Mobility
I n today’s fast-paced world, people are
constantly on the move—commuting
daily, traveling frequently, and working
out in the field serving customers and the
community. Wireless communications has
helped sever the tether, enabling people
to access the public Internet and private
intranets via the growing number of Wi-Fi
HotSpots and wireless municipal networks. The cellular phone network even
supports full mobility where people enjoy continuous communications as they roam
from place to place.
Ideally, users could get the best of both wireless worlds: the broadband data
rates, reliability and affordability of Wi-Fi mesh
combined with the seamless roaming of the
cellular phone network. And now they can
with technologies that enable Wi-Fi mobility.
Wi-Fi mobility adds high-speed roaming to public Internet access services in
public transportation systems, such as commuter trains, subways and buses. It
also provides public safety officials and public works crews
with powerful mobile multimedia communications
while they protect and serve the
community - out in the community.
Accessing a Mesh on the Move Wi-Fi mobility involves the ability to
connect seamlessly to the nearest HotSpot
while traveling at a high rate of speed
through a HotZone, which is essentially a
network of multiple HotSpots that extends
throughout an area, such as a railway, a
major thoroughfare or harbor, or an entire
metropolitan region.
The potential to roam among Wi-Fi
HotSpots became possible only after largescale
Wi-Fi HotZones were made practical and affordable with the advent of wireless
mesh networking. The wireless mesh is
a self-forming, self-healing network that
installs quickly and easily, and requires
minimal ongoing management. The mesh
topology utilizes multiple wireless paths,
which allow the network to overcome
obstacles, expand readily into new territory
and deliver mission-critical reliability.
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Video Surveillance
Video
surveillance originated in the 1960’s when closed-circuit television (CCTV)
technology was first used to monitor and record events in a variety of venues.
Centralized, around-the-clock monitoring has improved responsiveness while
reducing overall surveillance costs for both public law enforcement and private
security efforts. Recorded video has been just as valuable for its forensic
purposes, as well as for prosecuting crimes.
Newer cameras now employ digital technology, which enables video surveillance to
cover many more venues far more cost- effectively. By utilizing standard
Ethernet interfaces and the ubiquitous Internet protocol (IP), video
surveillance applications are able to leverage existing local and wide area
networks to cover sprawling campuses and even entire cities, allowing virtually
any site to be monitored. But there is still one more limitation: the high
monthly cost of broadband WAN connectivity using leased T1/E1 or digital
subscriber line (DSL) services. But what if these expensive wire-line services
were no longer needed? What if video surveillance could be completely untethered?
Video Surveillance with “No Strings Attached”
The versatility and scalability of wireless mesh networks makes them ideal for
video surveillance applications. A wireless mesh is a self-forming, self-healing
network that requires no separate wiring or costly backhaul services. The
broadband mesh has the throughput and scalability required to handle numerous
cameras, along with the reach needed to cover large geographies. And because
the mesh topology automatically creates multiple paths among the many nodes, the
network provides the requisite mission-critical reliability.
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Wi-Fi HotZones
There
are over 100,000 Wi-Fi (Wireless Fidelity) HotSpots worldwide, according to
JiWire. And over 400 municipalities (about half in the U.S.) are now in the
process of seeking proposals for or deploying community-wide Wi-Fi HotZones,
according to industry analyst firm vision gain.
Why Wi-Fi? In today’s global, mobile economy, Internet access has become a
necessity—almost like a utility. Which is why Wi-Fi interfaces are now built
into most laptop PCs, personal digital assistants (PDAs) and many smartphones.
For communities, providing Wi-Fi access encourages economic development and
promotes tourism in a variety of venues, including business districts, airports,
convention centers, stadiums, shopping malls, marinas, and other public places
where residents and visitors gather. And for wireless service providers, Wi-Fi
is the best way to compete against cable and digital subscriber line (DSL)
access, as well as to supplement 3G cellular networks with broadband Internet
access and voice over IP (VoIP) capabilities.
Wi-Fi Everywhere with Mesh HotZones
Wireless mesh was the breakthrough advance needed to make the community-wide
Wi-Fi HotZone practical and affordable. With ubiquitous Wi-Fi, the “digital
divide” disappears. City workers have constant access, whether in their offices or
out serving constituents. Public safety agencies benefit from interoperable
multimedia (voice/video/data) communications for first responders. The Wi-Fi
mesh can even be used for video surveillance, automatically reading utility or
parking meters, monitoring facilities and infrastructure, providing disaster
recovery services, and more.
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Automatic Meter Reading
As technology continues to improve
in price/performance, the number
of municipal utilities implementing automatic meter reading (AMR) systems continues to grow. Today, most AMR deployments are “walk-by” or “drive-by” systems. A battery-operated transmitter in each meter sends a radio frequency (RF) signal that is read by a special receiver either carried by hand or mounted in a vehicle. These solutions require a much smaller
staff of meter readers, who merely need
to walk or drive by the many meters in
any neighborhood. The result is more
accurate readings taken in far less time—
all without any need to enter anyone’s property. Although this form of AMR is an enormous improvement over manual meter reading, continued high labor and vehicle costs are driving the industry to an even better solution.
Fully-automatic meter reading can eliminate entirely the need for anyone to walk or drive by any meters—ever again—with special receivers deployed to automatically and continuously read all meters in their vicinity. Among the many advantages are the ability to monitor daily demand, implement conservation
programs, create usage profiles
by time of day, and detect potentially
hazardous conditions, such as leaks or
outages. But there is still one drawback with these AMR deployments: the costly network backhaul required by leased lines or cellular services from a local telephone company, or Power Line Carrier (PLC) solutions from the local power company.
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