At least one luxury hotel is doing something about it. The Mandarin Oriental in New York City has upgraded its Wi-Fi network using a Ruckus Wi-Fi wall switch switch embedded in each of the 248 rooms in its Columbus Circle property. The hotel has seen an 85 percent decrease in guest complaints after the upgrade. Mandarin Oriental, New York is one of seven Mandarin Oriental hotels that have now upgraded the network (using the Ruckus products) including Tokyo, Manila, Jakarta, Sanya, London, and Hong Kong.

Recognized as a leader in innovative technologies in the hospitality market, Mandarin Oriental, New York was one of the first hotels to deploy a converged IP network. Previously, Mandarin Oriental, New York was one of the first hotels to deploy technologies such as a distributed antenna system (DAS) to extend Wi-Fi and cellular signals, the first for IP-based voice, the first for stored and broadcast IP-video, and the first hotel to install plasma screens throughout the property (note: Andy Abramson urged hotels to invest in carrier neutral DAS systems in his article about hotel Wi-Fi and it’s great to see one of the world’s top hotels doing this). According to the team at Mandarin Oriental, New York, the move to install Ruckus Wi-Fi wall switches in every room was driven by three growing issues: capacity, coverage, and user density.

“Given the guest demographic, the expectation for more reliable, higher speed and ubiquitous Wi-Fi literally exploded when smart devices like the iPhone and the iPad hit the market,” said Oscar Gomez, director of information technology at Mandarin Oriental, New York. “The hotel’s previous implementation of Wi-Fi over our in-house distributed antenna system (DAS), was originally installed to provide better cellular coverage but as time passed and technologies changed, we found that it couldn’t scale to accommodate the soaring Wi-Fi usage rates and concurrent connections our guests needed. We ultimately decided that an upgrade wasn’t the right tool for the time,” said Gomez.

According to Mandarin Oriental, New York, another key concern was available Ethernet cabling in each room to connect a growing number of IP-based devices such as minibars, IPTV, VoIP phones, in-room environment control systems, as well as Wi-Fi-based service optimization applications used by hotel staff.

Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group views Wi-Fi as a strategic component to improving overall operations and guest satisfaction across the brand’s hotels.  Housekeepers with their iPod Touch on the Wi-Fi network for service optimization applications such as tracking tasks and keeping guest disruptions to a minimum. And Mandarin Oriental front-of-house staff use Mtech’s HotSOS application over the Wi-Fi network to address guest-related service issues.

“As a group, we really liked the idea of having a 1:1 relationship between the access point and the guest which gives us the ability to provide more wired connections in each room without disruptive cabling,” said VP of Information Technology of Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group David Heckaman.  “We have seen it pay off for our hotels.”

Since installing the Ruckus Smart Wi-Fi system, Mandarin Oriental, New York has seen user capacity more than triple and wireless traffic eclipse traffic on the wired network, while customer wireless complaints have dropped by more than 85%.

“In October of 2009, we were supporting approximately 2,600 unique wireless sessions generating over 336 gigabytes of traffic,” said Gomez. “In November of 2011, these figures skyrocketed to over 12,000 unique wireless sessions generating over 2 terabytes of traffic just on the Wi-Fi network. That’s a dramatic a shift in a very short period of time.”

In the Wall Wireless With Wires

The ZoneFlex 7025 Wi-Fi wall switch integrates 802.11n Wi-Fi technology with wired Ethernet ports in a small-footprint (12.8cm by 8.5cm) wall jack, giving hotel and resort operators an elegant, low-cost, and inconspicuous device that allows them to leverage their existing wired infrastructure to deliver an ever expanding set of IP-based guest services over multiple virtual LANs (VLANs).

For many hoteliers, early Wi-Fi implementations are no longer able to keep up with the flood of wireless-only devices and bandwidth-demanding applications being used by guests and staff. Additionally, as many new services and hotel devices embrace IP as the preferred method of connectivity and management, the requirement for a converged wired and wireless network has quickly become a necessity. For hotels that have deployed an extensive wired Ethernet network, more ports are often required to connect new IP-enabled devices and support new multimedia services, but installing additional Ethernet switches in guest rooms can be cost prohibitive. Not only is it expensive and disruptive, but rewiring also requires more power and often involves special furniture designs to keep cables out of sight.

Deployed as a standalone device or centrally managed by any Ruckus ZoneDirector wireless LAN controller, the ZoneFlex 7025 Wi-Fi wall switch dramatically reduces the cost and complexity of installing and managing wired and wireless network services.

