City of Avondale: Wireless Communications System (Vendor Case Study)
THE CHALLENGE
Redline Case Study on NIC designed, installed and maintained customer solution
The City of Avondale, Arizona, is one of the fastest growing communities in America. Naturally following a surge in the community is a commensurate increase in public safety services. Avondale was the first city in the U.S. to manage traffic with a wireless network of IP cameras. The City is constantly expanding the capability of the network in alignment with the trend in public safety communications to integrate bandwidth intense voice, security and surveillance applications. As reliability and latency became a more frequent issue on the original network, city officials realized the need to replace the wireless network with a solution that could be owned and managed internally. They also needed a system that would deliver results. Previous IP convergence efforts to enhance voice, data and IP surveillance had tapped out the capacity of the existing 900 MHz and 2.4 GHz networks.
THE NIC SOLUTION
City of Avondale hired Network Infrastructure Corporation (NIC), a network integrator, to help them assess their options and oversee the wireless backbone network replacement. NIC replaced the aging network infrastructure with four Redline AN-80i point-to-multipoint (PMP) base sectors, with six to eight subscriber units each. The Redline network, which operated in the license-exempt 5.8 and 5.4 GHz band, immediately proved its worth with an increase in reliable connections and signal integrity. Three critical links were replaced within a week. After noting the difference in network performance over the course of the next few weeks, wireless engineer Michael Reese began replacing other equipment gradually until a turnover was complete. The network continues to grow in functionality today.
Nearly all of the city’s communication – including water, fire, police, traffic and the courts – are wireless. The implications of failed communications for public service agencies are unthinkable. Redline’s RedCONNEX and RedACCESS wireless broadband technology provides secure, reliable point-to-point and point-tomultipoint links that City of Avondale public officials can bank on.
Wireless versus Wire City of Avondale is 63 years old. The city’s rampant growth over the past 10-15 years has doubled its capacity requirements. Reese is in the position of needing to justify costs for continuous growth and for one project actually compared the cost of installing lines or leasing fiber underground versus building a network in the air. The leased lines seemed to cost less up front, but at the same price over a period of time, a wireless network would be more costeffective and would allow the City to own its own network in a short period of time. “Nine times out of ten, wireless will be faster, easier and more reliable than fiber and a better return on investment,” Reese stated. The network has proven him right.
Communication not an option
Every organization has a margin for error. In public service, that margin is non-negotiable. Zero, actually. Police and fire need to retrieve mobile data instantaneously. A two second video delay can mean the difference in catching a license plate from a speeding vehicle. A SCADA failure or failure to report a break in or tampering with the city water supply or well site can have catastrophic results.
After September 11, 2001, all cities in the United States were required by the Homeland Security Act to increase monitoringin a lot of ways, but due to a concern for contamination, a lot of emphasis was placed on security in the waterdepartment. Since an increase in personnel was not in the City of Avondale’s budget, SCADA monitoring of water and well sites became a top security priority. The security system was set to not only create an alarm in the event of any possible tampering with the water supply, but to shut down all water pumps until a dispatch can be sent to detect and contain any contamination. “We needed something reliable to carry the signal,” Reese recalls. “Reliability has been the number one benefit of the Redline AN-80i network.”
How the Solution Works
The former network utilized 10 to 20 megabit per second base stations that produced a true throughput closer to six megabits per second. These were running point-to-point and multi-point links with a 2.4 GHz and 900 MHz signal that could not handle the IP data traffic, as SCADA systems were becoming more and more IP based. In addition to cameras for the monitoring and control of traffic signals, the network provided building security in nine locations. IP access for monitoring the entire network was available on any authorized city computer. It was time for a large scale upgrade, so NIC replaced the aging wireless network infrastructure with four Redline Ethernet bridges configured for both PTP and PMP operation. Within weeks the increased reliability and bandwidth convinced city officials of the need to add Redline’s AN-80i solutions to complete the rest of the network replacement.
Each base station supports up to eight subscriber units, depending on the application. The goal was to provide six to ten megabits per site, with the number of cameras (running 15 frames per second) at any given surveillance location determining the bandwidth allocated to that site. One signal might run at nine megabits per second (mbps), another at 18 or 24 mbps depending on the use and traffic level. The flexibility of the network and the city’s ability to own and control the network already proved the return on investment, even before Reese tried comparing wireless costs to landline for a new project.