Taiwan University Launches Campus-Wide Video Surveillance With Wireless Mesh Network

  • Apr 18, 2008

Taiwan’s Tajen University now ensures campus safety and delivers Wi-Fi access to its 12,000 students and staff using a wireless network infrastructure from Firetide Inc.

To expand the capabilities of the network, Tajen University is embarking on the next phase to bring mobile surveillance capabilities to two police cruisers patrolling the campus.

“Firetide provides the Tajen University campus with a carrier class wireless network,” said Dr. Lu Ching Song, professor of multi-media Web applications and wireless network project leader at Tajen. “The robust and affordable network supports a security system for our safety and provides free Wi-Fi access to our students and faculty. A key advantage of the deployment is that once purchased, it is completely reconfigurable to address changes in our security needs or the campus topography, such as the addition of new buildings.”

The first phase of the Tajen campus deployment is composed of nine Firetide HotPort mesh nodes and 19 Firetide HotPoint access points. In addition to providing Wi-Fi access to the university’s 12,000-strong student population, the network supports 25 IP video surveillance cameras, operating at 20 to 25 frames per second. A second phase will expand the reach of the system by equipping two police cars with Firetide nodes for mobile access to real-time video streams.

“The Firetide wireless network was easy to install and has delivered stable results 24/7 from day one,” said Sherman Shieh, president and vice chairman of WebChain, the system integrator for Tajen University. “With Firetide, we were able to install a complete security and Wi-Fi system at one-tenth the cost of a wired system. Instead of the months it would have taken to install a wired network, we completed the Firetide deployment in a week.”

In addition to the immediate benefits provided by the Firetide network, Tajen University is being studied as a model to evaluate video surveillance and Wi-Fi capabilities for larger deployments. For instance, the challenges encountered in wireless deployments in a typical city are all represented on the Tajen campus -- buildings of random heights, numerous trees, challenging lighting conditions in remote locations, and the need for affordable, reconfigurable solutions.

“As universities here in the U.S. and throughout the world explore new and innovative solutions to provide campus safety and better serve their student populations and staffs, Tajen University is an ideal model,” said Bo Larsson, CEO of Firetide. “We are proud to provide a solution that improves safety and communications capabilities for the Tajen campus and offers the high performance, flexibility and scalability required for future network expansions.”

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