Wireless LAN CERN Pilot Project 2001 FOCUS 28 June 2001 P.S. Anderssen CERN IT-CS

Goals of the Pilot Project To evaluate the operational aspects of the Wireless LAN technology; To qualify available equipment; To collect user experience;

For what problem could Wireless LAN technology be the appropriate solution? Nomadic use of portable computers on the CERN site; LAN backbone extensions to inaccessible areas and buildings; Redundant backbone for site interconnections;

Target Areas for the Pilot Installations Indoor conference rooms: Nomadic usage with no need for in-session roaming; Technical and experimental halls and buildings: Mobile computer controlled machines; CERN Site interconnections;

Technology used Wireless LAN standard IEEE b at 2.4 GHz; Direct sequence spread spectrum encoding; Uses a free-for-all frequency band, “foutoire”; There is a risk of interference with other usage of the same frequency band, hence the need for frequency planning and coordination; Equipment destined for the French market has reduced number of available frequency slots;

Equipment vendors for the pilot project Selected providers of access points were - BREEZECOM CABLETRON Selected PC cards which provided good support for LINUX, Win2000 and Mac were – CABLETRON RoamAbout LUCENT Orinoco

Early, general observations Available equipment can satisfy the needs set out for the pilot project; Vendors have continued to improve their equipment during the pilot project; The French regulatory agency (ART) has not approved our request to transmit across public land in France (which eliminates the possible use of the wireless LAN option for the redundancy required for safety systems in the LHC);

There were two classes of installation sites out of the 16 access points installed: Conference rooms with dynamic IP address allocation: IT and LHC auditoria; Buildings 31, 40, 160, 513 Technical Sites with fixed IP address allocation: The Assembly hall in building 181 The CERN store in building 73

Problems encountered (1) Several times we found the access points disconnected, probably caused by a user in need of an outlet. = Hence the need to integrate surveillance of the access points in the network management tool. The enthusiasm of the users was overwhelming. =We needed to redesign the allocation scheme of dynamic IP addresses in order to expand the range.

Problems encountered (2) For security reasons, it is necessary to register the MAC address of the computer prior to use on the CERN site. Due to technical difficulties, we were not able to impose this during the pilot project. = This problem has been addressed, and a solution will become available. The stand-alone network management software which is available in not sufficient to integrate the operational support of the system into the service contract. = We need to integrate the management of the access points into the common network management tool.

Conclusions from IT-CS The response from the users, in particular the physics community, has been enthusiastic during the pilot project. The requests for laptop interfaces and access points have far exceeded our expectations. In spite of the limited support during the pilot project, our impression is that the pilot project has given the nomadic users the facilities they have asked for.

Possible recommendation (1) from this audience The IT division makes the Wireless LAN service available through the support groups concerned (IT-CS, IT-IS, IT-TS); Resources are allocated as necessary to allow this to happened before the end of the year 2001.

Possible recommendation (2) for the interim period The pilot project continues with - A limited number of access points; A limited number of users;