Wireless Technology Part 1

There is a lot of talk and interest in wireless technology and how it relates to security. The security industry, for the most part, has embraced it. So in this post and those that follow I hope to provide some basic information that will aid you in the selection of a wireless solution and also help you determine if it is the right solution for your application.

This is part 1 of a 3 part series on this topic.

Part 1 - Basics to Wireless
Part 2 - Mobile Wireless
Part 3 - Tactical and Emergency Wireless

There are three main types of wireless WiFi, Point-to-Point and Mesh. First we will look at the most popular, WiFi.

WiFi is best described as a 2.4GHz ambient wireless cloud that conforms to the 802.11 standard. This is typically used for applications involving mobile computing, sometimes referred to as “hot spots". A device called an Access Point is used to transmit this ambient wireless cloud that can be seen by almost all laptops as well as some smart phones and PDAs. Although this is typically used for mobile computing it has been used in some security applications. The only real benefit is that it is easy to set up. However, because WiFi is so widely used it poses substantial security risk as well as the signal quality and bandwidth throughput is difficult to maintain because it is very subjectable to interference.

The next form of wireless is Point-to-Point. This can be seen in four main frequency ranges, 900MHz, 2.4GHz, 4.9GHz and 5.8GHz. (I will provide more information on the difference of these frequencies in another post) Point-to-Point wireless is ideal in applications involving long distances, greater than 5 miles (unless using 900MHz, which can not transmit that great of a distance). Usually this type of wireless is used to form a back haul, that is to provide a main link from one device back to the main network. Point-to-Point wireless works well in an open environment with good Radio Line of Sight (R-LoS). Strong links can be formed with good throughput. The down side to this type of wireless network is that if one of the radios goes down, the entire link is dead. Redundancy needs to be built into the network.

Wireless Mesh Network (WMN) also known as Multipoint-to-Multipoint wireless network also works in the same main frequencies as the Point-to-Point Wireless. WMN is becoming a favored technology in security applications for several reasons, security, reliability through redundancy, throughput and ease of use. WMN can be very secure allowing for multiple levels of encryption. Most wireless devices such as laptops and PDAs are unable to detect these networks which provides an additional level of security. WMN also have built in redundancy. If the WMN is properly designed there will be redundancy, if a radio fails another radio in the network will pick up the link and continue to transmit the data, providing virtually no single point of failure. Like with Point-to-Point wireless, WMN also provides a lot of throughout, as much as 70Mbps in some applications. And of course, it is easy to use. Again with proper design the WMN can be deployed in rapid and tactical applications.

Conclusion – wireless technology has made many advances in the past several years. We are only going to see it used more in more in security applications. It is important to have your wireless network properly designed in order to get the most out of it.

Smooth Sailing

Press Release

Project Scope: A ferry boat operation needed a video surveillance solution. the issues were, there was no physical way to install a hard connection between the cameras and the island, so a wireless system had to be used. We also had to take into account refraction due to the wireless signal going over the water. The wireless system also needed to allow for future addition of a PoS (Point of Sale) system that is going to be implemented on each of the boats.

Solution: Firetide wireless mesh network with a 70mbps pipe. With some proper up front engineering we were able to resolve the issue of refraction which is caused by the wireless signal reflecting off the water (more on this in another post). We implemented the VideoIQ iCVR camera. The iCVR camera is a stand alone IP camera with a built in hard drive that allows the video to be stored locally at the camera. Along with the built in hard drive the iCVR camera also provides video analytics allowing for object counting and other features that are going to be implemented. Because of the built in hard drive and no central managing server, we are able to control the amount of bandwidth sent across the wireless network, allowing us to use the bandwidth for future cameras and PoS system.

This system is currently in operation and we are working with the customer on a custom PoS system for his ferry operations. This project has also been submitted for an ASIS Award.