RPS Doubling Wireless Access

The Ridgefield Public School system plans to double the reach of its wireless network in the next year, expanding the use of computers in science classrooms, libraries and meetings.

Over the course of the 2010-11 school year, the system is set to grow from 26 access points, currently scattered between Scotts Ridge and East Ridge Middle Schools and Ridgefield High School, to up to 64 access points district-wide. The expanded network will be able to accommodate up to 512 users at a time and include an option for public access for parents and other visitors.

"Before this year, we had extremely limited wireless capability within the district," technology manager Josh Smith said. "There were a few laptop carts that were using very old wireless technology. It was old, it was unreliable, it was difficult to manage, and teachers didn't use it."

So last year Smith and his staff started looking into wireless options and decided on a multi-tier system that will allow the district to gradually expand their network by adding additional access points as needed. Such a system is cheaper than wiring additional rooms for internet access and easier than having classes relocate to computer labs.

"Wireless technology is where most general access to computers is going," Smith said.

The current system includes 14 wireless access points in eighth grade science labs as well as nine points in the high school, including science and health classrooms, a business lab and the library. The planned expansion will provide wireless for all middle school science labs, increased capacity at the high school and at least one hotspot in each elementary school and administrative building to facilitate access to electronic information during meetings.

Next year's proposed technology budget includes $6,200 allocated for the project. That money would be enough to activate 25 additional access points, which would bring the system to 51 total. If more are needed, Smith said the district could re-allocate funds from other areas to reach the maximum of 64 wireless access points available in the current tier of the system.

The real budget increase, however, would come in a future year if Ridgefield Schools decides to scale up to an additional wireless controller which would allow them to activate more than 500 access points and accommodate 2,000 users. This next phase would cost upwards of $30,000.

But it is uncertain when—or if—such an upgrade might be necessary, because it is unclear how far one access point will go, both in terms of distance and the number of users it can handle.

"You could put in an access point that covers four classrooms, let's say, but if each of those classrooms has 30 or 25 laptops in it, one access point can't handle 120 computers hitting it at the same time," Smith said. "So until we start expanding the number of students accessing wireless on a regular basis, it's hard to know what saturation we're going to need."

The schools will continue expanding this access in the next year by purchasing more netbooks, mobile computing devices that are cheaper, smaller, but less powerful than traditional laptops. But Smith said this was "still sort of a pilot phase" for the device because of its limitations.

He also mentioned the possibility of allowing students to bring in their own wireless devices, but this generates questions about security and file-sharing, the compatibility of different operating systems or programs and technical support for these machines. These and other questions about Ridgefield's computer system will need to be decided in the years ahead, but Smith says one thing is certain: that system will be wireless.