PSU Magazine Fall 2004

J on Snyder and Kris Amundson were on a mission. Driving around Portland in an unmarked car one sunny after– noon, they stopped peri– odically, got out of the car, and held forth antennas. Like desert settlers looking for water, they were divining the air for ... what? That's what the neighbors wanted to know. Before you could say, "Can you hear me now?" a Portland police car arrived on the scene. "We think you're trying to steal Internet access," the cops told them. N othing could be further from the truth. Snyder and Amundson, network technology experts at Portland State, are more interested in giving than receiving. The two are local experts in the new technology called WiMAX, a method of delivering Internet service through the air rather than through wires. It's cheap. It's powerful. And in a few years it could forever change the way the world goes online. Called "the next big thing" by Newsweek, WiMAX is scheduled to hit the market by 2005. It uses some of the same technology as Wi-Fi-the wireless way you can cruise the Web at your local Starbucks or other Internet "hot spots." But WiMAX broadcasts signals in a much longer range. While Wi-Fi can cover a build– ing or two, WiMAX can offer wireless connectivity at up to 30 miles in wide-open spaces, or a mile or two in a typical urban setting. It's also wickedly fast. While a typical cable modem brings in data at just over 1 million bits per second {mbps), WiMAX is expected to deliver data at speeds of up to 75 mbps. Because it's wireless, it's being looked at as the ultimate low-cost 6 PSU MAGAZI E FALL 2004 way to bring high-speed Internet to people who have never been able to get it before. Today, if you want DSL, your telecom– munications company must find a way to make a hard connection between your home and their main copper, cable, or fiber net– works. This "last mile" of connection can be expen– sive, and in some places is not available at all. WiMAX does away with the "last mile" problem; it can beam the signals virtually anywhere at a fraction of the hard– wired cost. "It's the perfect technology for last mile," says Snyder, a network and systems team leader in PSU's Office of Information Technologies. W hat Snyder and Amundson were doing on that fateful day was testing a signal broadcast from a network transmitter they rigged up on the roof of PSU's Ondine residential hall with the support of Mark Gregory, executive director of the Office of Information Technologies. They could pick up the signal as far away as Southeast 18th and Hawthorne Boulevard-not bad for starters, especially since the Ondine is not a tall building and the broadcast path has a few large condos in the way. The PSU team is in the beginning stages of researching the potential for WiMAX use in Portland. The pro– ject has piqued the interest of offi– cials with the city of Portland and Oregon Health & Science University, both of which eagerly offered to partner in the project. WiMAX could eventually play a major role in how emergency personnel in the two enti– ties communicate. It could also revo– lutionize the way distance learning classes are delivered to thousands of PSU students. By John Kirkland Beaming the Internet on Portland to change how we go online– especially for University classes. Jon Snyder (top) and Kris Amundson are testing a new wireless technology called WiMAX.