17th July 2004

Pyramid Research Says :

Across the US, homeland security and emergency services initiatives have spurred broadband wireless deployments. With the expected commercialization of WiMAX gear approaching - and with it, lower-cost, plug-and-play solutions - we believe additional municipalities will make the investment.

To what extent should municipalities function as access providers? Should municipalities become ISPs? This article looks at a few such deployments - the demand drivers and the challenges - and the coming of WiMAX.

What's driving demand?
Security concerns have inspired many cities to embrace broadband wireless solutions for surveillance. But surveillance is just one potential application for broadband wireless gear. Consider the other demands driving cities toward deployments:

• Police departments want high-quality photos distributed to their vehicles in real-time. Officers want to be able to send photos back to headquarters for immediate analysis, to analyze potential suspects.
• Fire departments want detailed floor plans and information about hazardous materials delivered to their vehicles before they enter a building. With BWA, this information can be downloaded as the vehicles approach their destination.
• Traffic departments want to monitor critical intersections and roadways to better manage traffic flow.
• Administrative departments want lower-cost broadband access. By sharing one T1 connection among departments, cities can save significantly on monthly access fees.

Until recently, no single solution addressed these disparate needs. Police departments relied on cellular solutions (such as CDPD), for which cost and throughput were constant sources of frustration.

Technical solutions: Proprietary vs. WiMAX
Currently, all broadband wireless access deployments rely on some type of proprietary solution. Major vendors in this space include:

• Alvarion
• Motorola
• Navini Networks
• Proxim

As shown in the following exhibit, the major benefit of BWA is the ability to provide coverage for a wide variety of uses.

Model of Fixed Wireless Broadband Network

Despite the promise of BWA technology, there are still obstacles to its widespread success, such as:

• Interference. In security and emergency services, there is no room for signal interference, which calls into question the viability of unlicensed spectrum, such as 2.4 GHz and 5.8 GHz. However, vendors are working on technological solutions (such as smart antennas and MIMO) and the FCC appears to be readying itself to expand available spectrum.
• Security. There are many justifiable concerns about the security of the signals, particularly as many users can share the same network.
• Upfront Costs. Although prices for BWA gear are falling, upfront costs can be prohibitive. WiMAX promises to further encourage these prices downward, but this will take time.
• Politics. Not to be underestimated, carriers are lobbying against municipalities that choose to get into the networking and/or ISP business.

Deployments
Here are a few representative deployments:

• Security/Monitoring. The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) has used Proxim gear on several San Francisco bridges and tunnels for video surveillance. The East Bay Municipal Utility District, headquartered in Oakland, CA, has begun deploying Motorola's Canopy wireless broadband technology to monitor data at its pumping plants, reservoirs, dams, water treatment plants, and other sites.
• Community Network. The city of Oceanside, CA has linked all of its major facilities including its city hall, fire and police departments, and water and harbor facilities using Proxim equipment. The city claims it has saved approximately $150,000 per year, while enabling users across the network to access voice, data and video applications quickly and reliably.
• Emergency Services Network. The Huntsville, AL fire and police departments hope to save $6,000 per month in access costs by linking 22 stations with Proxim equipment.

Lead with security; follow with services?
The interesting issue is this: will these security/backhaul deployments eventually be expanded to provide broadband wireless access to residents and businesses? Intended or not, the consequence of these new networks could be the expansion of public broadband networks for residents.

While operators struggle to build profitable broadband wireless businesses using BWA, the technology has already won over many converts to aid in security initiatives.

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