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iPhone Flunks Out at Duke University by Jordan Corning
Well it wasn't AT&T's west coast network, but the iPhone did manage to short circuit one, albeit much smaller, network today. The iPhone's Wi-Fi connection appears to be causing problems on the wireless network at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina.
The built-in 802.11b/g adapters on a number of phones occasionally flood certain parts of the University's wireless LAN with MAC address requests. This has lead to the temporary loss of signal from 12 to 30 wireless access points on different occasions.
The campus primary WLAN provider, Cisco, is currently working with network administrators who have opened a help desk ticket with Apple. However, a specific cause has yet to be determined.
Because it is summer, a time in which the majority of full-time students are not enrolled in classes, the problem is not as severe as say during finals week of fall semester. However, when students return for classes in the fall, they are certain to bring more iPhones with them. And with more iPhones, come even more network requests flooding the campus system.
The iPhones appear to be flooding the University's access points with up to 18,000 address requests per second (nearly 10Mbps of bandwidth) and hording the campus airtime. When the access points can no longer handle the intense traffic, they proceed to shut down for 10-15 minutes with no means to communicate with Wi-Fi enabled devices. According to Kevin Miller, assistant director, communications infrastructure, with Duke's Office of Information Technology, there are currently 150 or so Apple iPhones regularly using Duke's Wi-Fi network.
The iPhone uses the Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) to request the MAC address of the destination node, for which it already has the IP address. When it doesn't get an answer, the iPhone just keeps asking, leading to the aforementioned 18,000 requests per second.
So far, the communication with Apple has been "one-way," according to Miller. After initially filing the problem ticket, Apple has told him the problem is being "escalated" but as of mid-afternoon Monday, nothing significant had been heard from Apple.
With this story in full rotation in the blogoshpere and national news publications, Apple would be wise to offer some real solutions to the problems, and fast. With an angry consumer rights group and an irritated mob of EDGE customers already barking up their proverbial tree, this is just one more bump in the road the iPhone must cope with and resolve.
The coming days may prove costly for Apple as they could see their college-age market shrink due to potential perceived complications with campus wireless networks. Regardless of whether the Duke case is an isolated incident, the negative press from its occurrence is sure to leave some college-aged purchasers with a bitter taste in their mouth.
About the Author
Jordan Corning is a mobile enterprise solutions enthusiast. An analyst with Minneapolis based consulting firm ITR Group, Jordan enjoys exploring new ways in which mobile technology can offer significant contributions to the business, educational, and consumer worlds. For more info, visit the ITR Group website @ http://www.itrgroupinc.com or visit his blog @ http://www.iphailure.com |
