May 20,1996 The Connected Schools of Belen, New Mexico A Wireless Success Story David R Hughes Principal Investigator National Science Foundation Wireless Field Test for Education Project The 8 schools, of the Belen Consolidated School District of Valencia County, New Mexico span an area over 5 miles wide and 10 miles long centered on this rural agricultural town of 6,500 which lies 30 miles south of Albuquerque. All 8 schools are linked to each other wirelessly, in ways which dramatically demonstrate the potential, and cost-effectivess, for typical K-12 school network operations using digital radios operating in frequency bands approved by the FCC for unlicenced use. They also illuminate the limitations of using radios which are required to operate under Part 15 FCC rules, and point to requirements which cannot yet be satisfactorily met in the promising field of spread spectrum digital radio. In essence, Belen school district is totally networked by no-licence, no monthly cost, T-1 wireless communications. And linked to the Internet from all schools through the net. Background The Belen School District is rather typical of a district serving an area with approximately 12,000 residents, half residing in Belen proper and the remainder on small farms in the surrounding area. It has 6 elementary school buildings, 1 middle school, 1 high school, and an adminstrative center co-located with one elementary school. It has 4,800 students, with a faculty of 250. The district is composed of lower middle-income residents. 72% of the students are Hispanic. The town and surrounding area are situated on the essentially flat shallow basin west of the Rio Grande River which flows past it. There are no high hills, but the High School is situated on a rising bluff of the western edge of the district, giving a rough radio line of sight to the other 7 district schools from the high school. There are no significant natural or man-made obstacles in the town. Mature trees characteristic of New Mexico built-up towns are the principal vegatation. The school district, now headed by Superintendent Michael Grossman, made a major decision in 1994, under then Superintendent Pete Torres, to network all the schools by internal LANs within the seperate school building, and provide, as far as its $400,000 technology budget would allow, Internet connectivity. The funds came from a one time state appropriation for technology for schools. Before 1995, typical of schools with a rising, if scattered interest in telecommunications - triggered by teachers coming back to the school from various conferences and workshops in previous years and seeing the educational value in general connectivity, and more recently the Internet, there were 5 voice-grade telephone-line equipped classrooms, with modem access to the New Mexico-wide TechNet (which gives teachers some individual access to the Internet from anywhere in the state.) A few teachers had personal computers and modems at home, from which they could dial into, without paying long distance charges, any commercial, university, or other modem-equipped network, in Albuquerque. But also typical of such schools, there were only a few early adapters to telecommunications, such as Jennifer Danner, a 4th grade teacher, who recieved her technological education at the University of New Mexico in programs developed by one of the premier technology educators in New Mexico, Dr. Carmen Gonzales, who accompanied us on this field trip. A once-math, science, and computer teacher at the Belen High School, Greg Anderson (greg@belen.k12.nm.us), took the full time position of Technology Specialist for the District. Later he recruited one of his earlier, self-taught, talented high school computer students - Robert Franklin (wob@belen.k12.nm.us), who was pursuing an undergraduate degree in computer science at the University of New Mexico (driving to the city for night classes) - to assist him. These two comprise the total technical staff of the District. The Economics of Wireless $300,000 of the $400,000 available was allocated to networking all the schools, none of which had a LAN, and integrate them into the Administrative services computers of the District - but with clear 'firewall' steps to isolate the adminstrative computers from the educational computers. There were two school libraries and resources on lan servers that were needed thruout the District. The District had a desire to connect its spread out schools to each other and the Internet, but until a happenstance contact with a Sandia Test Labs (US Govt) local resident, who was familiar with spread spectrum radios informed them of the possibility that they could use commercial versions of such radios to link their schools, they did not think it was economically feasible to do so. So they put out an RFP which specified the connectivity they aspired to - linking all schools with each other, and to one school that would be the hub, and through it to the Internet through TexNet in Albuquerque. It was a bold move, and had the support of the school board, even though this was a technology little known in the area. Belen recieved bids of $800,000 which included a Microwave wireless solution, $550,000 for a hybrid wired solution, and $300,000 from an Albuquerque firm, Tamsco, which offered a no-licence wireless solution. It required roughly $200,000 of the $300,000 to provide the 8 school building internal lans and all the associated peripherals. The Tamsco company quoted the Solectek Airlan Bridge '915' radios, which were rated at 1.544 mbs, or T-1 wireless operating in the 915MHz range, for the district, at $5,900 per radio, $1,200 for antenna, and $5,600 for the siting, erection, and installation of the antenna towers and cabling. The High School was made the hub. The ultimate cost, installed, was roughly $12,000 per school to get the radio network up and operating at T-1 speeds to and between all 8 schools and the district headquarters. Before installation was complete, Solectek included their newer radios which operate in the 2.4GHz no-licence range, at the same price. This of course required seperate antennas at the hub, since the radios do not interoperate. All radios were installed only as 'bridges' (not packaged with routers). In the end five 2.4GHz and four 912MHz radio systems were installed, linking all the schools, and forming the backbone of the network. Seperately, three 3COM routers were purchased and installed as well as a Cisco router, to route the TCP/IP packet traffic between the sites, and to provide firewalls between the educational computers and the adminstrative computers. 