Exactly. As much as we try, wireless cannot be promised or guaranteed the same level of service as wired. But as we've seen, people are often just as happy with a convenient service that works well 80% of the time, as an inconvenient (wired) service that works without issue almost 100% of the time. In the residence halls, where we have pervasive wireless, we have significant issues associated with rouge devices. We can do little to nothing except to locate and politely ask them to turn that off. On our wired network we have pretty much total control. So, just from an administrative point of view, we have little to no control over the medium for wireless, and almost total control on wired. Kinda makes it difficult to be able to say the services are the same, or that we can offer the same SLA. I guess you can say anything, but it doesn't make it true...
Ryan H Turner Senior Network Engineer The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill CB 1150 Chapel Hill, NC 27599 +1 919 445 0113 Office +1 919 274 7926 Mobile -----Original Message----- From: The EDUCAUSE Wireless Issues Constituent Group Listserv [mailto:WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU] On Behalf Of Thomas Carter Sent: Wednesday, August 26, 2015 10:19 AM To: WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU Subject: Re: [WIRELESS-LAN] WiFi Service Level Agreement I do not have the same confidence in wireless as I do wired. There is no control over the airwaves like there is over physical cabling, and some interference cannot be dealt with (like visitor's mobile hotspots). Thomas Carter Network and Operations Manager Austin College 903-813-2564 -----Original Message----- From: The EDUCAUSE Wireless Issues Constituent Group Listserv [mailto:WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU] On Behalf Of Hunter Fuller Sent: Tuesday, August 25, 2015 5:40 PM To: WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU Subject: Re: [WIRELESS-LAN] WiFi Service Level Agreement On Tue, Aug 25, 2015 at 11:10 AM, Chuck Enfield <chu...@psu.edu> wrote: > If so, why would we focus on saying, "wireless might not work." > It's not helpful to us or our users. A much more constructive > approach would be to tell faculty to plan for when wireless doesn't > work - to have a back-up plan for that iPad app, to download the > PowerPoint presentation before class begins instead of during class, > to plug into a wired connection if that's an option, etc.. The way I read this, it seems to imply a lack of confidence in the service. Since our wireless and wired infrastructures are separate to some degree, it's possible that a wireless connection would not work - but it's just as likely that a wired drop would not work, too. Therefore, I'd estimate that I am equally confident in both services. Maybe if it was phrased differently, like "make sure to test wired and wireless ahead of time, in case one fails" - but I see wireless and wired as equals. Just my two cents. ********** Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE Constituent Group discussion list can be found at http://www.educause.edu/groups/. ********** Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE Constituent Group discussion list can be found at http://www.educause.edu/groups/. ********** Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE Constituent Group discussion list can be found at http://www.educause.edu/groups/.
