Navigating the Wireless Waters

Mesh network powers security systems for port, city of Richmond, Calif.

• By Brent Dirks
• Sep 01, 2008

Despite different needs for security, officials from both the port and city of Richmond, Calif., have turned to a technology that is becoming more common every day—an IP video surveillance network powered by wireless mesh technology.

Spread over 32 miles of shoreline, the more than 100- year-old Richmond port is the third busiest in the state with more than 19 million short tons of non-containerized products, including new cars from Kia and Hyundai and liquid bulk items. The port has 15 terminals, five owned by the city and 10 privately owned.

Just a few miles from the Golden Gate Bridge, the city of Richmond, now with more than 100,000 residents, grew up around the port, famed for the Kaiser ship yards that helped rebuild the U.S. Navy fleet during World War II.

That close relationship between the port and the city continued when both were looking for a security solution. City officials began searching for a solution to help combat a rising crime rate in 2006 and turned to a wireless mesh IP video surveillance solution from integrator ADT Security Services.

Monitoring the Port
While the city was beginning to work with ADT, port officials began to become interested in the technology, realizing the homeland security and other benefits a similar system could provide.

“Ports facilities from all over the country are working with the Department of Homeland Security to make ports safer,” said Jim Matzorkis, the Port of Richmond’s executive director. “It’s a huge undertaking for the nation. There are amazing amounts of cargo coming into seaports all over the country at many different locations. But this installation of security technology is a good, positive step forward.”

The main objective of the port’s system is to provide perimeter intrusion support while reducing crime and vandalism surrounding the facility.

And with a $2.5 million grant from DHS, the port tapped ADT to provide the system of 82 Axis IP cameras— 64 fixed and 18 PTZ—to monitor the port’s perimeters and facilities.

With a more than 15-square-mile area of coverage, the port officials said choosing a wireless network for the installation was easy. Beyond not having the cost of running fiber across such an expansive area, using wireless technology allows for easier expansion of the system, which has already been discussed.

Currently, there are 31 nodes in the network that feed the information from across the port back to a 71 TB data center at the port’s main office. The wireless system has more than 1 GB of backhaul, good enough to support the current usage and any expansion.

BelAir Networks provided the wireless mesh technology while backhaul support came from AW Networks. Other support came from Genius Vision’s video storage/management systems, and installation support was provided by Point 1.

Featured right along with the wireless mesh network is another up-and-coming technology—video analytics from Object Video.

Anchored by virtual tripwires across the perimeter of the facility, the analytics are designed to search for user-defined exceptions at the port, including loitering or someone jumping a fence. If an exception is found, an alarm event is created and the pan-tilt cameras give the system operator different views of the situation to determine whether security needs to be alerted.

While the PTZ cameras can zoom in on a object more than a mile away, the surveillance system also records all video, allowing a security operator to play back the event or send the information to personnel in the field.

Despite the movement to edge-based analytics, where rules and exceptions are processed at the camera, the port’s system is designed to send the video back to a centrally-based server. The server then processes the images.

Server-based analytics were chosen because of advances in bandwidth technology and the ease and cost savings of having the hub of the system centrally located.

“My whole issue is to keep everything located at a single box where the information can be administered,” said Jeff Gutierrez, a national accounts manager from ADT who helped design the system. “It’s really tough to go to a camera, go to a bucket truck and play with the camera. Instead, everything is in a single location. I want people in an office working on system instead of at the camera.”

The port’s system was up and running at full capacity in May. The network can be linked with the city’s system but is currently running separately.

Protecting the City
While the port and city system share similar technology, the reasons behind the two are vastly different.

Instead of coming directly from one particular need like the port, impetus for the city’s project came from different areas. Along with cutting down on crime and stopping graffiti, the cameras in Richmond are designed to tackle common urban issues like blight abatement and illegal dumping.

“We did realize that it was a single department that was going to own it,” Richmond City Manager Bill Lindsay said. “It was going to be a partnership between police, public works, information technology and the port, which had its own separate set of needs.”

The city’s system features 34 IP cameras (20 fixed and 14 PTZ) that are monitoring the city’s high-crime areas. With a more tricky landscape than the port’s open spaces, the wireless information is handled by 70 nodes. The city’s system cost $1.81 million and was funded by general funds from the city and the North Richmond Waste and Recovery Mitigation Fund.

Video from the cameras is monitored and recorded by the city’s police department. The second phase of the project, which will allow for transmission of video straight to patrol cars, is ongoing.

While wireless surveillance in public places is often a touchy subject, the city took a proactive approach in alleviating citizens’ concerns regarding privacy. Officials invited members from the ACLU into the oversight process, and police formed a citizen’s committee to introduce training and usage guidelines and policies.

Stressing that the system is not constantly monitored and that the analytics only alert police to a suspicious event helped ease many fears, city officials said.

“The impetus of the project came from the citizens themselves,” said Janet Schneider, assistant city manager. “They were the ones who wanted cameras and got the City Council behind that. There wasn’t initial resistance from the city. We’re a city with a lot of crime, and people felt that cameras could be a possible solution to that.”

Now that the initial system is up, officials said they are looking into plans for expansion, including bringing businesses into the fold by tying in private cameras into the overall network.

“What we will have when this is complete is a very strong backbone of a system that we can continue to build on, and that’s what we’re looking forward to doing,” Lindsay said. “Hopefully we’ll be adjusting and expanding to meet more functions in the community.”