Schlotzsky's and WNCG Begin Joint Public Wi-Fi Research

WNCG is involved in a collaborative research effort with Schlotzsky's Deli to manage public network bandwidth. Schlotzsky's, founded in Austin in 1971, is a leading upscale sandwich franchise chain with over 600 restaurants worldwide. In 2001, Schlotzsky's Deli was a pioneer in providing Internet access to its customers, and since 2002, has been advancing the service one step further by providing wireless connections for laptops and handheld devices with wireless network cards. In addition to providing indoor network access, Schlotzsky's plans to enlarge its coverage to reach surrounding neighborhoods and businesses.

WNCG is working with Schlotzsky's to solve two challenging issues with its public network initiatives. The first is to achieve the greatest coverage. Building layouts, obstacles, and antenna characteristics can affect signal transmissions, thus impacting coverage areas. The second is to efficiently use network bandwidth. For example, if only a few people run file sharing software but utilize a large portion of the wireless bandwidth, Schlotzsky's may need to restrict their usage. In order to better manage public network bandwidth, user traffic patterns must be determined and modeled. WNCG is helping Schlotzsky's solve these two issues: maximizing the coverage and analyzing and modeling user traffic patterns.

WNCG students Chen Na and Jeremy K. Chen are working with Professor Ted Rappaport and Schlotzsky's on this joint research effort.