AirBears

History of AirBears?

Beginning in Fall 2001, a pilot wireless LAN service became available in selected locations around campus. The new service, known as AirBears, enables one to connect to the campus network using a laptop equipped with a wireless Ethernet card. The service is based on the IEEE standard 802.11 wireless LAN technology.

In 2003, Philip Stark received a Grant from HP Applied Mobile Technology Solutions to utilize and analyze wireless connections in learning environments. The HP hardware allows us to add 140 new 802.11b wireless access points to the existing AirBears network, expanding it to cover most of campus. This will put us over a threshold density of coverage that allows faculty to rely on the wireless network in their teaching.  In April of 2004, Philip Stark received an extension to the HP grant, providing UC Berkeley with an additional 240 new 802.11 b/g access points. This brought the total number of AirBears access points to about 500, roughly ten times the 2002 size.

Original Goals

AirBears was developed with the collaboration of NTT Multimedia Communications Laboratories, Inc. (NTT MCL), which is engaged in a joint research project with EECS, and is providing wireless equipment and technical support for the project.

• identify ways to minimize maintenance and installation problems 
• maintain reasonable security for the campus and privacy for the users
• clearly identify costs and approaches to funding the activity on a campuswide scale
• provide useful data for researchers in mobile wireless computing
• minimize duplication of effort
• minimize the possibility of different wireless projects interfering with one another

Current Deployment of AirBears

As of May 1, 2011, there are 1232 active access points installed and operational at UC Berkeley.  All of the access points are able to send and receive wirelessly using IEEE-802.11g (2.4Ghz), with a maximum transmission rate of 54Mb*.  Most of the access points are also able to communicate using IEEE-802.11a (5Ghz), also with a maximum transmission rate of 54Mb.  Additionally, 176 of the installed access points have the ability to communicate using the IEEE-802.11n draft 2.0 standard, with a maximum transmission rate of 300Mb*.

We are continuing the deployment of AirBears, with the primary focus to provide coverage in all areas inside campus buildings.  We are continuing this deployment by installing devices that will utilize IEEE-802.11a/g/n.  This will make it possible for users to continue to use their existing devices or to upgrade to the latest technology.  We anticipate we will reach our goal of 100% coverage inside all campus buildings in 3-4 years.

 

*Note:  The maximum transmission rate is the representation of the speed data can flow in a single direction over the wireless devices.  IEEE-802.11 devices utilize a shared medium, resulting in a half-duplex operation.  The actual data rates for end-to-end communication will vary based on the number of users, the quality of the radio signal, and the overall amount of data being passed over the wireless medium.  Typical end-to-end data rates are near 10Mb for the 54Mb rates and 65Mb for the 300Mb rates.