Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Preparing for the Death of CDPD

From: [email-masked]
Date: Sat, 20 Dec 2003 01:26:30 -0500

Preparing for the Death of CDPD

By Eric Griffith

December 19, 2003

Cellular Digital Packet Data (CDPD) is a cellular-based, wireless
specification that lets users get onto the Internet and other
packet-switched networks. It's been used for a while by police and fire
officers in a number of locations to get real-time data at 19.2Kbps while in
the field.

And now it's going away. AT&T specifically is shutting down its PocketNet
CDPD networks as of June 2004. And that's leaving a number of places in the
lurch.

Aurora, Colo., a suburb of 275,000 just east of Denver, would have been one
of them. City officials, specifically public safety systems manager Michael
Bedwell, started looking at new possibilities for the same or better
services months ago. Working with Denver-based integrator/reseller Anyware
Network Solutions http://www.anyware-ns.com/ the city decided to go
with a mix of Wi-Fi and GPRS cellular to get the bandwidth and the coverage
they need.

NetMotion's Wireless Mobility www.netmotionwireless.com was
chosen by the city and Anyware as the best method for increasing speed with
compression, getting inter-network roaming, and for security features such
as virtual private network (VPN) tunnels. NetMotion also happens to be the
preferred VPN service by AT&T's for helping customers move from CDPD
networks to faster networks like GPRS or CDMA2000.

Eric Hermelee, vice president of marketing at Wavelink (See
http://www.wavelink.com/), says "We've had other deployments that looked
like this, but never in this way with the public safety environment."

Wavelink's management software is helping run all the public safety hotspots
using Wi-Fi, in a way similar to how its software would be used to run
hotspots in a series of café. The Wavelink software is deployed in the
Aurora network operating center. The wireless LAN aspects of the network run
on Cisco hardware. Officers in the field have ruggedized Panasonic Toughbook
laptops they use in their cruisers to get data. (See
http://www.panasonic.com/computer/toughbook/tb_models.asp)

Data officers can access will run the gamut from Department of Motor
Vehicles records to criminal records to full mug shots (the latter used to
take several minutes to receive on CDPD). 300 mobile police and fire units
will be using the service.

As cruisers move from place to place in this 145 square mile area, they'll
travel in and out of Wi-Fi hotspots -- for example, there will be one at the
city refueling stations where all the cops go to gas up a vehicle. While
they're stationary at the hotspot, the laptop will automatically connect to
the access point and use the higher bandwidth connection to download
everything that's pegged policy-wise as requiring the extra bandwidth, from
work data to new virus definitions to full software upgrades.

When they leave the hotspot, the laptop will trip over to the slower but
much longer range GPRS network. The NetMotion Mobility client software helps
maintain the session persistence so the laptop's network switch is seamless.

According to Bedwell, "if they drive off before they complete the download,
it will bookmark and complete the download the next time they arrive" at a
hotspot. In the past, such a task would have taken hours, having to be done
by hand, with officials hoping every laptop would make it in to get an
effective upgrade.

The network policy manager run by Wavelink ensures that only certain things
happen when under the Wi-Fi connection.

Perhaps even more important is making sure the laptops don't connect to the
wrong access point.

"We don't want our officers, police and fire, to be going down the street
and have them associate with the network of every access point that sees
them," says Bedwell. "We have to be blind to every network but our own."

The total cost for setting up this network to support 300 mobile clients
will be between $100,000 and $200,000. One hundred units are already
outfitted, the rest will be by the end of the year.

Hermelee says his company and NetMotion Wireless saw this as an opportunity
for the two to integrate tightly together as far back as six months ago.

"As municipalities move off of CDPD they increasingly want to use Wi-Fi as a
piece of the network," he says. "They see it as another way to connection
and get high speed at a low cost...[but] it's not just for public safety. It
could be used wherever it's natural for workers to move in and out of
hotspots, like utility technicians, package delivery, and other field
services. "

 http://www.wi-fiplanet.com/columns/article.php/3291071

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