Monday, August 14, 2006

E-mail Story     Print     Feedback

Beijing Agency Cops Its First Mesh

The first piece of what will eventually be a massive citywide Wi-Fi mesh has gone into service in Beijing, where the city's police department - the Public Security Bureau - deployed Strix hardware for both outdoor and indoor access.

Work on the Beijing police mesh began in September 2005, with the entire Xicheng district (population: 800,000) now blanketed. The goal is to have all public areas in the city covered along with all 2008 Olympics venues in time for those games. The value of the Strix deal, whose Access/One products are being used, and for Silicon Star, the Strix value-added distributor (VAD) that both sells the hardware and helps with network infrastructure, was not disclosed. Silicon Star also has the contract to provide related voice, video and data applications.

The Beijing mesh isn't at this time planned to be accessible to the general public. Rather, the main goal is said to be mobile video-surveillance control along with voice-and- data communications. The ability to support high-speed roaming also was cited by the Public Security Bureau.

"To have one of the world's major cities deploy Strix's solution for public security applications, including video, highlights the outstanding performance and security of our wireless mesh network," commented Nan Chen, vice president of product management and marketing at Strix, in a prepared statement designed to milk the Beijing deal for all the publicity he can get. "And because our solution is modular, the Public Security Bureau will be able to easily expand the network to support large events like the upcoming 2008 Olympics."

Meanwhile, halfway around the world in Cambria County, Pa., commissioners last Friday approved a $98,000 study to determine if a Wi-Fi mesh covering the rural county could help improve 911 response there as well as to provide broadband to local residents. The county hired Salt Lake City-based Conxx to do the study, which is expected to take between three and six months. The cost of the study is being covered by a tax on cellular service.

Although the two have come up with somewhat similar Wi-Fi mesh needs, Cambria County and Beijing are quite a study in contrasts - Cambria has only 695 square miles, while Beijing is roughly 10 times the size. And China has 100 times the population: 150,000 compared to about 15 million for Cambria.