City wide WIFI

obmar · City wide WIFI

The citywide Wi-Fi reality check
By Marguerite Reardon
Staff Writer, CNET News.com

Published: May 27, 2005, 4:00 AM PDT

Philadelphia is venturing into the Wi-Fi frontier and liking what it sees. The big question is, will it feel the same way two years from now?

The city's experiment to blanket its 135 square miles with wireless high-speed Internet access has been hailed by supporters as one of the most innovative projects in the country. But some experts caution that significant technical and business issues must be hammered out before citywide wireless networks can become a reality.

Large cities such as Philadelphia and San Francisco see wireless broadband technology as a low-cost solution to providing broadband access to low-income residents.

"We did a radio-frequency survey and didn't find any showstoppers."
--Dianah Neff, CTO, PhiladelphiaThey also believe that these Wi-Fi networks can help them save millions of dollars in operational costs by providing broadband connectivity for public-safety and other agencies within city government. Many believe the networks will help boost economic development by drawing more people to the city.

Philadelphia, which plans to have its citywide Wi-Fi network up and running by summer 2006, is the poster child of the municipal wireless movement.

While several smaller cities, such as Chaska, Minn., have deployed citywide Wi-Fi, the technology has not yet been tested in large metropolitan areas. Philadelphia will be the first major city to complete its network. Other large cities, including New York and San Francisco, are also looking to build their own Wi-Fi networks.

While supporters applaud Philadelphia for its vision, some experts warn that deploying Wi-Fi in dense urban areas may not be as easy as it sounds.

U.S. cities are creating publicly funded Net services with fast connections and cheap rates for all citizens--and provoking a fierce response from cable and phone companies."Setting up a citywide network is definitely not as easy as putting up access points all over the place," said Doug Schremp, chief technology officer of BTS Partners, a consulting firm that designs and deploys networks. "There are some technical issues that need to be addressed, and cities really need to look at the operational and business issues that come with building and owning their own network."

Building a do-it-yourself network
The idea of municipalities providing broadband service has been catching on nationwide for the last couple of years, despite pushback from local telephone and cable providers who view city-owned broadband networks as a threat to their businesses.

Some cities are digging up streets to run fiber-optic lines directly to every home and business, which will increase broadband capacities well beyond those available from cable-modem and DSL service today. But these networks are very expensive to build, and many communities are looking at lower-cost, wireless technology instead.

While it would cost about $2,000 to $3,000 per household to run fiber, wireless can be deployed for about $20 to $25 per household. Philadelphia has about 590,000 households, according to the 2000 Census. Using that number, the city figures it will cost roughly $10 to $15 million to reach every household, according to its business plan.

Wi-Fi uses unlicensed broadcast spectrum, or airwaves, to deliver high-speed Internet access through a series of antennas positioned on telephone poles and other locations. Those antennas, in turn, are connected to the Internet. Depending on its location, each antenna can provide a coverage area with a radius of about 1,000 feet.

The spectrum crunch
Even though a wireless network can be built relatively inexpensively, experts say there are many challenges to providing reliable service.

"I know Philadelphia has said they haven't seen any problems with interference, but in Boston we see it everywhere."
--Doug Schremp, CTO, BTS PartnersOne of the biggest technical issues that cities face in deploying municipal Wi-Fi is that it can suffer interference from other wireless devices trying to transmit signals in the same channel. Because wireless networks run on unregulated spectrum, many devices can interfere with transmission. For example, microwave ovens, hand-held phones, garage door openers and devices using Bluetooth applications all use the same 2.4MHz frequency used by Wi-Fi networks. What's more, thousands of computer users have installed their own Wi-Fi networks in their homes.

"The 2.4MHz spectrum is already very crowded," said Lindsay Schroth, a senior analyst at The Yankee Group. "When you have a large deployment such as Philadelphia also using that spectrum there's a lot of potential for overcrowding and interference."

