The Wireless Linchpin
Public safety drives wireless into a 2010 recovery
- By Bo Larsson
- Nov 06, 2009
This year is the turning point for
the deployment of large-scale,
multi-service municipal wireless
mesh networks expanding upon their
public safety wireless networks for a
variety of municipal and government
services.
The advent of larger, multi-service
wireless mesh networks is being driven
by a number of confluent factors, including
proven market and technology
leadership in city-owned video surveillance
networks and the federal stimulus
package, which is expected to dramatically
increase spending on state and
local infrastructures.
The wireless infrastructure market
(cellular, mesh, WiMAX, Wi-Fi), while
anticipated to experience an overall decline
in 2009 as a result of the economic
crisis, is now positioning for recovery in
2010 and beyond, according to IDC.
Certain segments, such as mesh and
WiMAX, are even expected to demonstrate
robust growth rates of 20 to 30
percent going forward.
Firetide's assessment of the resurgence
in the municipal wireless market
is in line with the public request
for proposal information the company
has been monitoring. After a dip in the
fourth quarter of 2008, RFPs for public
safety wireless infrastructure, including
video surveillance and other high-bandwidth
applications, are on the upswing.
RFPs for public Wi-Fi access, although
less numerous than public safety RFPs,
have exhibited steady growth since early
2008, quadrupling in 15 months.
Expanding on Public Safety
In the past, while other vendors struggled
to fi nd the right business model for
enabling municipal wireless mesh networks,
Firetide focused on providing
wireless infrastructure mesh technology
for video surveillance, which is the
most demanding municipal application
on a wireless network.
Most industry pundits now admit
that public safety, rather than free
public Wi-Fi, has become the linchpin
for wireless municipal mesh networks.
The public Wi-Fi model was forced from
the beginning because of the limitations
of underperforming networks. Firetide
took a different route and focused on
developing the technology and public
safety market to prove the viability of
products for large-scale, multi-service
municipal mesh networks.
Municipalities have already begun to
plan deployments of citywide wireless
infrastructure, having proved the viability
of the technology in public safety
applications fi rst. In the United States,
more than 300 municipalities have deployed
Firetide-enabled wireless video
surveillance systems and are expanding
the use of their wireless infrastructure
to include other applications that protect
and serve their communities.
Internationally, Korea has deployed
a number of municipal wireless mesh
networks. For example, one covers 700
square miles on Jeju Island for weather
monitoring and emergency preparedness,
and another in the country's capital
Seoul supports more than 10 applications:
video surveillance for public
safety, tourist information over Wi-Fi,
video cameras for monitoring wildlife,
sensor connectivity for water-level
monitoring and event location services
such as fi nding missing children in the
park. Korea's second largest city, Busan,
has deployed Firetide to give residents
and visitors anytime access to wireless
Internet information services.
New Capabilities
Now, new MIMO-based products are
increasing the performance of the previous
generation of products, making
wireless-fi ber performance available at
a fraction of the cost and time needed
for deployment of wired infrastructure.
Early Firetide customers, including
the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department,
are achieving up to 300 MBps
performance in outdoor environments.
These customers report that the new
infrastructure mesh product is delivering
up to 10 times the performance of
any other wireless mesh network equipment,
giving them greater flexibility
in the design and deployment of their
infrastructure mesh networks and enabling
the addition of new applications
and services on a single network, which
was never before possible.
Strong Demand
Transportation and smart grid projects
will contribute signifi cantly to the
growth of large-scale municipal wireless
mesh networks, as communication
infrastructure and physical infrastructure
become one. To improve the effi
ciency of the nation's smart grid and
transportation networks, utilities and
transportation agencies need not only a
sound physical infrastructure but also a
way to share data applications, provide
security and enable communications.
New 900 MHz non-line-of-sight mesh
is an ideal solution for street-level connectivity,
where buildings and foliage
often present a challenge. Meanwhile,
high-throughput mobile infrastructure
enabled by MIMO mesh solutions will
provide real-time security and other applications
in the transportation sector.
Integrated video surveillance solutions
simplify integration and installation of
video security deployments in the core
municipal vertical and new markets, including
transportation.
Broadband initiatives tie in well
with the new administration's plans
to improve the country's critical infrastructure.
To improve the effi ciency of
ports, roads and cities, municipalities
need a sound physical infrastructure
and a way to communicate easily and
seamlessly.
There is a renewed focus on urban
revitalization and economic development
where wireless networking plays a
critical role by supporting public safety
initiatives through real-time video and
communications, with wireless video
surveillance; for example, increasingly
serving as a force multiplier and an offi
cer safety tool. With the funding from
the stimulus package, multi-service,
large-scale networks will become the
norm, rather than an exception.
Firetide also sees an even bigger
focus on mobile applications—voice,
video and data—to serve municipal
and transportation markets. Always-on
connectivity and visibility will improve
productivity and public safety, whether
on city streets, public transit or transportation
corridors.