Solution bridges security concerns: high-speed wireless creates lower-cost video network for transportation agency - Wireless

Communications News,  August, 2003  

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In one of the first major homeland security projects to be implemented since 9/11, the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) has deployed a state-of-the-art electronic surveillance system to protect the San Francisco Bay Area's transportation infrastructure, including area bridges and tunnels. The multimillion-dollar security initiative, called Bay Area Security Enhancement (BASE), is designed to safeguard the lives of the many Americans who rely on these transportation routes daily.

The BASE project's primary focus is as a "force-multiplying technology," as called for in many homeland defense strategic plans. The project allows a small number of highly trained law enforcement personnel to monitor more than 250 locations, with some being triggered automatically by various detection technologies.

The BASE system connects all major Bay Area bridges and tunnels to Caltrans monitoring stations and to each other using video cameras, and point-to-point and point-to-multipoint wireless links. By choosing wireless technology, Caltrans was able to rapidly and cost-effectively deploy a network of cameras, sensors and wireless bridges. The system enables Caltrans to detect breaches, receive alerts, and control or direct any camera in the system from a central location, without the cost or security risk of laying wires.

Caltrans started internal planning immediately after 9/11, with the first surveillance cameras put in place before the end of December. Royal Electric Co., oversaw construction design and management of the BASE project, while Open Computing Platform Inc., a subcontractor to Royal, designed the wireless system, including specifying equipment.

"Caltrans made an innovative and wise choice to take advantage of the power, dependability and flexibility of wireless technology for the BASE project," says David Brown, the division manager who ran the project for Royal Electric. "Not only would fiber have required much more time to lay, but it would have cost three to five times more than the wireless system."

According to Brown, Caltrans made a short list via a series of vendor meetings, site visits and testing. "All the products from that list were tested in the field, and from those field tests, the Caltrans lab testing and additional technical testing, products were eliminated and the final solution materialized over several months."

The next step was an equipment shoot-out, in which products from various manufacturers were tested. By the test's end, the only equipment that worked in the harsh environment was Tsunami Multipoint and Tsunami point-to-point systems from Proxim Corp., and outdoor pan/tilt/zoom surveillance video cameras from RVision LLC.

Caltrans installed the RVision video cameras in numerous strategic locations and connected them to sensors. When a sensor is triggered, the appropriate camera is activated. Simultaneously, an alarm is transmitted to the appropriate agencies and a centralized server. The users are able to receive alarms wherever they are, on whatever device they choose (desktops, laptops, PDAs, pagers or phones).

The cameras send their video signal to encoders that convert it into Internet protocol (IP) packets. Because the solution was based on IP, existing video cameras could be easily integrated into the system.

The digital IP packets are transmitted via Proxim's Tsunami Multipoint Subscriber Units to Tsunami Multipoint Base Station Units. From there, the digital images are sent through a wireless backbone of Tsunami point-to-point bridges to a Caltrans office. The high-resolution video is then downloaded to a large off-site viewing screen. In addition, by using wireless local area networking equipment, the images can be viewed locally throughout each facility.

Law enforcement can now respond to emergencies from a central command and control location, where they immediately collaborate with other agencies and can all view the same events in real-time.

Multipoint wireless

Tsunami Multipoint is a point-to-multipoint outdoor wireless system offering a high-capacity alternative to wired data networks. Using IP packet radio transmitters, standard Ethernet interfaces, and an easy-to-deploy design, the Tsunami Multipoint system enables high-speed network connections to multiple Ethernet switches, routers or PCs from a single location. The systems consist of one or more Subscriber Units that communicate with a Base Station Unit. Tsunami Multipoint delivers VoIP support that allows enterprises to reduce the cost of T-1 lines across a distributed campus.

For more information from Proxim: www.rsleads.com/308cn-260

COPYRIGHT 2003 Nelson Publishing
COPYRIGHT 2003 Gale Group