Wi-Fi tech boosts China's digital campus construction

A recent upgrade to its campus Wi-Fi network has helped the Dalian University of Technology (DLUT) create truly "boundless" campus surprises for its students.

DLUT, located in northeast China's Liaoning province, on Wednesday announced the start of a Wi-Fi pilot program based on the 802.11n wireless networking standard, marking the creation of Asia's first campus wireless network with a bandwidth of 900 Mb.

The network covers the entire DLUT campus and is available to over 10,000 teachers and students through more than 1,000 access points.

"Since the upgrade, I've been able to watch video lectures given by well-known professors and chat with teachers from anywhere and at any time," said Jiang Xiaobo, a DLUT student majoring in computer science.

Jiang and some of his fellow university students have even built their own remote-controlled car that can transmit video data captured by a camera mounted on the car directly to the car's operator via the new network.

The wireless network solution applied by DLUT was provided by Aruba Networks, the world's second-largest vendor of WLAN networks.

Gary Jackson, vice president of Aruba's Asia-Pacific and Japan branches, said that DLUT, as the first college in Asia to deploy high-performance AP-135 wireless access points, will serve as a model for the construction of digital campuses in China and across Asia.

China has been catching up quickly with the rest of the world in applying Wi-Fi technology to its business and education sectors. To date, nearly 100 Chinese universities and colleges have worked with Aruba, Jackson said.

Last year, China became the world's second-largest wireless Internet market, with rapid growth in the application of mobile Internet technology.

"The network has made it faster and more convenient to deliver recruitment information and offer career consultations to students," said Yu Haichen, a DLUT recruiter.

Yu said communication between various departments at DLUT has become more smooth and timely with the introduction of the new network.

Li Junjie, vice president of DLUT, said that becoming a "Wi-Fi campus" is only the first step, and that "figuring out how to combine education resources with technology" will be much more important.

He added that the university will continue to cooperate with leading IT companies and learn from developed countries to improve the school's management and teaching capabilities, as well as establish a mobile emergency response mechanism and an e-learning system.