10Base-T ethernet wiring was used throughout, supplemented by fiber links within some schools, and in the case of one elementary school which is about 200 feet from the District Administation buildings on one piece of land owned by the district fiber was laid to link them, and they share one radio. 120 IBM Clone 486's with 8 or 16 mbs ram, running Windows for Workgroups, were purchased and installed in the schools, linked to the lans and wireless nets through a combination of Novell 3.1, NT 3.51, and Linux Unix systems as lan servers, with the Unix system providing TCP/IP name server, and other network services at the hub site, including centralized monitoring and filtering if needed, access to the world wide web or any Internet site from any school computer. Essentially, with the T-1 wireless network linking all the schools, all workstations became part of a Wide Area Network, using TCP/IP as the protocol (even though NetBui, and even IPX was used locally also), and all lan file server software is reachable from all workstations. This was made possible only by the high speed T-1 connections between the schools. Because the closest Point of Presence for Internet connectivity is in Albuquerque, 30 miles away, and the radios, using no more than the FCC Part 15 specified 1 watt, cannot reach that distance, Belen was compelled to look to US West for dedicated line access to the city. But because US West quoted from $1,000 to $1,400 a month - or $12,000 to $16,800 a year, for a T-1 link to TechNet's POP in Albuquerque, the District had to settle for starting with only a 56kbs frame relay connection, using a $500 DSU/CSU, which service costs $125 a month, or $1,500 a year. With similar quotes from US West for local T-1 loop connections between the schools of the District, the comparative costs originally faced by the Belen District broke out at follows: T-1 Links Between 8 Schools US West Solectek Wired Wireless Fixed Equipment $8,000 $108,000 and Installation (8 CSU/DSUs) (8 radios systems) Operating Costs $84,000 yr 0 5 year (US West contract period) $428,000 $108,000 10 year costs $848,000 $108,000 Or, by using wireless, the district could get T-1 links which they could not afford otherwise. And have projected savings when compared with the only feasible alternative of telephone company operated wired networks, of $320,000 over the first 5 years and $740,000 over 10 years. These are very substantial economies for a small district. This capability would not exist if not for the no-licence radios, for reasons of recurring cost. There would be, by the statement of Greg Anderson - the person most responsible for the successful network - no more than 8 seperate local-school lans installed and possibly, a limited 56kbs wired access from each school to the Internet, with no cross-district lan capability, much less the multi-media (voice, sound, animated image, and text) interactive work that full education demands, and which the wireless T-1 capability now gives. Startup Experience The installation of this equipment, lans, and wireless was done in the summer and fall of 1995. Solectek radio engineers did the crucial - and sometimes costly - site survey, and Tamsco installed the radio systems. By January, 1996 the wide area, Internet connected network was in use by teachers. For at least one month after the installation of the radios, there were severe reliability problems caused by software which was not handling IP packets properly, in the radios. (outages, very slow data transfer rates, and occassional slowdowns caused by packet congestion). These were corrected by new software by Solectek. Another difficulty stemmed from problems with the 120 degree arc limitation of directional antennas Tamsco chose to use on the High School hub, while the three furthermost schools are in a 150 degree arc from the point of the hub. They were not able to get an omni antenna to reach the distance required. So they were forced to install two directional antennas on the High School hub tower (approximatly 40 feet high), and relay through one school's radio - a feasible, but tricky solution. When I visited the school district with Dewayne Henricks, my Co-Investigator on this NSF Wireless Field Test Project, he noted that there were other technical solutions to their problems. But we both noted that there is relatively little wireless expertise in circulation yet, and until schools and colleges and vendors who support them learn these new fields - just as in the past they had to master microcomputers and wired local area networks, there will be many mistakes. We felt obliged to warn them that, under current Part 15 FCC rules, they might be interferred with in both the 915MHZ and 2.4GHZ bands by both unlicenced and licenced devices, with no recourse. That there was no particular protection for them, even though, to us, they were performing a very important public service with their radios. They were unaware of all the complexities of regulation that were involved, and only dimly understood the technical issues involved. But the network is in and it works quite well, with only minor problems the first full semester in operation. As measured by ftp transfers of data, rates of up to 1.22 mbs are achieved by the