Educational institutes: Wireless network standards, security and future

Abstract

Wireless networks have made their mark in higher educational institutes worldwide. The authors have conducted a web-based survey to investigate various aspects of wireless networks in higher education institutes around the world. This paper discusses the findings of the survey results in higher education institutes worldwide. Thirty-six higher education institutes participated in this survey. Three of the institutes filled the survey partially and therefore survey results for thirty-three institutes only were considered. There were seventeen questions in the survey covering topics related to wireless networks only in education institutes. This paper presents the survey results pertaining to wireless network standards, security and future of this technology in education institutes. Most of the earlier studies that have been done prior to this, have covered wireless usage in their own country. This research has attempted to survey countries across the world. For a better understanding of the survey results this paper presents a brief review of different wireless technologies in relation to wireless network security and standards available in the market. Subsequently survey results of wireless network standards, security techniques used by the higher education institutes are depicted and analysed.