capture network packets and results are presented in section below.
5.2.1 Technical data analysis and connectivity test
In this study, DLink DWL-2100AP access point was used create the temporary wireless
hotspots. Then performance technical tests were performed and these technical results tests are
presented in this section. Different connection networking tests procedures were conducted, the
section below represents these procedures. These procedures involved pinging, tracert and
nslookup applications.
5.2.2 Connectivity test
The study used Lenovo laptop to tests the wireless network connection between the devices. This
study used ipconfig command, the reason behind that was to display all the contemporary
TCP/IP network configuration values. This command gives the user basic information of the
configurations that were performed by the researcher. The results of this command have shown
below:
36
Fif
Figure 5.1: ipconfig results
The above results were performed in command prompt window.
The pinging application was conducted to check whether if the connection between the devices is
established or not and to determine whether they can communicate to each other. This
application was performed between the D-link Access Point and the Lenovo laptop and the
connection was established, results have shown below:
Fi
Figure 5.2: Connectivity between the D-link access point and the working machine (lenovo)
37
This command sent four packets, received four and loss zero, therefore it simple means that the
wireless card is working properly and it is capable to ping the IP addresses. The second attempt
was to check the internet access by pinged the domain name “Google.co.za” but during this
study, the researcher pinged various domain names, such as “gmail.com”, “hotmail.com”, and
“yahoo.com” Thus, “Google.co.za” command was used in this study and have shown the
following results:
Figure 5.3: Connectivity between the working machine and domain name (google.co.za)
Figure 5.4 below shows the user successful login on google.co.za.
38
Figure 5.4: User successful login on Google
5.2.3 Packet and frame captured
In this study, Wireshark was used to capture the packets and the frames that are running on the
network. The figure 5.5 below showed the results that were displayed by this software:
Figure 5.5: Frame captured on Wireshark software.
39
5.2.4 User authentication
In order for a user to transfer files, FTP servers require the user to log on to the server by
providing the credentials (username and the password). Even if the users wants to access
internet or login on face book, they were asked to enter their credentials and in this study the
username was the student number and password was the barcode of the student card.
Authentication required window is shown below:
Figure 5.6: User authentication
5.2.5 Range of the network and Signal strength
This section identifies various actions that have been undertaken by this study to determine the
distance that this access point supports. First attempt, the researcher was at about 46 meters away
from the access point carrying the laptop, the signal strength was fair, the speed or bandwidth of
the network was 18.0 Mbps, and there were ten laptops connected. Second attempt, researcher
was at about 56 meters, there were no signal strength but the connection was still available.
Thus, the researcher concluded by saying that the distance supported by this device is about 1 to
40
46 meters if the access point is inside house. Still it is difficult for the researcher to determine the
exactly distance that this device support because students in residence said sometimes the
connection was available but they were unable to connect on it because signals were very weak
(poor). The figure 5.7 below shows the adapter name that‘s connected to the network and speed
of the network when researcher was at about 36 meters away from the access point:
Figure 5.7: Bandwidth of the wireless network
5.2.6 Configuration evaluation or results
This section shows the basic configurations performed by this study. As it is said above that, the
D-link access point was used to create the wireless internet access (hotspots) in this study.
41
The researcher will show the readers of this research the steps performed when configuring this
access point. This device was on default mode and the researcher tried to get the default IP
address (192.168.0.50) of this device first. Then researcher opened the internet browser and
typed in that default IP address. Below is the window that was appearing after requesting that
default IP address:
Figure 5.8: Access point setup Wizard configuration.
The figure 5.8 above shows the steps that were performed during configuration of the AP. The
password, SSID, channels and encryption were set. This study set 13 channels and more than ten
users were concurrently connected to the network and access the internet smoothly without any
limitations.
The figure 5.9 below shows the access point information (status) after the configuration of this
study.
42
Figure 5.9: Shows the access point information (status) after the configuration of this study
5.2.7 Throughput
This is the last section of the technical data analysis and it shown the throughput of the network
and WLAN 802.11g traffic statistics. This section also showed the transmitted frame count, the
received frame count and the WEP frame error count. The figure below showed the throughput:
43
Figure 5.10: WLAN 802.11G traffic statistics
5.3 Physical network testing
This section presents the physical results of the network connectivity test and various procedures
that were taken into consideration during the network testing.