Interference is a problem because it can greatly impact performance on the network by causing packets of transmission data to be dropped. The dropped packets have to be retransmitted, error rates increase and the routers that send the packets slow down their transmissions to compensate for the losses.

Cities such as Philadelphia say that they don't believe interference will be a big problem.

"We did a radio-frequency survey and didn't find any showstoppers," said Dianah Neff, chief technology officer for the city of Philadelphia. "We have 430 registered Wi-Fi networks in the city of Philadelphia, and we didn't find any problems with interference."

BTS Partners' Schremp, whose firm has surveyed Boston for a potential Wi-Fi network, says he is surprised to hear that Philadelphia hasn't talked about interference as a potential challenge.

"I know Philadelphia has said they haven't seen any problems with interference," he said. "But in Boston, we see it everywhere. We've got a ton of schools and businesses already using Wi-Fi--MIT, Northeastern, Harvard. We have to be careful if we move forward with this project that a citywide network won't impact them."

Most experts agree that interference is an issue that needs to be considered. But they emphasize that every city and every community is different, and that with proper engineering the network can overcome potential problems, even in urban areas.

"The free model is not sustainable."
--Amit Paunikar, software engineer, Nomadix One solution to overcrowding and interference problems could be for cities to share spectrum that is already available from other sources. Schremp suggests cities partner with area universities and research institutions that already have widely deployed Wi-Fi networks so that citizens in the surrounding neighborhoods can tap into the networks and share bandwidth.

He said that many institutions in Boston are willing to cooperate on such a project. But once a system has overcome interference problems, the biggest concern is how to handle network abusers, such as spammers, illegal file-swappers and people launching virus attacks.

Security and business challenges
In general, operational issues, such as dealing with network abusers, could become more challenging for cities than the initial task of engineering and deploying a citywide network, Schremp said.

While most wireless products today offer adequate security to help keep viruses and attacks on the network to a minimum, managing day-to-day operations of the network could be daunting for a city that has little experience running one.

"Building the network is the easy part," Schremp said. "Cities also have to find a way to fund the operation of the network. That's the piece many people overlook. If an access point goes out, who will go out at 2 a.m. to climb the light pole to fix it? How much tech support do you give users? These are questions all ISPs and telcos have to face."

Cities also face the challenge of developing viable and sustainable business models. Some cities, such as Philadelphia, plan to sell access to the network on a wholesale basis to Internet service providers, telecommunications companies and nonprofit organizations. ISPs and other providers will handle all billing, marketing, customer service and the at-home equipment needed to pick up the signals.

But wholesale business models are not without risks. For example, the quality of the network infrastructure needs to be solid enough for other service providers to rely on it. And because wireless is relatively inexpensive to install, at some point it will become more economical for service providers leasing the city's infrastructure to build their own Wi-Fi networks.

Then there are cities that would like to provide some or all of the access to their networks for free. For example, San Francisco, which is still in the early stages of developing its plans, would like to provide wireless broadband service for free to all its citizens.

Experts in the industry say that these plans may be a little naïve.

"The free model is not sustainable," said Amit Paunikar, a software engineer at Nomadix, a maker of wireless access gateway products. "Someone has to pay for the construction and operations of the network. I don't think that a lot of cities get how many issues will come up."

City organizers say they understand that the money will have to come from somewhere. Many cities are cooperating with local businesses and technology companies to provide free access in public places. They plan to use advertising on splash pages and local portals to drive revenue.

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom "really wants us thinking of new ways of doing things," said Chris Vein, senior technology advisor in the office of the mayor of San Francisco. "The goal is to create a service that's free to all citizens. But I don't know yet how we will do that. Some funding could come from partnerships or advertising, or some could from taxes. My job is to figure that out."

To be sure, the challenges of deploying citywide networks have given some cities pause. Earlier this month, a study group in Pittsburgh, Pa., recommended to the city council that the city wait to consider deploying Wi-Fi until officials have studied deployments in other cities.

