NEW YORK-Pennsylvania State University, Vanguard Cellular Systems Inc. and Northern Telecom have launched a campus-wide network that is the basis for a joint effort of at least four years to study digital wireless information technology.
“No one has ever assembled such a diverse team to study the emergence, acceptance and development of wireless information technology,” said Haynes G. Griffin, chairman of Vanguard. “We wanted to create a private wireless network that would be flexible enough to meet the everyday demands of a very large and diverse campus community, yet develop a digital environment that would be of interest to both campus and industry researchers. I believe we have accomplished that goal and look forward to future developments.”
The initial study area, serving Penn State’s main campus in University Park, Penn., covers an area of more than four square miles, and the private network will have the capacity to handle 16,000 calls per hour, said Todd E. Snyder, public relations manager for CellularOne, Harrisburg, Penn. Vanguard, headquartered in Greensboro, N.C., is the parent of CellularOne in central Pennsylvania.
Participants in the $6.5 million project, known as the Vanguard Alliance for the Advancement of Wireless Technologies, said they believe the private wireless digital network it established to be the largest of its kind in the world today.
“This network will bring together many new information technologies that few currently have access to in one location,” said Graham B. Spanier, president of Penn State. “Our next challenge is for our faculty and students to identify new ways of using these powerful new tools to better lives, business and the world we live in. Penn State will become a big lab for real world applications.”
Early next year, faculty and students will be able to participate in the project. Initial services will include voice communications, short text messaging capabilities using cellular phones, wireless electronic mail and Internet access using Cellular Digital Packet Data, and “Cellemetry,” a trademark name for the use of wireless data communications to check on heating, lighting, alarms and other campus-wide systems. Preferential zone billing and rate plan trials also will occur.
“The new EFRC 8 bit vocoder is being tested, and we are amazed at how well it is working,” Snyder said.
Over the summer, CellularOne engineers used equipment that Nortel supplied to construct a Time Division Multiple Access, IS-136 digital wireless network comprising five cell sites. The value of the network is approximately $6 million.
CellularOne will donate $100,000 annually to Penn State to promote further research into wireless communications and to fund incremental costs associated with the Alliance. CellularOne will give an additional $25,000 a year to establish and administer a scholarship program. Additionally, CellularOne will provide five summer cooperative education positions each year for the duration of the Alliance.
