Duke University blames iPhone for network disruptions

Duke University blames iPhone for network disruptions

By Associated Press, 7/19/2007

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - Apple Inc.'s flashy new iPhones may be jamming
parts of the wireless network at Duke University, where technology
officials worked with the company Wednesday to fix problems before
classes begin next month.

Bill Cannon, a Duke technology spokesman, said an analysis of traffic
found that iPhones flooded parts of the campus' wireless network with
access requests, freezing parts of the system for 10 minutes at a time.

A single iPhone was powerful enough to cause the problem, and there are
100 to 150 of them registered on the network, Cannon said. Network
administrators have noticed the problem nine times in the past week.

"The scale of the problem is very small right now," said Cannon, adding
that the school is working with Apple and Cisco Systems Inc., Duke's
network equipment provider, to pinpoint the problem. "But the more
iPhones that are around, the more they could be knocking on the door for
access."

Fall classes resume in August at Duke, a private university in Durham.

The iPhone is Apple's first foray into the cellular phone business. The
Cupertino, Calif.-based company released the product - which combines a
cell phone, media player and wireless Internet device - at the end of
June, with some consumers lining up outside stores days before the
phones went on sale. The phones retail for $499 to $599.

The gadget can access the Internet through AT&T Inc.'s Edge network or
through Wi-Fi. When a Wi-Fi hotspot is unavailable, it automatically
switches to the slower network but continues to check for a Wi-Fi signal.

Ashok Agrawala, a computer science professor at the University of
Maryland, speculated that both the phone and Duke's network are to blame
for the glitches at the university. Agrawala said the phones could be
struggling to regain a connection with a wireless access point, possibly
when a wireless hotspot hands off to another.

"When you set up a network on the campus, you set up the network to
accommodate the devices you have in use," Agrawala said, noting laptops
as the primary users on college campuses. "Now with the popularity of
the iPhones, the network parameters may not be set right."

But he added that the iPhone should be able to properly handle that
problem without flooding the network. Agrawala said he also questions
whether an iPhone is capable of accessing Duke's network 10,000 times a
second, as found by the school's analysis.

Natalie Kerris, an Apple spokeswoman, said the company is working with
Duke to quickly resolve the issue but didn't know details or its source.

The problem has generated discussion on Internet technology forums, but
there have been no reports of other networks being affected. At
Maryland, for example, officials said they hadn't seen anything like the
problems at Duke.

Greg James, associate director of data networking at nearby North
Carolina State University, said Wednesday that the school hasn't noticed
any issues at its campus in Raleigh despite the usual monitoring of all
wireless access points.

"We're keeping a close eye out to what happens at Duke and what they
find," James said.