"Using Wi-Fi to provide broadband to an entire city is still pretty new," said Alex Thomson, a local lawyer who chaired the 25-member committee examining this issue. "Our thinking was, do we really want to be the guinea pig? Philadelphia is getting a lot of great press out of this, but we still have to wait and see if the network really gets built and if it works like they hope it will."

obmar · BT to create wireless cities

BT to create wireless cities
By David Meyer
Special to CNET News.com

Published: May 17, 2006, 11:24 AM PDT

BT has begun rolling out wireless infrastructure in six U.K. cities as the first phase of a wider project, the company said on Wednesday.

The cities taking part so far are Birmingham, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Leeds, Liverpool and Westminster. Cardiff and Westminster represent extensions of the plan, as smaller Wi-Fi networks already exist in both places. Ultimately, BT plans to deliver high-speed Wi-Fi to 12 cities.

The first phase of the "12 Wireless Cities" plan is expected to be up and running by February 2007. BT hasn't yet said which other six cities will be involved.

BT will be working with Intel on the project. It claims that the wireless networks will support a "wide range of devices," including the forthcoming Wi-Fi version of its own Fusion handset, and a similar product currently being developed for corporate customers.

BT's group director of mobility, Steve Andrews, told delegates at The Wireless Event in London that the telecommunications company had been looking at the specific needs of councils around the U.K.

"With each of the cities it depends on the initial requirements and priorities of the cities," Andrews said. "If they (have) an intensive need for video-centric applications, we will need a different model than if they want to support workers with small devices."

Andrews later told ZDNet UK that this was a key point of differentiation from the approach taken by wireless operator The Cloud, which is rolling out blanket Wi-Fi in eight U.K. cities and three London boroughs.

Andrews stressed that the wireless deployment would initially be focused on areas identified by the relevant councils, rather than taking the form of blanket coverage.

He also said the rollout could aid public safety, and could support applications such as portable wireless cameras to combat crime and traffic congestion.

Councils are eager to use the opportunity to extend connectivity into previously deprived areas, Andrews said. "Within cities, we've seen that the focus of councils we've worked with is to be inclusive," he said. "We've seen deprived areas where investment in wireless technology has been a key feature in the proposals put to us by the councils. It cannot be seen as just available to those who can afford it."

obmar · Cisco enters citywide wireless market

Cisco enters citywide wireless market
By Marguerite Reardon
Staff Writer, CNET News.com

Published: November 15, 2005, 12:01 AM PST

Cisco Systems will throw its hat into the municipal Wi-Fi ring on Tuesday when it announces wireless-network product enhancements that extend its technology into outside deployments.

Cisco has developed a new series of access points, called the Cisco Aironet 1500 Series, that can be used for citywide Wi-Fi deployments. These new access points can be deployed on rooftop, light posts and power poles.

To maximize capacity, each access point is equipped with two radios. One radio uses a radio frequency protocol called Adaptive Wireless Path Protocol for access-point-to-access-point communications. The other radio is used to provide bandwidth to users.

Cisco is already the dominant supplier of wireless local-area networking equipment in the home market--through its Linksys product line--and in the enterprise market as well.

The new access points will use "mesh" technology to communicate with each other and find the best path for traffic traveling through the wireless network.

"The wireless market is moving from the home and enterprise to the outdoors," said Alan Cohen, senior director in Cisco's wireless networking business unit. "It was the next logical step for us."

The market for citywide wireless networks is enormous, analysts have said. Cities of all sizes across the United States view Wi-Fi as a cost effective answer to many of their communication problems.

Some cities, like Philadelphia and San Francisco, plan to use wireless broadband technology as a low-cost solution to providing broadband access to low-income residents.

Other cities see Wi-Fi as a great technology for building new public-safety networks and for connecting various buildings where city agencies are housed.

And still others believe that free Wi-Fi networks in public places could boost economic development by drawing more people to the city.

"The market is really huge," said Craig Mathias, an analyst with Farpoint Group of Ashland, Mass. "Most municipalities could find some use for Wi-Fi, whether that's for providing commercial broadband to residents or for government purposes. The door is wide open right now."

