Muni Wi-Fi boosted by post-disaster performance

The performance of the still-nascent Minneapolis Wi-Fi network following the collapse of the Minneapolis I-35 bridge last week should inspire other municipalities to consider being anchor tenants of their own municipal Wi-Fi networks, according to one industry observer.

Only one-sixth of the Wireless Minneapolis network, being built by city-chosen service provider U.S. Internet, was in place when the collapse occurred, but it happened to be the downtown segment, which covered the south portion of the bridge and the riverbank that surrounded it. Upon hearing of the bridge collapse, Joe Caldwell, CEO of U.S. Internet, tried to call city officials but was unable to get through and took it upon himself to disable the paid log-in process for the Wi-Fi network, so that it could be used for data transmission and VoIP calls. He also sent in additional access points and wireless video cameras to aid in the rescue efforts.

What happened in Minneapolis is a perfect demonstration of how mesh Wi-Fi networks can help cities in disasters, said Craig Settles, president of Successful.com, and author of a series of reports on municipal Wi-Fi networks, what works and what doesn’t. Settles, whose interview of Minneapolis CIO Lynn Willenbring can be viewed here, believes other cities will learn from the Minneapolis experience.

“I think this is a very stark example that … will help [people] understand and see how having government as anchor tenant makes a lot of sense,” he said.

A major advantage of mesh Wi-Fi networks is that access points can be quickly deployed, as they were in Minneapolis. These not only allow data and video communications but also voice, via VoIP clients, Settles said. In Minneapolis, the cellular network was quickly overwhelmed, but calls could be made over the Wi-Fi network.

“USI brought in additional access points and put those all around that bridge area -- north, south, riverbanks -- and beefed up ability to transmit and push data out,” Settles said. “They put up several cameras to provide live video feeds back to various people leading rescue efforts. The option is also there to have mobile access points -- these can go on vehicles -- that can quickly become part of the network.”

Wi-Fi mesh networks are able to adapt to changing configurations because Wi-Fi access points are always looking for connections, bouncing data packets between access points, Settles explained. “If a tornado comes through and takes out a strip of geography, then the access points along the path of a tornado would get wiped out, but the network that exists around that area would still function,” he said. “You wouldn’t have access in that immediate area, but you can bring in mobile access points as replacement access points to go down the path of that tornado.”

Municipalities that are hesitant to take on an anchor tenant role for other applications such as automated meter reading, traffic control, video monitoring for public safety or first responder dispatch should consider the value of disaster recovery, Settles said.

“I look at Minneapolis, and its network, even partially completed, had a major impact. It provided for faster response,” he said. “Other cities need to look at that and think, ‘We need to look at this technology.’”

Once they have done that, cities can also look to federal and in some cases state sources for grant money to fund an emergency response process, Settles said.

Efforts to reach Caldwell for comment were unsuccessful.