Public Net Works

Non-profit and public agencies open fixed-wireless possibilities.

Most new fixed-wireless implementations center around small- and medium-size businesses and multitenant buildings. But as more people become familiar with fixed- wireless systems, unique solutions are beginning to pop up.

Like businesses, non-profit organizations and public agencies constantly are looking for ways to cut costs. Most of these groups, whether they are schools, retirement homes or municipalities, never dreamed they could cut communications costs.

"Non-profit organizations get a budget at the beginning of the year, so if there is an opportunity to beat that budget, we are a great way to save money," said Andrew Hathaway, Teligent vice president of sales for the Delaware, New Jersey and Pennsylvania markets.

Cost savings is especially important to school districts, he said, because in the technology age, most schools need computer labs. But computer centers can be a tremendous expense when schools must pay to bring in extra copper or fiber.

Hathaway said that five years ago, some schools might not have been able to install computer centers because the infrastructure costs of doing so with copper or fiber were so high.

"But with companies like us, and with all the different technologies that are available today, a computer center can be put in an elementary school, a high school or a university economically," he said.

School of Thought
Peter Beardmore, Cabletron product marketing manager for the RoamAbout wireless solution, agreed that schools are one area that can benefit tremendously from fixed-wireless systems. These schools have other needs besides computer centers that fixed wireless can meet.

"K-12 school districts are growing to the point where their classrooms are bursting at capacity, and they are expanding outward with portable classrooms," he said. "The next dilemma, as more technology requirements are being put on them, is how to connect these portable classrooms into the school's main LAN."

In January, Cabletron Systems announced that Florida's Pinellas County School District, the 21st largest school district in the United States, selected Cabletron's Roam-About solution to connect modular classrooms with its main academic buildings. In lieu of running copper or fiber, Pinellas chose Cabletron to set up building-to-building connections with RoamAbout.

Pinellas County has 114 campuses throughout the school district. Because of the project's large scale, Cabletron offered the county an opportunity to beta test some of the new functionality it recently added to its equipment. Previously, Cabletron offered point-to-point connections via antenna heads. It recently expanded its offering to include omnidirectional antenna heads, which allow point-to-multipoint connections. From a central omnidirectional antenna at the core, Cabletron ties multiple classrooms into the school's LAN from a single access point.

Beardmore said Pinellas realizes cost savings in several areas, especially installation and labor. Had it installed copper or fiber, the district most likely would have had to hire subcontractors to route cable. Instead, RoamAbout installation work will be done through Cabletron or through Pinellas County technology coordinators. And, because each campus is different, the county would have been required to do individual site surveys for each campus.

"Whereas with a wireless solution, it is able to come up with a template solution for all of the 114 campuses with portable classrooms, and the changes are only minor diversions from a core plan," Beardmore said.

Cabletron also helped Pinellas save money because it is able to inject power over the networking cables out to the main access point. Typically an access point, especially in a building-to-building solution, is not located near a power outlet, he explained. It costs hundreds of dollars per access point to pull the power cable out to the access point. At Pinellas, Cabletron injects power over the CAT5 un-shielded twisted-pair cabling back from a wiring closet using its patent-pending "power injection" technology. The system is a small 3-port terminal that runs ac power from the uninterruptible power supply, or power strip.

"We run a network cable from the wiring-closet switch and combine it onto a single cable, so we are running network traffic and power over a single cable," he said. "Because of our ability to skirt around pulling in an electrician, that adds up to another $250 to $350 savings per access point, or per classroom, in installation charges."

Right now, Pinellas schools use RoamAbout as they would use a LAN — mainly for local and Internet traffic.

"These classrooms are being used for file-server type of information associated with the administration of the school, from a teacher upgrading grades to e-mail in the school," Beardmore said. "The real objective, in a lot of cases, is to allow students connectivity to the Internet."

Pinellas County has about one to five computers in each portable classroom. This technologically driven school probably will add more in the future, however.

"We are not generally running into a portable classroom with 20 computers in it at this point," Beardmore said. "Will that occur in the future? Likely, but primarily we are connecting buildings together so that portable classrooms are wired to computers in the classrooms."

Cabletron can expand the solution to include voice lines if the schools ever want to add wireless voice over IP. Also, the company can use its 802.11 functionality in the access point to wirelessly bring in laptops and desktop computers.

"We do have the ability to do LAN-to-client, so with an additional access point in those classrooms, they will be able to run wireless connectivity right to the desktop," he said.

Public Works
Pinellas County schools' networks are designed to stay local to the campus. Cabletron is using low-gain omnidirectional antenna heads, so each school's wireless network probably will not reach more than a half mile.

But with point-to-point links, Cabletron can achieve distances of about 10 miles with line-of-sight antenna heads. In these situations, enterprises can connect remote offices within a metropolitan area. Fixed-wireless systems are gaining interest among other non-profit groups for these types of uses, Beardmore said. In the building-to-building area, Cabletron is seeing interest from local towns and cities.

"Historically, the alternative has been low bandwidth v.90 modem access to the outside world, or expensive T1 connectivity into the network for the local town government or city government," he said.

In the business sector, Cabletron is noticing increased interest from property-management companies that want to bring Internet access to apartment buildings, rather than forcing residents to subscribe to their own ISPs. It also is working with companies in the hospitality industry to provide wireless connectivity in hotel conference rooms.

"It is expensive to bring in IP networking today to those conference rooms in hotels that businesses rent for meetings or conventions," he said. "Wireless is a low-cost alternative."

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Build-Out Update

Advanced Radio Telecom (ART) is right on track to build high-speed 100Mb/s IP broadband networks in 10 U.S. markets, said Bob McCambridge, ART president & COO. By the end of this quarter, it will have opened regional offices in Washington, DC, which will service the Northeast; Houston, which will serve the South; and Los Angeles, which will serve southern California.

ART also is building out Boston; Dallas; New York; Orange County, CA; Phoenix; San Diego; and Seattle.

McCambridge said ART's strategic partnership with Qwest Communications is on track, as well. Qwest bundles ART's fast access with a host of other services.

"Qwest will use ART to extend its network and make customer connections," McCambridge said. "Once in place, it can provide a suite of services: e-mail, Web hosting, virtual private networks and other value-added services, all of which require high-speed connection provided by ART."

Harter (betsyharter@aol.com) is a freelance writer based in Athens, GA.