Here’s one truly worthwhile city hotzone project. The San Mateo Police Department (SMPD) has a wireless hotzone that allows the police officers to access law enforcement databases from their car laptops anywhere in downtown hotzone. Officers can also write and file reports remotely – no need to go back to the station! Here’s one truly worthwhile city hotzone project. The San Mateo Police Department (SMPD) has a wireless hotzone that allows the police officers to access law enforcement databases from their car laptops anywhere in downtown hotzone. Officers can also write and file reports remotely – no need to go back to the station!
Tropos Networks, which is located in San Mateo, provided the 17 Wi-Fi cells which are arranged in a mesh configuration with only two backhaul connections at strategic locations to the city’s fiber ring. With the Tropos Wi-Fi cells, the SMPD was able to create a reliable, large scale Wi-Fi network that would have otherwise been economically and logistically unfeasible to do.
The SMPD’s accomplishment differs significantly from attempts by some police departments to use 802.11 hot spot technology which requires officers to drive to specific sites for wireless information access and is too costly and impractical for implementing large coverage areas.
It’s interesting to see this technology put to serious use. Most people still view Wi-Fi as a fancy tool for business people who check their corporate email on the run, but in the case of San Mateo, it actually helps the police department do their work better. Hopefully we will see the hotzone expanded throughout the entire city.
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