Tom Franklin Consulting Ltd

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Registered in England and Wales No. 6948162

Last updated: 06 October 2014

Franklin Consulting

Wireless and ubiquitous computing

Multi-site Connectivity Reports

A series of reports describing how a wide variety of different technologies can be used to connect  remote sites back to the main campus. the following reports have been published:

• Loughborough College IR Laser Link to College Cyber Cafe. This paper describes the implementation of a 10Mbit/s IR (Infrared) laser link to connect Loughborough College's off-site Cyber Café to its main network. It considers the motivation for the project, the planning, the equipment and its installation. Post installation issues such as the performance and benefits are also assessed. The project was carried out in the second quarter of 2000.
• Loughborough College Two-Hop 802.11 Link to Remote Centre. This paper describes the implementation of a long distance 11.5km wireless connection between Loughborough College and one of the college's outreach centres using 802.11 technology. It describes problems encountered in equipment selection and deployment in a non-line of sight environment, the eventual solution involving two wireless bridges. The link has been highly successful, providing sufficient bandwidth for 30 PCs together with VoIP (Voice over IP) telephony, and has operated very reliably (99.7% availability). The project implementation timeframe was spring - summer 2001, costs in this paper relate to that period of time. Although later generations of 802.11 systems are now available, Aries 802.11b systems are still being installed, offering low cost wireless solutions. This case study looks at the issues involved in planning and implementation, and assesses the long-term experiences of this technology.
• College of North West London - Multi-technology Resilient Wide Area Network. This paper describes the implementation of a multi-technology wide area network between a number of sites at the College of North West London. Technologies employed include 100Mbit/s IR laser, 802.11b WiFi and LES100 circuits together with legacy 2Mbit/s links. It considers the motivation for the project, the planning, the equipment and its installation. Post installation issues such as the performance and benefits are also assessed. The project lasted from June 2002 to September 2004.
• Lauder College LearningStream WAN and IP Telephony Solution. This paper describes the implementation of a LearningStream-based WAN and an IP telephony system over 14 sites across a large part of southern Scotland. The technology employed is multiple 2Mbit/s PDH copper circuits connecting back to one central hub location together with Cisco routers and a Cisco Call Manager system. The system deployed also includes integration with legacy Siemens Realitis DX PBX systems. A key feature of the implementation was the use of QoS traffic prioritisation over the WAN to support VoIP together with compression of voice sessions to enable operation over limited bandwidth WAN links. This paper considers the motivation for the project, the planning, the equipment and its installation. Post installation issues such as the performance and benefits are also assessed. The project commenced in 2001 and the final stage is ongoing.

All the reports can be found on the multi-site connectivity page at  http://www.ja.net/services/advisory/janet-multi-site-connectivity-advisory-service/publications-and-case-studies.html

Mobile Learning 2012

This paper looks at what mobile learning might mean for a student in 2012 by exploring what they  are doing  and how they are doing it.  Written in 2005 it says:

“It is based on the assumption that computers and mobile phones will continue to become smaller and lighter and have improved battery life.  I would expect students in 2012 to be expected to provide their own computing resources for everyday functions, with the institution providing some specialist equipment.  Many students will have a fairly powerful desktop computer (costing perhaps £200), a smart phone / PDA (costing perhaps £100- £200).  The smart phone would have a fold out or roll up screen somewhere between A4 and A5, would have all the functionality of a current laptop and would be able to connect to networks using wire, wireless (for instance in college) and using mobile phone technology (by then 4G or 5G probably offering around 5 Mbit/s). This would fit in their pocket and have a fold out keyboard as well as handwriting and voice recognition.  It would also serve as a music and video player probably holding hundreds of hours of video, or thousands of hours of music.”

Published in Interactions, University of Warwick, Issue 25, 2005  http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/services/ldc/resource/interactions/archive/issue25

Ubiquitous and mobile Computing

Ubiquitous computing can be defined simply as all staff and students having networked computers  at all times that they are studying, allowing them access to communication, office productivity and  (re)search tools.

Ubiquitous computing makes a significant difference precisely because the tools are available whenever they are wanted by the student.  When only 50 or 60% of a class can read a teacher cannot use hand-outs, cannot write things on the board or ask for written work without thinking of an alternative for those who cannot read.  The same is currently true of computing.  The teacher or lecturer has to consider whether or not the class will be able to access computers to do the work, what effect that will have on those who do not have their own computer and so on.  When you know that all the students have a computer available whenever they want then everything changes.  New forms of teaching can emerge which use ubiquitous computing in the same way that new forms of teaching emerged when writing became ubiquitous.

Three papers outlining the issues are available:

• A briefing paper outlining the key issues  for ubiquitous computing in education
• A briefing paper on the  policy issues around ubiquitous computing
• A paper setting out the terms of reference, remit and membership of the national policy forum  on ubiquitous computing.

Closely related to ubiquitous computing is the idea of mobile computing, whereby the computer  (laptop, PDA or smartphone) can be used anywhere including on the move.  A discussion paper on  the issues is available  here.

Wireless computing

The use of wireless networking is becoming increasingly important in education and opens up a  wide variety of possibilities for enhancing teaching.  Wireless networks present a number of interesting new teaching possibilities because they allow computers to be used wherever required.

main report with details of wireless networking, how it can be used to enhance teaching and  learning with examples

summary report  2 sides version and 4 sides version

update  to main report

Connecting access centres

This brief report outlines some of the ways in which access and outreach centres can be connected to the network, recognising that one solution cannot work for all.  It will consider urban and rural, close to the parent college and far from it and even networking centres that the college doesn't own, but may rent for a few hours a week (such as a church hall).