John Connor: The future has not been written. There is no fate but what we make for ourselves.
Washington DC s Capital Wireless Integrated Network (CapWIN), for first responders, under development since 2002, now has 425 active users at 23 federal, state and local agencies, deputy director Fred Davis said today.
Police, firefighters, and transportation and medical workers can keep up with homeland security and emergency situations around the metro area by logging in from secure virtual private network clients on their PCs, personal digital assistants, wireless phones and police radios.
Users who are online see the screen refresh whenever a new discussion group forms about a breaking situation. They can instant-message their peers back and forth across jurisdictions and disciplines, Davis said. This is a new kind of communication for them.
For example, CapWIN handled cross-agency exchanges during recent derailments on the Metro subway and Amtrak lines as well as the Jan. 20 presidential inauguration. A Secret Service agent who was checking busloads of inaugural visitors at the Pentagon parking lot lost radio communication but was able to run checks through CapWIN, he said.
Some jurisdictions radios and vehicle-mounted computers, however, still lack enough bandwidth for CapWIN s planned access to Web services, geographic information system maps and hazardous-material databases.
The network runs on standard PCs, handhelds and cell phones. On the back end, it will run on clustered IBM eServers that will link to installed servers and databases. IBM, the prime contractor, has finished most of the initial work, Davis said, but it s still fine-tuning some aspects. As we go down the road toward becoming a legal entity under an interstate compact, we need to grow up and hire more in-house technical staff for development.
Templar’s Informant product is at the core of CapWIN’s information sharing. Using the product’s intelligent query to share data from multiple disparate data sources, Informant allows authorized users of CapWIN to not only retrieve information their own databases and state repository, but also from other participating jurisdictions. CapWIN now has 10,000 concurrent-use licenses for secure connections to the Verizon Wireless cellular digital packet data network and its faster EV-DO network. But Verizon plans to shut off CDPD service in December 2005, which Davis called a concern. He said he hopes that Sprint Corp. s EV-DO and Cingular Wireless Edge networks will get us close to good wireless broadband around the area.
IBM’s Capital Wireless Integrated Network (CapWIN) went online in June. Housed at the University of Maryland s Center for Advanced Transportation Technology, it wirelessly transmits instant messaging, secure e-mail and images to as many as 10,000 users on their personal digital assistants or wireless notebook PCs. Meanwhile, Flarion’s 700 MHz broadband wireless trial in Washington DC sends voice, data and video from the field. Public Service WiFi Roaming is not an impossible dream. It’s reality.
The Mobile Wi-Fi Gateway from Entree (right), combines a CDMA EVDO/1xRTT backbone with an SNMP managed authentication gateway and a high power Wi-Fi access point for use in vehicles.
Alternatives to expensive cellular backbones are being developed and implemented:
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Padcom’s software connectivity is used to let Oklahoma City police officers and firefighters access headquarters’ databases via the Wi-Fi network being built by Tropos. When first responders travel outside the range of Tropos’ network, their data connections will be switched automatically to the M/A-COM EDACS wide area network that blankets Oklahoma City.
- Using Netmotion’s Mobility XE, Orange County’s 150 officers access applications and databases over any networks they use or traverse. Mobility XE will be deployed in 200 patrol cars, too.
- SONaccess mobility solution claims to deliver an uninterrupted connection with a single IP address over multiple mobile networks, including WLAN, GPRS, 1xRTT and 3G. Others offer similar handoff and connectivity features. Handoff will be built-in to 802.16e.
- Medford, Ore., police have opted to replace their wireless communications network with a system based on “mesh” networking technology. The $500,000 system using MeshNetworks gear will replace CDPD and is funded in large part through grants from the Homeland Security Department.
- Mobilisa is running a yearlong test of Wi-Fi for Washington State Ferries. The Mobilisa tests are funded by a $1 million grant from the Federal Transportation Administration. See also Washington’s Ferry Test, Wireless Ferries Launch and Wi-Fi Ferry.
- Rio Rancho uses a combo WiFi/WiMax solution. Some 125 access points are located on light poles and traffic lights, backhauled with Proxim pre-WiMax gear.
- Nomadix and BelAir are partnering to deliver complete, turnkey wireless networks for large hot zones and municipal deployments like Wireless Athens.
- Cambridge Broadband and Sequans’ WiMAX System-on-a-Chip claims to have a WiMAX pico-base station with integrated backhaul. VectaMAX will offer local coverage in a range of licensed and unlicensed bands, supporting connectivity with Intel’s Rosedale and other WiMax CPE gear.
Location-based applications are being developed for “city clouds” by university students. Iowa motorists, like those in Texas and Maryland can check their e-mail and surf at wireless hot rest stops, while they stretch their legs. The Iowa Department of Transportation said a six-month trial will test three wireless rest stops, then access may expand to 40 rest areas statewide. Ride Now is an “instant match” service for commuters. It lets you use the Internet or a cell phone to find car pools and parking spaces.
