Lab and Research Activities at Wireless Trondheim Steinar H Andresen 1 , John Krogstie 2 , Thomas Jelle 3 1,3 Dep. of Telematics, 2 Dep. of Computer and Information Science, NTNU N-7491 Trondheim, Norway 1 steinara@item.ntnu.no 2 john.krogstie@idi.ntnu.no 3 thomas.jelle@item.ntnu.no Abstract— This paper gives a short introduction to the layout and organisation of lab facilities in connection to Wireless Trondheim. Current research activities and future possibilities are described. I. INTRODUCTION Wireless Trondheim is a research and development project made possible through the joint efforts of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), the city of Trondheim, the Sør-Trøndelag County Council, SpareBank 1 Midt-Norge, Adresseavisen and Trondheim Energiverk. For students and residents in Trondheim, Wireless Trondheim means geographically extended and high-speed wireless access to the Internet. Wireless Trondheim has in the first round selected Wi-Fi technology to provide this service. This means that users must have Wi-Fi-enabled equipment to be able to use the network. So far 1/4th of Trondheim’s inhabitants have free access to the network. The lucky 1/4th includes students at NTNU and college and elementary school pupils in Trondheim - in other words, young people. This is no coincidence, students and young people are often said to be early adopters eager to test new solutions. With free access for early adopters the service providers and researchers hope to see which services will succeed in the market well ahead of anyone else. The access will remain free at least throughout 2008. The Wireless Trondheim initiative features three distinct parts: 1. The Access Network: A shared Wi-Fi network covering the main part of the city centre operated by Wireless Trondheim ltd (Trådløse Trondheim AS) – the same technology and equipment are applied providing in-door and out-door Wi-Fi [1] coverage at the University. 2. A Service Research and Development Lab. 3. A Networking Lab or the “Street’n Roof Lab”: This features its own physical infrastructure in parallel to the Access Network. These will be presented in the following sections. II. THE ACCESS NETWORK A shared Wi-Fi based infrastructure is deployed in downtown of Trondheim. The infrastructure supports several SSIDs allowing different ISPs to offer their services in the same network, sharing the costs. Currently five SSIDs are used. Wireless Trondheim offers outdoor coverage and in addition coverage for most cafés and some malls. The coverage is all based on an advanced Cisco Wi-Fi platform. This is a well-suited platform for testing of new and innovative service because the platform supports: • Mobility – the user can move across all of the coverage area without losing connectivity. The Cisco deployment allows layer 2 mobility handling supporting handoffs at city traffic speeds • High capacity – every access point has at least 10 Mbit/s symmetric connectivity to the backhaul network offering the possibility to test services demanding high bandwidth • Location information – the network gathers location information from the users and offers the Fig. 1. PATS Š service development infrastructure