The Ruckus Wi-Fi wall switch is driven by a single power over Ethernet connection and provides four 10/100 Mbps Ethernet jacks and two uplink Ethernet wiring options. Additionally, the Ruckus Wi-Fi wall switch can provide PoE power to a device such as an IP phone and native connectivity to digital phones through a single digital PBX pass through port.

“We needed a solution to deploy in 100 percent of our guest rooms today that would solve our Wi-Fi issues, but also wanted to free up our cable plant to allow us to offer more IP connected services in the future to our guests without having to tear up walls and engage in major construction,” said Heckamann. “For the hotels, the Ruckus Wi-Fi wall switch has turned out to be an ideal solution for both our wired and wireless needs.”

© 2012 MuniWireless: WiFi, LTE, 4G, wireless applications. All Rights Reserved.

The Edgewater Wireless EAP3000 Access Points demonstrated superior performance in an outdoor trial where a single unit was able to transfer high-speed, high-definition (HD) video from an HD WiFi camera while simultaneously supporting multiple data transfers and voice over IP (VOIP) phone calls. The trial was deemed extremely successful as there was no observable degradation in the quality of the video, data or the VOIP calls while operating concurrently across a single EAP3000 wideband, multi-channel access point (AP).

“We are very impressed with the multi-channel radio capability of the EAP3000,” said Leone Picciotto, Commercial Director for Red Network. “The Edgewater Wireless products are truly able to accommodate a variety of media types while maintaining both high-performance and high-quality. For Red Network, this means we can deploy multiple services with fewer units while ensuring high customer satisfaction which is the key to success in the Digital City space.”

As part of the distribution agreement, Red Network will begin deploying EAP3000 units into a number of identified opportunities beginning in the first quarter of 2012. “Red Network is an outstanding partner for Edgewater Wireless,” said to Andrew Skafel, President of Edgewater Wireless Systems, Inc. “They bring tremendous customer-reach and have identified solid revenue opportunities for the EAP3000 products. Further, we are pleased by Red Network’s substantial purchase commitment for EAP3000 products and are looking forward to working with them to expand their business in Brazil.”

Related article:

Case study: Eliminating performance and interference issues with multi-channel Wi-Fi access points

© 2012 MuniWireless: WiFi, LTE, 4G, wireless applications. All Rights Reserved.

Tropos 1410 wireless mesh routers and wireless bridges create secure, IP-based field area communication networks serving thousands of automation endpoints such as intelligent electrical devices, industrial process controllers and SCADA devices. The highly integrated, next-generation hardware design of the Tropos 1410 allows it to achieve a cost up to 50 percent lower than that of single-purpose, proprietary, lower-speed communication offerings. The product line’s integrated firewall and VPN extend enterprise-class security to legacy devices installed in the field that have lacked state-of-the-art security technology. In addition, the Tropos 1410 can be centrally managed by the Tropos Control wireless network management, monitoring and control application.

“Adding the Tropos 1410 to our product line enables secure field communications for an extensive array of utility and industrial customers for as little as half the price of our competitors,” said Tom Ayers, President and CEO for Tropos Networks. “The new line includes the first board-level product from Tropos, enabling developers working on a wide variety of field automation applications to embed secure, low-cost, standards-based wireless communications into their products.”

Utility, mining, oil and gas as well as other industries are increasingly using wireless communications networks to monitor and control assets in the field and large outdoor facilities. These field area networks support a diverse set of applications including automated metering infrastructure and distribution automation for utilities; telemetry and mining management systems for mining; wellhead monitoring and logging for oil and gas; traffic signal management and video monitoring for transportation; process control for refining and chemicals; and SCADA for a wide variety of vertical markets. In the past, companies have been forced to rely on proprietary low-speed wireless communications systems with little security to implement their field area networks.

The Tropos 1410 delivers the most advanced set of security features available for field area networks. Each Tropos 1410 wireless mesh router and bridge will include a built-in firewall and a built-in IPsec VPN. They implement a multi-layer, multi-application security model that provides defense-in-depth and enables traffic from different applications and user groups to be segregated on separate virtual local area networks (VLANs), each with its own address space, quality of service (QoS) policies and security policies including the capability to create one or more standard IPsec VPNs per VLAN. The Tropos 1410 employs RADIUS, 802.1x, and 802.11i authentication, AES encryption and HTTPS-based remote access to secure field area networks from unauthorized devices, users and snooping. The Tropos 1410’s operating software complies with the requirements of NIST FIPS 140-2 Level 2 for U.S. government cyber security and NERC CIP 002-009 for utility critical infrastructure protection.