Firstly, during the network testing, lenovo laptop was carried by the researcher and moving away
from the AP. When the researcher was approximately 46 meters away from the AP, signal
strength was fair and the bandwidth was 18.0Mbps but both signal strength and bandwidth were
not stable or rigid.
Second test was checking how the bandwidth and signal strength of the network is when ten
users are being connected to the network. Hence, the bandwidth was 24.0Mbps and the strength
of signal was good.
44
Lastly, was to check how network behavior when more than ten users being connected at
different places about to 45-50 meters away from the AP, thus, since the AP was located indoors
the signal strength was poor and the bandwidth was 11.0Mbps but still both signal and
bandwidth were not consistence.
Weather condition was the main issue for instead; weather condition that was having the greatest
effect on the network signal was rainfall. When it was raining and windy the researcher had a
crappy connection and could not get a good ping nor stay connected.
5.4 Quantitative data findings
Data analysis of the quantitative data from the questionnaires that were asked after an
experiments represented in section 5.1 above are presented. Lastly, questionnaire was consists of
thirteen questions, section below presents the results from these questions.
5.4.1 Questionnaire analysis
? Have you ever used computers and wireless internet access before?
The participants of the questionnaire were the students who are studying at Walter Sisulu
University in Ibika campus and who used the temporary deployed wireless network.
Total of 40 students who were involved in the experiments or temporary deployed
wireless network that had created by the researcher in the Information Technology (IT)
department completed the questionnaires. The results based on the above question are
represented below.
45
Figure 5.11: Have you ever used computers and wireless internet access before?
Based on the 40 students, about 95% (38) students who used wireless network, computers before
and only 5% (2) students never used the wireless network and computers. This is simple telling
the researcher that there might be no need to teach the students on how to connect to the wireless
network using their laptops.
? How many years have you been using the computers and wireless internet access?
The researcher after knowing the number of students who used the computers and
wireless internet access, then the researcher was interested to know how many years they
have been using these two.
46
Figure 5.12: How many years have you been using the computers and wireless internet
access?
Total of 30% (13) of students who have less than a year using the computers and wireless
network and some of them were unable to connect to the network because they were new on it.
37% (15) of students who have been more than two years using the computers and wireless
network and 33% (12) of students who have been one to two years using these resources in their
lives.
? How frequently do you use the internet per week?
Eight percent of students used the internet once a week and 92% (37) of students used the
internet more than once a week and 8% (3) of students used internet once a week. This is
simple means that many students use the internet often per week and one participant
asked the researcher “what is the availability of this network because it’s easy to use it
and you do not have to go to the lab in order to get the internet?”
47
Figure 5.13: How frequently do you use the internet per week?
? How long do you use the internet per day?
Most students have their specific time on how they usually use the internet per day.
About 82% (33) of students used the network more than one hour per day and 18% (7) of
students used the internet about one hour or less as shown below.
Figure 5.14: How long do you use the internet per day?
48
? Do you use the internet and some other deployed applications during weekends?
Total number of 92% (37) of students used the internet and other applications after the
temporary deployed of wireless LAN during the weekends. Total number of 8% (3) of
them did not use internet and other applications during the weekends. Many students
were benefiting during that deployment of wireless network.
Figure 5.15: Do you use the internet and some other deployed applications during weekends?
? Which method do you use to access the internet?
All participants of this study were students and LAN and WLAN users during this
research. Approximately 52% (21) students used both methods to access the internet,
28% (11) students were using the Wi-Fi connections using their laptops and 20% ( 8)
students were using LAN method from the labs to access the internet due to some reasons
they had. The figure 5.16 represents method that had more often used.
49
Figure 5.16: Which method do you use to access the internet?
? Which method is faster when accessing sites and accessing other applications such as wise
up?
