Network and Wireless Connectivity

Security and Life Safety integrators have spent many years stressing the stable security features of hard-wired security components verses their less secure wireless counterparts.  It has only been in recent years that, thanks to 4k, previously 

recommended hard-wire installations are now securable via safe wireless options.  Cameras on poles at the far corners of your property lines which were once extremely expensive to hardwire and install are now a much more affordable, convenient 

installation with wireless Siklu technology.  From public Wi-Fi to municipal networks, Siklu wireless technologies is a formidable addition to the Advanosys Security and Automation Technologies arsenal.

Municipal Networks

Towns and cities of all sizes are providing essential services like video security, Code Blue call boxes, Internet access for schools or libraries and public wi-fi services with Siklu’s advanced mmWave solutions. These are “public facing” services that garner a lot of attention from the local residents. mmWave networks provide ultra-reliable multi-Gigabit capacity, unlike legacy, sub 6GHz wireless system, so that there is still capacity for a lot more applications that may develop after the network is deployed. 

Applications such as those that support a city’s day to day operations. For instance, why continue to lease lines from the local carriers when the city can migrate all the network connections to fire and police stations, city hall, libraries, schools and other municipal facilities to a fully owned and operated wireless network, powered by Siklu Gigabit wireless fiber solutions?

After migrating leased-line services to the new mmWave wireless network, city administrators now have a network that can grow with the city needs, new applications or geographic expansions. There is no need to wait for a carrier to lay new fiber optic lines or put up with the lengthy and expensive permitting process and trenching work – which often disrupts traffic and annoys local residents. Siklu’s solutions are flexible with point to point, point to multipoint and mesh configuration options.

New fiber will eventually be laid to connect new housing developments, business parks and shopping areas – and Siklu’s mmWave systems have always been a perfect complement to these fiber networks b extending the reach quickly with mmWave wireless. With Siklu, a dedicated Gigabit speed network connecting municipal buildings is only the beginning. With Gigabit wireless fiber infrastructure in place, cities of all sizes can more easily add “smart city” services, such as sensors for water, gas and electrical distribution systems, vehicular and pedestrian traffic monitoring and more.

IoT Wireless

Wireless performance continues to ride a powerful curve of cost reduction and improved performance. In mmWave this evolving ability to deliver more Gigabits per second at greater distances while prices continue to fall is coupled with massive market demand. New applications are opening up and existing ones are expanding at a rapid rate.

Specifically, the capabilities of mmWave wireless are propelling the technology into four primary vertical market segments:

Internet Access – This application applies not just to residential units, but also covers demand from MDUs (large and garden style) businesses, rural communities and industrial sites that all need Gigabit Internet Access

Smart Cities have come to mean much more than low data rate, long range sensor networks. Smart Cities now include applications that demand high bandwidth and low latency solutions. Verticals such as Public Wi-Fi backhaul, wireless connectivity for video security cameras, Smart Roads, municipal network connectivity and more are all being served by mmWave wireless solutions

Video Security – Beyond Smart Cities, advanced video security using the latest in analytics and Deep Machine Learning relies on error free, high capacity connections. This application extends to security for Critical Infrastructure and is an element of a Smart Campus Gigabit network.

Backhaul – This application has gone beyond traditional mobile cell tower connectivity. Gigabit Backhaul now encompasses small cell backhaul for 5G microsites, backhaul for multi-Gigabit Wi-Fi APs, and primary or redundant connections for enterprises with multiple offices or locations within a city that want a secure, high capacity private network.

Public Wi-Fi

High-speed Internet access has long since passed from “nice to have” status to that of a public necessity or “utility” – like water or sewer services. In that regard, public Wi-Fi networks have blossomed in cities large and small. They are offered as an amenity to both residents and visitors in areas such as parks and transit hubs – and they can be the only Internet connection for a city’s underserved urban areas.

To meet the growing expectation of “broadband everywhere,” municipalities are deploying more access points (APs) and increasing “end user” capacity. The latest Wi-Fi standard, “11ac,” is pushing APs well over the Gigabit threshold in connections operating in the 5GHz band. Therefore, backhauling all this traffic to backbone networks is becoming more problematic as, for instance, legacy 5GHz wireless networks do not have the bandwidth or the spectrum to support both the APs and the backhaul.

In addition, Wi-Fi 6 is now on the horizon, as seen in the recent decision by the US FCC to allocate 1200 MHz of spectrum in the 6GHz band for this new standard. This will push Wi-Fi Access Point speeds even faster. Industry advocates say Wi-Fi 6 would improve Wi-Fi connectivity in congested places like subway stations and sporting facilities. It would also support the low-latency levels needed for applications like virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR) and mobile gaming.

Siklu gigabit wireless solutions, in point to point, point to multipoint or mesh configurations, operate in the license exempt 60GHz and the lightly licensed 70/80GHz bands, which are well above the AP frequencies and provide backhaul connections ranging from 1 to 10 Gbps.

Video Security

Terms you may hear when discussing Smart City operations include the familiar IoT and the perhaps not as familiar “edge computing.” Both terms refer to establishing network intelligence and processing at “street level” (aka, the “edge” of the network) and a lot of these Smart City applications incorporate video for surveillance and public safety or services purposes. Examples include: vehicular traffic monitoring of intersections and on ramps, pedestrian traffic monitoring and crowd control, curbside parking availability in downtown business districts and weather related monitoring – such as the depth of snow in the context of plow operations.

Siklu has your Smart City video connectivity requirements covered with a Gigabit-speed product portfolio that features straightforward and speedy installation on light poles and other “street furniture,” compact radios designed with urban aesthetics in mind and convenient power over Ethernet capability. You can also rest easy as Siklu mmWave operates in virtually interference-free spectrum, requires little or no maintenance over its operational lifetime and provides a “future proof” solution, in terms of adding capacity and reconfiguring the network whenever needed.

(Advanosys Security and Automation Technologies is an authorized dealer for Siklu solutions.)