OnSSI Now Manages Firetide Wireless Nets

• By Steven Titch
• Aug 17, 2007

Firetide Inc. has signed an agreement with On-Net Surveillance Systems Inc. to integrate its wireless mesh networking technology with OnSSI’s video surveillance management system.

The deal allows users of OnSSI’s video control system, to extend features including NVR management, virtual matrix switching and video analytics onto cameras operating wirelessly over Firetide networks.

The two systems connect via an Internet Protocol (IP) over Ethernet interface. The Firetide system is based on Ethernet standards, although it incorporates proprietary technology that optimizes high-resolution IP video for wireless transmission. The two companies have been working together for some time, and surveillance networks that integrate Firetide and OnSSI equipment have been deployed by the police departments in Dallas and Phoenix, says Manish Chandra, product manager at Firetide.

“The Dallas Police Department was a major deployment for us in the security space,” he said. “It represents an integrated solution on an end-customer delivered as one piece.”

Wireless cameras are attracting greater attention because they can be quickly deployed, prices are dropping, and more cities are deploying large-scale municipal wireless networks that can support public safety applications.

The Dallas Police deployed 31 wireless cameras with PTZ capability, plus nine that are fixed. The cameras cover more than 30 percent of the total downtown area. Criteria used for site selection included maximization of coverage, available mounting locations, pedestrian and vehicular density, number of tourist spots and entertainment facilities, and the level of social and local quality-of-life problems.

The Dallas wireless video network was specifically designed for police use. It occupies the 4.9 GHz band, a set of frequencies allocated for public safety. The Firetide mesh networking gear, however, can also work in 2.8 GHz bands used by the 802.11a, b, and g wireless network protocols, which together are collectively known as WiFi.

The Firetide mesh connects to Dallas Police Headquarters over a 60-GHz backhaul link provided by BridgeWave Communications, where officers use the OnSSI system monitor the video surveillance network. The surveillance system stores 14 days of digital images.

The Firetide system, Chandra said, provides quality of service (QoS) enhancements that ensure IP packets that contain video information get higher priority as they cross the network. Specific priority levels can be set by the user through a management interface.

Meanwhile, mesh networking assures that network loads stay balanced. If one wireless node in the mesh reaches capacity, it can automatically off-load traffic to another node independent of a switch. Chandra likened it to choosing highway routes between San Jose and San Francisco. “I can take Highway 101, 280 or 680. If 101 is congested, I can take 280.”

On the video management end, the OnSSI system can see through to all cameras on the Firetide network and users can extend all OnSSI management functions and features through to the wireless cameras seamlessly.

“The interoperability of OnSSI’s software driven video surveillance solutions and Firetide’s high speed mesh networks expands the functionality of our software and provides users with a value added proposition for both new and existing systems,” Gadi Piran, president and CTO of OnSSI, said in a statement. “Users employing this integrated solution will benefit from the unprecedented speed at which they can deliver the data they need without the inherent hindrances of slow networks or an overflow of incoming data.”