The fastest method when one accessing the internet is Wi-Fi connection based on the
results of this study because 52% (21) of students said, “Wi-Fi connection is faster than
LAN from the labs” when they were accessing the temporary deployed wireless network
in the department. Total number of 23% (10) of students said LAN from labs is faster
than Wi-Fi and 25% (9) of them said they are similar. Thus, Wi-Fi seems to be a suitable
method when access the sites and other applications and participants were convinced to
use it. These results are answering of the research questions of this study and yet the
researcher knows which method the students would like to use.
50
Figure 5.17: Which method is faster when accessing sites and accessing other applications
such as wise up?
? Do you think introduction of Wi-Fi hotspots would interest you more in using computers
and the internet more often
Total number of 72% (29) of students strongly agreed that the introduction of Wi-Fi
hotspots would interest them more in using the internet daily. Total number of 25% (10)
of students merely agreed that Wi-Fi would interest them in using the internet often and
3% (1) of them were disagreed about it. Then these results are telling us as the
researchers that Wi-Fi hotspots are needs of students especially in tertiary institutions
because students would benefit on it.
51
Figure 5.18: Do you think introduction of Wi-Fi hotspots would interest you more in using
computers and the internet more often
? Deployment and use of hotspot would be beneficial in improving student communication.
Participants agreed that implementation or deployment and use of wireless hotspots
would be beneficial in terms of improving their communication. Therefore, 60% (24) of
them agreed and 40% (16) of them strongly agreed that they would benefit on it.
52
Figure 5.19: Deployment and use of hotspot would be beneficial in improving student
communication.
? Which are the common sites you like opening on a daily basis?
Most of participants like opening Google and its application such as YouTube and Gmail
on a daily basis. Total number of 77% (31) of participants likes to use Google and its
application on a daily basis. Total number of 20% (8) of them like opening face book on
a daily basis and 3% (1) of them like to open other sites on a daily basis.
53
Figure 5.20: Which are the common sites you like opening on a daily basis?
? Introduction of Wi-Fi hotspots would improve the learning and education standards in the
campus at large?
It seems to be possible to extend the current wired network at WSU. Based on figure 5.21
below, 50% (25) of students strongly agreed that wireless hotspots would improve their
learning and standards of education in their campus at large. Total number of 45% (14) of
them agreed and 5% (1) of them strongly disagreed about it.
54
Figure 5.21: Would Wi-Fi improve learning and education standards in campus.
? Do you think that using hotspots would be critical especially for those who want to utilize
the resources after school hours and during the weekends?
The students think that using hotspots would be crucial especially for them who want to
utilize the resource during weekends and after school hours. Then 50% (20) of the
students strongly agreed about it. Total number of 45% (18) of them was merely agreed
and 5% (2) of the participants were disagreed on it as can be seen in the figure 5.22
below.
55
Figure 5.22: Would hotspots be critical to students who want to use the resources after school
hours and during the weekends
? Do you think the use of wireless network would improve communication levels in the
campus?
Total number of 52% (21) of participants strongly agreed that wireless network would
improve communication level in their campus and 48% (19) of them agreed on that.
56
Figure 5.23: Do you think the use of wireless network would improve communication levels in
the campus?
? Speed of the network
Total number of 25% (10) of participants said that the speed of the network is excellent
and 32% (13) of participants showed a greater percentage, they said speed of the network
is good but 3% (1) of participants said speed of the network is poor. Lastly two groups of
participants have the same percentage which 20% (8) (fair and Very good). These results
clearly presented in figure 5.24 below.
57
Figure 5.24: Speed of the network
5.5 Conclusion
This chapter presented the information collected from the questionnaire and temporary deployed
wireless network or experiments. The information from questionnaire grouped as the quantitative
data because it involved numerical numbers to analyze the data. The information from the
technical data analysis or experiments results grouped as the qualitative information. In this
chapter, questionnaires were based on the deployed wireless network that the students were
accessing during this study. Approximately to 40 participants were given the questionnaire and it
was consists of thirteen questions. The connectivity test of the experiments performed and
different commands and applications used to test the network connectivity. Wireshark was the
best software in capturing the network packets and frames.
Lastly, the researcher shown the readers of this study the steps that were undertaken to configure
the D-link DWL 2100AP access point in this study.
