Alvarion's BreezeACCESS System Helps Fresno Officers To Fight Crime

The network was built using a combination of BreezeACCESS VL and BreezeACCESS 900 system

• Create a "mobile office" for police officers enabling them to access database information, file paperwork and reports and complete other office-related functions from their vehicles.
• Create secure metro-wide coverage at a fraction of the high cost of mesh Wi-Fi while still benefiting from standards-based Wi-Fi at the edge.
• Implement a communications infrastructure that supports vital broadband applications for security, including video feeds. 

• A citywide wireless data network which enables public safety officers on patrol to securely access national law enforcement databases, deliver reports from the field and remotely view video feeds from cameras placed in several locations around the city. Also, to process tickets and send and

  Alvarion's broadband wireless network provides data speeds 100 times faster than the original radio network

  receive mails using handheld personal digital assistants (PDA).
• A network which was built quickly, within a tight municipal budget, and created better coverage for less than 1/10th the cost of proposed mesh systems.
• A broadband wireless network which provides data speeds 100 times faster than the original radio network.

When in the office, the 820 police officers of the City of Fresno have access to the latest sophisticated technology including broadband connections from wired networks such as 100 BaseT LANs, Gigabit Ethernet WANs, T1s and even fibre optics. When they are out in their patrol cars, however, the only connection available to them is a traditional two-way radio system. This 800MHz band based two-way radio network offers 10 dedicated voice channels and five data channels, each capable of only 9.6kbps data rates.

The current number of data channels is not nearly enough to support the growing needs of a police department with hundreds of officers. And the slightly upgraded speeds promised by cellular packet data networks (CDPD) became unavailable to them as of last year when those unprofitable networks were shut down by the carriers. The result is no ability to deliver broadband data or video applications to officers in the field, or even to meet the new encryption requirements for communication recently mandated by the Californian Department of Justice.

City officials recognized that giving officer's broadband data access would greatly increase their effectiveness in fighting crime while increasing field time since reports could be completed and filed remotely. So they decided to build a citywide broadband wireless network to provide real-time, high-speed connectivity to the city's entire fleet of 250 police vehicles. This would then enable public safety officers to send and receive text messages, still images, and full-motion video using mobile data terminals and handheld PDAs.

As city officials began their investigation into building this network, they conducted extensive trials of various technologies including Wi-Fi and mesh networking solutions. Partly as a result of heavy foliage in many parts of the city, the Fresno police department quickly concluded that the investment and rollout demands required to provide adequate geographic coverage using either of these systems would be cost prohibitive.