The Wireless Internet Information System for Medical Response in Disasters (WIISARD) is one of the most ambitous development projects. The federally funded research project at UCSD is designed to coordinate and enhance care of mass casualties in a terrorist attack or natural disaster.
The goal of WIISARD is to provide emergency personnel and disaster command centers with medical data to track and monitor the condition of thousands of victims on a moment-to-moment basis.
Mobile Radio Technology Magazine explains that the analog television channels 52 through 69 (700 MHz), are a hotbed of interest.
One access point in a 700 MHz network can cover the same area as four access points in a 2.4 GHz network or 10 access points in a 4.9 GHz network. It lowers costs and the radio signals penetrate better. But many companies believe the TV spectrum would be better utilized if commercial companies bid on the frequencies and made mobile WiMAX applications available to the general public.
The interest is so great that Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) proposed funding his entire science and technology platform with the $30 billion that he estimated an FCC auction of 700 MHz airwaves would generate for the U.S. Treasury.
Some proposals call for an additional 10 MHz for public safety and others want an extra 30 MHz. The 24 MHz of 700 MHz spectrum currently allocated to public safety is not now configured to enable broadband data applications, say public service users. The idea of giving public safety additional spectrum beyond the 24 MHz they already have, has been advanced before, but the concept now appears to be gaining support.
Still, public safety users will get another windfall soon from Nextel as their old 700, 800 and 900 Mhz frequencies are consolidated into two bands at 800Mhz and 1.9 GHz. A commercial auction would generate billions for the treasury but dedicating those frequencies to public service users would not.
Many frequencies in the high UHF spectrum are used for translators, distributing big city television, state-wide, such as the Rural Oregon Wireless Television, OPAN and Oregon WIN (in my neck of the woods). They take a satellite (or microwave) feed and put out a 10 watt UHF signal. Translators may be replaced by satellite. The National ITFS Association (Instructional Fixed providers) share the 2.5-2.7 GHz band with commercial (MMDS) providers. The National Exchange Carrier Association Agency (NECA) administers the Universal Service Fund.
Statewide networks are there. They use satellites, IFTS/MMDS and UHF television frequencies. Public Utility Districts might not need a mess of towers and a ton of cash to provide phone and broadband services over a broad region. Intel says TV channels 5-13, and 21-51 (pdf) can be shared for unlicensed broadband and independent ISPs.
PUDs could do it themselves. On 700 MHz.
WiMax public service radios might piggypack on municipal broadband networks built by PUCs. WiMax base stations are just glorified WiFi hotspots — fast, cheap and interoperable.
Fred Ziari’s 700 Mile Cloud covers a big chunk of eastern Oregon to warn of possible hazerdous materials release. RAINS enables governments, schools and other organizations to share sensitive information over pagers, cellphones or PDAs.
GovTech Magazine says the European public sector, has strongly embraced open source, embracing collaborative projects and support them with public money rather than let the marketplace decide which products will survive and prosper. Europe’s strong support for open source means that innovation is often taking place overseas, not here in America.
The Open Source Development Lab, Government Open Code Collaborative and the Center for Digital Government would like to change that.
Related DailyWireless stories include; City Clouds Sell Out?, Regional Roaming Round-up, Philly’s Fight, Verizon Blocking Philly Cloud?, the Philadelphia Cloud, Low Income Housing Connection, Digital Divide Solutions, SBC Fiber Plans, Taipei Unwired, Unwired Countries, and the DailyWireless City Cloud Report
Other U.S. cities that are building city-wide clouds include Athens, GA, Baltimore, Baton Rouge, Boston, Bellevue & Kirkland, Cerritos, Charleston, South Carolina, Durham/Raleigh, North Carolina, FreeBeeAtlanta, OneCleveland, Orlando, Pittsburgh, Datona Beach, Hermosa Beach, Indianapolis, Louisville, Long Beach, Kennewick, WA, Seattle, Spokane, Tacoma, Vancouver, Washington, Hermiston, OR, Medford, OR, Louisville Kentucky, Washington DC and others. WiFi Planet’s Hotspot Hits keeps tabs.
Related DailyWireless stories on “zones” include; Sprint + Nextel = Cable?, Will 802.20 Challenge WiMax?, WiFi Vrs WiMax, Unlicensed Spectrum: The Sum of All Fears, FCC Opens 3.5 GHz Band, Decision in Nextel’s Court, National Wireless ISPs, Intel Inside Clearwire, ClearWire Launches Pre-WiMax, Wireless Cable Modem, Telephony’s Guide to WiMax, Realistic WiMax Range/Speed Projections?, FCC: Nextel Gets PCS Spectrum, 4G Goes Ballistic, IEEE Scores 802.16d, Sprint Plans National EV-DO Service, FCC Alters MMDS Band, Equal Access: Not, National 802.16 from McCaw, Spectrum Cowboys, TV Broadband, Mobile TV Spectrum and NextNet Deploys. WiMax Switcharoo and Cingular Buys AT&T for $41 Billion and Public Service Roaming.
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