58
6 CHAPTER SIX
6.1 Conclusion and Recommendations
This research is based on an Investigation of the deployment of wireless network at WSU in
Ibika campus residence. This section presents an abstract of the results of the task undertaken in
this study. It also offers the outline of the accomplishment and constraint skilled during this
project. The last section of this chapter provides the future work.
The primarily quantitative and qualitative approaches were taken and the literature review
performed in order to determine the suitable wireless technologies required to extend the wired
network. Literature review helped this study to choose the wireless technologies required in
expanding any wired network. It was very useful in this project because research questions
answered by it. Questions like “what are the suitable implementation and methodology and
design of wireless network that would support students in their residence?”
Furthermore, the status of deploying wireless network at universities reviewed and technologies
and security concerns were discussed in chapter two of this study above.
Therefore, chapter two of this study established the basis of this project. Forth participants were
given questionnaires and these questionnaires were conducted based on the experiments or
deployed wireless network that this study discusses above in chapter four and was based on the
findings of wireless technologies required in expanding the LAN. Forty students were
questionnaire randomly, reason behind that was to avoid bias from the group of students. Data
collected by the literature review and questionnaire. The information collected by literature
review grouped as qualitative data and information collected by questionnaire grouped as
quantitative data.
6.1.1 Research Question Declarations
Research question outlined in chapter one section 1.3 and in this section are presented as the
same sequence they are presented in chapter one above. Research questions have answered as
follows:
59
? What are the suitable implementation, methodology, and design of wireless network
that would support students in their residence?
Chapter 2 presented various implementations and methodology of wireless network at
educational institutes. Thus, this research first chose Wi-Fi hotspots as the suitable design for
Ibika extension of the LAN. Because, in this study participants (students) were convinced and
satisfied with the way Wi-Fi works and it offers a cost effectively and secure telecommunication
network. Another reason, it is said that Wi-Fi is interoperable and it can be easily combined with
other technologies when needed. The Ibika campus residence has various buildings, therefore,
Wi-Fi could be suitable and that is the reasons why this study chose wireless network over the
wired network. It is said that, deployment of wired LAN in buildings is very expensive as
compared to wireless because it involves a lot of cabling. Furthermore, Wi-Fi will easily extend
created wired network (Alliance, 2005).
? What are wireless requirements to extend the wired network?
Earlier to deploying wireless telecommunication for educational institutions, network designers
need to take into consideration different fundamentals related to institutional communication. In
Chapter 2, various considerations when one want to deploy wireless network and wireless
technologies required to extend wired network were discussed. Without disbeliefs, this study did
experiments using wireless technologies and requirements. Thus, an access point seems to be the
suitable wireless technology to extend the wired network but it cannot achieve that alone.
? How do students currently access the I bika network while they are in campus and in
their residence?
From the data analysis (chapter four), it was clearly shown that students access internet from the
labs when they are in the campus and then when they are on their residence they do not even
have any internet access. Even when they are in the campus they have limitations on the network
because at 10pm labs are closed as it was stated on the problem statement in chapter one. Thus,
students have access on the network from 8am to 10pm in the campus.
60
? Which access technologies can be combined to develop a cost effectively and a reliable
wireless network suitable I bika campus residence?
In chapter three, different wireless access technologies were compared to each other such
Bluetooth versus Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi versus WIMAX, 3G versus 4G, Wi-Fi versus VSAT, WIMAX
versus 3G, and Wi-Fi versus 3G. From the comparison of these wireless access technologies
combination of Wi-Fi and WIMAX was the suitable choice after the comparison of these
technologies. Wi-Fi and WIMAX both have interoperability and can be easily combined to offer
a secure telecommunication network and a cost effectively. Each technology contributes better
efficiency and broader coverage. Thus, this research made the best selection of the suitable
technologies for the Ibika network.
This project performed an experiments and D-link DWL 2100AP access point was used to create
the Wi-Fi hotspots and questionnaires were created based on the experiments or deployment of
Wi-Fi hotspots. The configurations and connectivity tests were conducted and had shown in
chapter four. Ping application was used to test the connectivity of the network. Researcher
initially pinged the D-link DWL 2100AP access point ip address. Afterwards, pinged the domain
names such as “Google.co.za” and “gmail.com”, connection was successful. Wireshark was the
only software used to capture network packets. Participants (students) were happy during the
time they were accessing the internet wirelessly and therefore, wireless network in their
residences would definitely improve communication between them and the staff. Hence,
participants were asked this question “Do you think the use of wireless network would improve
communication levels in the campus?” and they were strongly agreed and shown interests.