staff. I observed a transfer from an elementary classroom, by ftp, involving one wireless link and going through routers to the Linux machine, of .997 mbs, against the rated 1.544 mbs (T-1). Quite satisfactory. I also observed transfers and Netscape sessions through the wireless networks and the 56kbs link to the Internet, in which the slowest link turns out to be the $125 a month US West frame relay service. The fastest link is with the no-cost wireless. With teachers only beginning to get used to the Internet resources and possibilities, the 56kbs link is adequate for now, but the technical staff is fully aware that T-1 access to the Internet will be needed soon. The $12,000 a year cost is a barrier, however. If they could use no-licence wireless to Albuquerque they would be in excellent shape. Teacher Use and Reaction Teachers like the network, which has been in use in classrooms in all schools for one full semester. They are beginning to access centralized resources. Some are unaware that the network is wireless, but all whom I interviewed - the most experienced networkers - were greatly pleased with it. They use it down to the lower grades to access the Internet, as well as accessing centralized files and programs on servers in schools miles away. The system, acting as one big lan works very well. Both Jennifer Danner (jdanner@belen.k12.nm.us), a 4th grade teacher, and Kassandra Boyd (kboyd@belen.k12.nm.us) a 6th grade teacher demonstrated the networks uses in the classroom. Their the mastery of the commands, the network, speed of their use, confidence, and imagination they showed, together with the local, district wide, and full Internet access and speed of performance of the systems they were able to rely on, showed clearly to me that the wireless T-1 network will be heavily used throughout the district, at all levels, for substantive educational purposes. Kassandra Boyd made one telling observation, when she said "My 6th graders don't like to use our 14.4 modem any more. Too slow." The Future The District has practical plans to develop the network further. This summer they plan to get dual-use out of adminstrative telephones, by linking at least 13 of them to in-dial modems for use, from home nights and weekends, by teachers and students who have computers and modems. They showed considerable interest in any other no-licence wireless solutions to their problems of access. They were interested in shorter range wireless modems, if they could reach across the community of Belen - approximately 5 miles from the center to the district boundaries, from homes of students and teachers. That would obviate the need for ever larger banks of local telephones - at cost - at the school to handle increasing study-from home traffic. They were even more interested in the possibility of reaching an Internet POP in Albuquerque at T-1 speeds by later radios - some of which now have a rated range of 25 miles for 2mbs, but would require a relay site at some intermediate site, such as in Los Lunes, or the Isleta Indian Pueblo. Such a relay would cut the throughput to 1mbs, 33% below full T-1. But with US West local loop T-1 costs of $12,000 a year, or $60,000 for the usual 5 year contracts, the cost of from $4000 (bridge only) to $8000 (bridge plus router) times three looks fairly attractive. If such radios, with better FCC rules, had a larger market, the price would come down. The Superintendent of Belen schools, indicated, that he would like to see no-licence radios that could reach 45 miles, so that they could reach a technical college south of Belen, which is affilated with Belen, as well as to Albuquerque, 30 miles away. He is expected to express that 'need' by e-mail to the FCC which is considering the NPRM Docket 102-93, the NII/SUPERNET device rules for 'community network' capable radios. All schools are used all summer for continuing adult, as well as K-12 student education. The economics of the wireless, no-cost data links, holds the glimmer of the possibility for broader 'community networking.' Conclusions The capabilities, at an affordable one-time cost, brought to the Belen School District by the 8 no-licence, T-1 radios have been the decisive ingredient in their achieving a district wide area network, at lan speeds, and with access to the Internet from all schools. It is laying down the foundation for advanced use of networks at every level at the schools, and is the beginning of community-wide access to both the schools, and the Internet. As detailed in my paper "The Case for Shared Wireless Spectrum" May 6th, 1996 I postulated that the 84,000 public schools in 16,000 school districts in the US have four basic needs for no-licence (or no-recurring-cost) wireless. (1) Internal, to school buildings, wireless lans. This is the least needed. (2) Wireless high-data rate links between the buildings of a school district. The greatest need. (3) Wireless high-data rate links between the central hub of a school district and the closest POP. A great need in rural towns. (4) Wireless links - of at least 56kbs - between students and teachers at home and their school - as an access point to the Internet as well as access to school resources and communications. The Belen School District in its fullfilled needs, and well as unfullfilled needs completely matches that model of needs. And indicates that FCC Rules for wireless should take those needs into account and satisfy them. Dave Hughes dave@oldcolo.com 719-636-2040 voice This report is part of the information gathering that our National Science Foundation Wireless Field Tests for Education Project has been engaged in, besides our installing and testing under a wide variety of rural and urban educational circumstances wireless devices from short range wireless lans, to 25 mile T-1 radios, in Colorado. This report and others pertaining to the Project can be accessed by http://wireless.oldcolo.com to the Project's Web site.