Tony Llewellyn has a vision. He is sitting among students under an oak on the University of South Florida Tampa campus. Everyone is working on their laptops, surfing the Web, getting e-mail or doing class research. While that is reality rather than a vision at some colleges and universities around the country, a wireless campus is not in USF's plans for the immediate future, said Llewellyn, director of the university's academic computing.
Most wireless activity is at well-funded, private institutions that want instant global solutions.
With wireless connectivity, users can work online without being physically connected to a computer network. It creates something resembling a portable classroom or study hall. Students or faculty using laptops equipped with wireless card adapters can get online while they are a certain distance from access points. The adapter is electronically equipped to send and receive signals via the access point, which contains components that link to the hard-wired network. Depending on the computer tasks being done, up to 30 people can use a single access point simultaneously.