6.1.2 Study limitations
This research was on an investigation of the deployment of wireless LAN at Walter Sisulu
University in Ibika campus residence. Questionnaires were conducted on the students
(participants) who are currently using the wired network and who are residing in the campus
student village and campus hostels, the off campus students were ignored in this project.
61
Due to limited resources, this study used only one access point to do the experiments or to create
Wi-Fi hotspots. Therefore, this study was unable to bring the wireless network to students at
their residences because D-link DWL 2100AP supports 330 feet for indoors and 1310 feet for
open space. The distance from the place, where the access point was situated to the student’s
residences is approximately 120 meters away. Hence, students were accessing the internet
wirelessly in the Information Technology (IT) department where the access point was placed.
Thus, these were the limitations of this project.
6.1.3 Future Work
In this project, it is proved that the combination of wireless access technologies, such as Wi-Fi
and WiMAX has a vast advantage as compared to other access technologies. This project created
Wi-Fi hotspots using only one access point and used various applications to test the connectivity.
It is recommended that many universities adopt wireless network to student’s residences because
it offer affordable and reliable broad connectivity for educational institutions. Further research
could start where this project ends.
Thus, further work could be on deployment of wireless in the student campus residence since
this project could not have enough resources to do so. Furthermore, future work could be where
the research would use perhaps four access points then test the speed, distance and the signal
strength they could supports.
62
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8 Appendix A- Questionnaire
I am a B.tech student in Information Technology at Walter Sisulu University. I am doing the
research on an Investigation into the suitability of deployment of wireless LAN at WSU Ibika
campus residence in Butterworth in the province of Eastern Cape.
This study will be performed by Phila Tshaka and will be under supervision of Nkanyiso Ndlovu
and Nobert Jere. Those supervisors had approved the research proposal. This research will take
over 6 month’s period from June 2013 to November 2013.
Data collection will be performed through questionnaire and the analysis of documentations such
as, articles, thesis, books and other related information.
Submission of a completed questionnaire will be taken as demonstration of blessing.
The information that may classify you will be kept confidential and any access to your
information is by the researcher and my supervisors.
Signature of Participant…………………………………
Thank you!
Please tick with (X).
1. Have you ever used computers and the wireless Internet access before?
Yes
No
65
2. How many years have you been using computers and the wireless Internet access?
Never before
Less than a year
1-2 years
More than 2
years
3. How frequently do you use the Internet per week?
Once
More than once
4. How long do you use the Internet per day?
1 hour or less
More than 1
hour
5. Do you use the Internet and some other deployed applications during weekends?
Yes
No
6. Which method do you use to access the Internet?
LAN from labs
Wi-Fi
connections
using laptop
Both
7. Which method is faster when accessing sites and accessing other applications such as wise up?
66
LAN from labs
Wi-Fi
connections
Similar
8. Do you think the introduction of Wi-Fi hotspots would interest you more in using computers and
the Internet more often?
Strongly agree
Agree
Disagree
Strongly
disagree
9. Do you think deployment and use of hotspots would be beneficial in terms of the improving
your communication?
Strongly agree
Agree
Disagree
Strongly
disagree
10. Which are the common sites you like opening on a daily basis?
Google and its
applications e.g.
Gmail
Face book
Daily dispatch
newspaper
Other
67
11. Do you think the introduction of Wi-Fi hotspots would improve the learning and education
standards in the campus?
Strongly agree
Agree
Disagree
Strongly
disagree
12. Do you think that using hotspots is convenient and would be critical especially for people who
want to utilize the resources after school hours and during the weekends?
Strongly agree
Agree
disagree
Strongly
disagree
13. Do you think the use of wireless network would improve communication levels in the campus?
Strongly agree
Agree
Disagree
Strongly
disagree
68
14. How is the speed of the internet?
Excellent
Very Good
Good
Fair
Poor
Very Poor
doc_454911620.pdf