Cisco's entrance into the market is a sign of this opportunity. Until this point, small start-ups, such as Tropos Networks and BelAir Networks, have been supplying cities with equipment.

EarthLink, which won the bid to build Philadelphia's network, is using equipment from Tropos, and so are 249 other customers, including the city of Anaheim, Calif.

"We've already been in this market for five years," said Ron Sege, CEO of Tropos. "Cisco will have to go through that entire learning curve. It takes time, even if you are Cisco. You can't buy experience."

Cisco's Cohen said he is ready to take on the start-ups. The company didn't compete in the Philadelphia bidding process because its technology wasn't ready at the time, he said.

But the company is competing for the San Francisco contract. And Cisco has already managed to rack up nearly a dozen wins of its own, including deployments in Dayton, Ohio, and Lebanon, Ore.

"For a while, the start-ups have been the only alternative for communities building Wi-Fi networks," Cohen said. "But now we're here."

obmar · Singapore: One nation under Wi-Fi

Singapore: One nation under Wi-Fi
Firecrackers and gum chewing might be frowned upon in Singapore, but the country is going nuts for Wi-Fi.
By Michael Kanellos
Staff Writer, CNET News.com

Published: August 28, 2006, 12:24 PM PDT

By the end of the year, it will be possible to roam almost anywhere in Singapore and get a wireless signal.

As part of its Intelligent Nation 2015 program, the island nation will be able to boast of countrywide Wi-Fi coverage in a few months, Bill Chang, executive vice president of wireless service provider SingTel, said in a recent interview.

"At the end of the year, Singapore will be one mega hot spot," he said. "They are breaking Singapore into three regions and looking at ways to maximize coverage."

The country had a pretty good head start. The official report released with the unfurling of the Intelligent Nation program pointed out that Singapore already had one public hot spot for every square kilometer at the end of last year. Communication between hot spots will be augmented by mesh networking, according to the Intelligent Nation report. Commercial WiMax--a wireless standard that allows signals to travel over longer distances than those using Wi-Fi--will begin in Singapore by the end of the year, said Chang.

The Intelligent Nation program, officially unveiled last year, seeks to make Singapore a global leader in communications technology in a decade. The country doesn't have the large domestic market, manufacturing base or low costs of places like India and China, so the idea is to focus more on industries with a large intellectual property component, similar to what South Korea and Israel are doing. The program is backed by various government subsidies and incentives.

Other initiatives in the program include digitizing public health records, bringing broadband connections into at least 90 percent of residences, recruiting multinationals to locate their call centers for Asia in the country and in general boosting Singaporean technology exports. The country hopes to add 80,000 information technology jobs through the effort. Another goal is to put computers into 100 percent of homes with school-age children.

This is all good news for SingTel, he added. The 127-year-old company (it started as a telegraph provider back in the days of British colonial rule) has emerged as one of the telecom giants of Asia. In its 2001 fiscal year, SingTel reported revenue of $3.1 billion. Approximately 81 percent of the revenue derived domestically. In fiscal 2005, revenue came to $8.3 billion and 71 percent came from overseas.

"We are Asia's largest multimarket mobile operator," Chang said. "We want to be the king of the hill in Asia rather than spread ourselves too thin."

To expand, the company cuts deals or invests in regional wireless carriers such as Indonesia's Telkomsel and India's Bharti Airtel. Through these alliances SingTel garners about 2.5 million new cellular customers a month with around 800,000 coming from neighboring Indonesia. Along with growing the cellular business, SingTel wants to expand its managed services business.

Singapore is also investing heavily in recruiting biotech companies and U.S. and European scientists to work in the country.

obmar

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Wireless Pre-N Router

Looks as a promising technology for low cost wide coverage and fasrter speed wifi

Belkin F5D8230ak4
Wireless Pre-N Router

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linksys/cisco is coming up with a n series too