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Can You Hear Me Now?

Duke is upgrading its campus cellular network

Sam Wickline, left, and Scott Hudson, IT analysts with Duke's Office of Information Technology, check cellular activity at the Duke Medicine Pavilion.
Sam Wickline, left, and Scott Hudson, IT analysts with Duke's Office of Information Technology, check cellular activity at the Duke Medicine Pavilion.

To ensure that campus cellular capacity and coverage will meet the ever-growing demand for mobile connectivity, Duke is working with Verizon, AT&T and Sprint to upgrade the cellular networks on campus.

Work involves a new distributed antennae system that broadcasts cellular signals more directly to campus buildings and covers a much larger area. The project is expected to take 18 months.

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The university has become increasingly reliant on cellular voice and data services for DukeALERT emergency notifications and day-to-day business operations. Students, faculty and staff rely on consistent, high-speed data rates to access university systems.

"Today's students, faculty and staff come to campus with two or three wireless devices: smartphones, tablets, laptops," said John Andreala, assistant director in Duke's Office of Information Technology. "With cellular services so vital to the business, safety and academic mission of the university, our network must be ready to meet the current and projected needs."

The project will involve work on more than 200 buildings, many of which - from historic older structures to cutting-edge "green" construction - pose challenges for connectivity.Older buildings have denser walls that can interfere with wireless coverage. "Green" building construction also can obstruct coverage: The building exteriors often contain materials that block carrier signals.

The system infrastructure will be designed, constructed and installed through a partnership with Verizon Wireless, AT&T and Sprint, the university's three preferred carriers. The multi- million project will be funded by the carriers, who also will provide ongoing monitoring and maintenance for the system. Duke is not charging the carriers for lease costs.

With the increased cellular coverage, the upgrade also allows Duke to shut down its legacy 800 Megahertz radio system, which had been used for communications by about 500 facilities staff. Now workers will only carry one device.

Due to the building-based rollout of the new system, OIT will work with departmental contacts and university building coordinators to ensure that users have specific information about activities in their buildings.