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Corpus Christi Cloud

The city of Corpus Christi (pop: 281,000), is currently deploying a Wi Fi mesh network throughout its entire 147 square mile area. The original goal was to support an Automated Meter Reading (AMR) system for its municipal Water and Gas services.

The City, which began its pilot program in April, offered free WiFi access, through July. Usage has grown to more than 2,000 people a day, with more than 200 people using the service at the same time, say city officials.

The current network uses more that 300 Tropos 5110 outdoor mesh routers, covering about 24 square miles, primarily in the downtown area. Tropos has a case study (pdf). The city leverages its existing fiber optic network running to each traffic signal. Access Points are often mounted near the traffic lights.

The city has reportedly invested $1.1 million in the 24 square mile pilot project with the remaining system costing some $6 million, bringing the total cost to $7.1 million.

Pronto s Wi-Fi management system enables the network to be separated for public and private use. Their public safety departments can be on one network, its municipal systems on another, and residents and visitors on a third, all sharing the same infrastructure. It provides multiple authentication with Radius AAA and 802.1x support as well as multiple authentication options through external sources, including Radius, SIM, SMS, MSN Passport, etc.

For security, the Pronto solution provides a SSL-encrypted registration and authentication process and supports corporate VPN clients that allow city employees secure, encrypted access to the municipal information system.

Pronto’s OSS (pdf), claims to support “any kind of municipal broadband network model public, private or mixed use”. This ability to support both mixed use public and private applications on one network with quality of service (QoS) is used in high profile cities such as Chaska, MN; Lompoc, CA; and Cerritos, CA. Pronto Networks and Tropos also installed a wireless network in Philadelphia’s Love Park. Their new software, MetroMeshOS release 4, supports up to 4095 VLANs and up to 16 ESSIDs with support for 802.1x, WPA and AES encryption of inter-router transit links.

Corpus Christi plans to partner with Internet Service Providers to deliver revenue-generating services over the Wi-Fi network. The city may set up a variety of service plans: for example, free access for public safety and municipal users, a monthly fee for residents and a 24-hour charge for visitors. The city is also using Alvarion pre-WiMax gear for backhaul service in remote areas.

The automated meter reading (AMR) project will cost another $18.5 million over a five-year period.

A typical AMR system consists of low cost Meter Transmission Units that transmit data using low frequency wireless to Data Collector Units. These devices can be co-located on lampposts with Tropos MetroMesh routers. The Tropos WiFi mesh delivers the collected data to a central facility for customer service and billing. Energy Pulse has a rundown on the tecnology. Unfortunately, say some observers, most solutions for real time metering are so costly that only commercial implementation over 100 kWh are viable.

Intel formally announced last week that Corpus Christi is one of their designated “Digital Communities”, along with 12 other cities worldwide. The Center for Digital Government also awarded the city a high ranking for use of digital technology in government.

Intel began partnering with Corpus Christi last December, and has given about $110,000 in cash to the city, said Ogilvie Gericke, director of the city’s municipal information system.

City Manager Skip Noe said other companies have donated hardware, software or labor. Noe said the city’s original intent when it set out to build a WiFi network was minor in comparison with the possibilities - to save time and money reading water and gas meters. “That’s how we kind of stumbled onto wireless technology,” he said.

Other uses for the WiFi network are anticipated. A Call for Partnerships with other private institutions and nonprofit agencies is expected to generate additional revenue for the city-wide network. Some 10 companies responded to the city’s “call for providers” in June.

The WiFi system now is also being used for the city’s Automated Vehicle Locator, which can track and immediately locate police cars, ambulances and other city vehicles. In the next two to three months, the network will be used to streamline the building inspection process, sparing inspectors the repeated trips to and from City Hall before they can issue a permit.

Accela Wireless, for example, has partnered with a number of companies to provide municipalities with wireless/WiMax solutions that allow building inspectors to essentially take their workplace on the road. It uses a store-and-forward technology in which the home server periodically polls the client for new information.

WiMax: Go For It!

Look. Who cares what they’re doing in some cow town or metropolis. Your own community’s needs come first.Think for yourself. Consider WiMax.

If the IEEE ratifies 802.16e this September, then some “pre-certified” Mobile WiMax gear will likely be available early next year.

What’s wrong with specifying an ALL WiMax city-cloud, right now. Start building summer, 2006. Sure, some of the software won’t be there, but specify hardware that can be upgraded to 802.16-2005. Test 3-4 areas for a year, then build it out in 2007-2008.Let coffee shops (or homes) put up their own hotspots.

Inexpensive WiFi hotspots with built-in (or plugged in) WiMax backhaul are coming. D-Link has a hotspot with cell backbone while Flarion & Netgear have a mobile hotspot. Today. With cheap $25/mo Mobile WiMax riding on the “city cloud”, mounting a hotspot anywhere should be a snap. The infrastructure would be faster, cheaper and less risky.WiMax was designed for low-cost, city-wide access. Use it.

Hundreds (or thousands) of WiFi nodes would be costly to build and maintain. It just seems too expensive. City clouds costing $75,000 a square mile? Oh, please. It should be $10,000-$25,000. If it costs too much now, just wait a year. Sprint/Nextel is.

Portland’s WiFi “cloud” will have to compete with Mobile WiMax from Clearwire (in 2007), Sprint (in 2008) and Paul Allen’s 700 Mhz (in 2009). Will “anchor tenants” bail? Ubiquitous licensed Mobile WiMax at 2.5 GHz and 700 Mhz WILL be compelling at $35/month. Plan on it.

An “open access” 5.8 GHz WiMax “cloud” might be a better alternative. It enables competition. Everyone benefits.

Netgear’s adaptive antenna access point costs $99. Netgear and Flarion teamed on a “mobilized” access point, using Flarion for the backhaul. Solectek outputs 400 mW at 5.8GHz for a range up to 5 miles. Why shouldn’t WiMax access points at 5.8GHz go a mile for $1,000-$5,000 and deliver service to a $100 client/dongle? Is that asking too much?

Sequans and Fujitsu can power Micro Max basestations while Intel chips are available for clients. Airspan has a line. So do others.

Doubling the range cuts costs 75%. Mobile WiMax doubles range (upstream) by transmiting all the power in a fraction of the channel bandwidth. Downstream range is doubled by allocating more power to the carriers assigned to distant users.

The WiMax Forum says that Non-LOS service at 3.5Ghz, using these new Mobile Wimax techniques, will improve range from 1-2 km to 4-9 km (pdf) - a huge improvement. Subchannelization and Scalable OFDMA is the key to long range and low cost.

You won’t get it with WiFi.

It might not be mobile, but 5.8 GHz WiMax would be cheaper and faster than WiFi. Licensed 4.9 GHz public service could ride shotgun on the fiber/mesh backbone. So could highway-oriented DRCS at 5.9 GHz. Will (proprietary) mesh vendors be able to swap out their gear? It might be tricky.

WiMax. It’s a competitive strategy.

If an ISP can offer a $200, self-install box, delivering both broadband and voice at $40-$50 a month, then it’s a real business. Real competition.

If the operating company could sell 512kbps for $10-$15/month (wholesale), and each “node” averaged 100 subs, that’s more than $1K/mo revenue on each $5K node for the infrastructure operator.

It’s a good thing for consumers as well as Qwest and Comcast. And the public service users are “free”.

WiMax is no slam dunk. It is largely unproven and untested. But engineers have done a commendable job, wringing out every last ounce of performance from this platform.

Let’s see what she’ll do.

- Sam