Oklahoma City is deploying a citywide Wi-Fi network to be used for its police and fire departments. The network will cover 1,036 square kilometers. The deployment of the network is just one part of the upgrade of the city’s 20 year-old IT infrastructure, a $22 million project. The primary contractor for the project is ACS, a systems integrator. ACS is Oklahoma City is deploying a citywide Wi-Fi network to be used for its police and fire departments. The network will cover 1,036 square kilometers. The deployment of the network is just one part of the upgrade of the city’s 20 year-old IT infrastructure, a $22 million project. The primary contractor for the project is ACS, a systems integrator. ACS is using Tropos mesh nodes for the Wi-Fi network.
The city will be installing 600 Tropos fixed nodes, plus over 600 of Tropos’s new 4210 mobile node. The mobile node has as much transmission power as the fixed node, but gives police and fire personnel more flexibility in determining to which areas they want to extend Wi-Fi coverage. For example, in downtown areas, they may want to place more fixed nodes in order to provide coverage for police officers who are in cars or on foot/bicycles. But in the suburbs, they may choose to place fewer fixed nodes. Having mobile nodes available, however, allows them to pull Wi-Fi coverage quickly into areas where there are no fixed nodes (and therefore no coverage) – on an as-needed basis.
It will be interesting to see how the availability of fixed and mobile mesh nodes alters the way cities plan their citywide Wi-Fi networks and the types of applications (field inspection, event security) they can think of to run on these networks.
What form do the mobile nodes consist of? vehicle based or deployable packs and if the latter what mounting arrangements are envisaged and does this pose a risk of theft or vandalism to the equipment. Also how quickly can the mobile nodes be deployed.
Anyone know the answers please?
Twin Cities Newspaper Argues Against City Wi-Fi
The debate over whether cities should build Wi-Fi networks is hot enough to make the opinion page of a smaller town newspaper: St. Paul Pioneer Press ran a column arguing that it’s not fair competition for city governments, which don’t pay property or …
[...] Oklahoma City already has a citywide wireless broadband network but it is used only for public safety. [...]