Today, Universities and colleges are among the most aggressive adopters of WiFi technology in Malaysia. The trend toward more collaborative and open learning environments, fueled by the explosive adoption of mobile devices like laptops, PDAs and Netbooks among students, makes higher education campuses fertile ground for Wireless LAN.
International Islamic University (IIUM) also doesn't want to be left in deploying Wireless Campus environment. In fact, IIUM can claimed that they are the first institution in Malaysia introducing heterogeneous wireless infrastructure for campus wide environment. A few institution has visited IIUM campus for getting some experience and knowledge sharing in term of designing and managing wireless for campus environment. By using Aruba Wireless as a backbone of wireless network infrastructure, IIUM has put their wireless service on the top in term of security, reliability and scalability features. Together with new research on the effective MIMO on the for wireless backbone, the service will be able to be further enhanced in their diversity and additional security.
With the core value ” access to education” , the IIUM wireless service will not only cater for internet browsing, rather IIUM students, Kulliyyahs, researchers and staff have the flexibility to access online resources from anywhere on campus. They are freed from working in a traditional computer labs environment thanks to some hundrends of wireless access points (APs) that permit linking to the university’s resources via laptop computers, PDAs and cell phones equipped for data connectivity. Meanwhile, Information Technology Division (ITD) has put their effort in designing such a very informative IIUM portal which become a “house of information” for staff and student as well.
In addition, the future development of SIP service and IP Telephony service provide sophisticated voice connectivity and allow IIUM community to deploy Voice over IP and voice over WLAN at its own pace across campus.
As International Islamic University expand its wireless network, the lines between indoor and outdoor communications will vanish. Students, faculty and administrators alike will enjoy seamless connections from one side of the campus to the other. The institution will continue to attract the best students with innovative applications of its wireless-enabled campus.
IIUM is also working towards Multimedia Communication Service for new e-tutorial, “faculty on demand” service, Media Archive Service and Virtual class and pursuing deployment of VoWLAN (VoFi) for increased operational efficiencies and campus security applications. With its converged wireless infrastructure in place, IIUM is sure to continue building upon its heritage of academic excellence and innovation.
The importance of WLAN in Malaysian Higher Education