Tropos offers two product variants in the new line, the Tropos 1410 and the board-level Tropos 1410-B. The Tropos 1410 comes in a ruggedized, weatherized enclosure suitable for use in extreme outdoor environments. The Tropos 1410-B is a module suitable for integration into Smart Grid devices such as smart transformers and intelligent electrical devices as well as into a wide range of industrial process controllers and SCADA devices. Both products can be configured via software load to be either a bridge that connects to any standard 802.11b/g/n wireless network, including Tropos mesh networks, or a fully functional Tropos wireless mesh router. Each supports an 802.11b/g/n wireless connection with full MIMO and a wired connection using 10/100BASE-T Ethernet, RS-232 serial or RS-485 serial. Their Ethernet and serial interfaces will support utility and industrial control protocols, including DNP3, Modbus, SEL Mirrored Bits and IEC 61850, to facilitate integration of utility and process control devices.

Pricing for the Tropos 1410 and Tropos 1410-B with bridging software will be $549 and $399, respectively. They will be available in March 2012 through Tropos’ authorized distributors and resellers as well as online at buy.tropos.com. The units with routing software are priced at $749 for the Tropos 1410 and $599 for the Tropos 1410-B, and will be available in Q3-2012. An upgrade from bridging to routing software will also be available in Q3-2012 at a price of $200 per unit.

© 2012 MuniWireless: WiFi, LTE, 4G, wireless applications. All Rights Reserved.

Background: MetroFi had won a contract to unwire Santa Clara, but the company went into bankruptcy after it failed to make money. Santa Clara bought the network (the MetroFi access points) from MetroFi and issued a public tender to find a systems integrator to build a wireless automated meter reading system. Silicon Valley Power (SVP), the city-owned utility, chose Elster Solutions to build the AMR system, add more Wi-Fi access points and at the same time, create a citywide Wi-Fi network for use by anyone in Santa Clara.

The city says the network should work better than the old MetroFi network because it has a greater density of access points (40 APs per square mile versus MetroFi’s 30 APs) and it delivers 2 Mbps versus MetroFi’s 1 Mbps. Moreover, the city says users can get the Wi-Fi signal indoors as well.

What’s the obsession with getting the signal indoors?

Having heard this before, I’m skeptical because I’ve seen how difficult it is to deliver Wi-Fi indoors. I do not think goosing up a network to deliver indoor Wi-Fi everywhere is necessary at all because people have Wi-Fi at home and at work. What matters most is that the outdoor service is fast, reliable and easy to log into since most people using it will be on iPhones and iPads. Since Santa Clara is largely suburban, it makes more sense to focus Wi-Fi access in those places where people congregate, e.g., parks, public squares and shopping malls. Is the indoor free Wi-Fi service available inside shopping malls? If yes, that’s great. If not, why not?

Is 40 APs per square mile enough?

I have doubts about whether 40 access points per square mile are enough. Ken Biba, who has deployed many wireless networks, advises 60 access points per square mile (see Guidelines for Creating Outdoor Wi-Fi Networks). If those 40 access points includes the old MetroFi access points (instead of completely new ones), it is highly unlikely that the network will be able to deliver the speed and coverage promised by the city, and it’s even less likely that the people sitting inside homes and commercial buildings will be able to access the network. Old 802.11g based Wi-Fi networks deliver terrible service to most laptops and smartphones. I hope SVP replaced the old MetroFi APs.

There are two things this network has going for it:

(1) The network owner and operator, Silicon Valley Power, is using it for wireless AMR as well, which means the network has a dual function — public Wi-Fi access and automated meter reading.

(2) SVP has an extensive fiber optic network that it uses as backhaul for the Wi-Fi network. Many Wi-Fi operators have to pay for the high costs of backhaul; SVP does not.

I hope SVP makes this network a model for all other cities and counties that are still exploring ways to use Wi-Fi not only for municipal applications (such as AMR), but also for use by the public whether directly (as SVP has done) or by wholesaling capacity to ISPs and mobile operators (which is what Towerstream is doing in NYC).

Required reading:

Guidelines for Creating Outdoor Wi-Fi Networks

Related articles:

Santa Clara uses old MetroFi network for automated meter reading

Santa Clara public utility issues RFP for wireless AMR

© 2012 MuniWireless: WiFi, LTE, 4G, wireless applications. All Rights Reserved.

Bright House is not the first cable company in the United States to set up WiFi hotspots and offer free WiFi to its customers. Cablevision launched an extensive network of WiFi hotspots in New York, particularly in Long Island. Cox Communications rolled out Internet and mobile phone service in Rhode Island, Connecticut and Ohio. However, after a short time, Cox abandoned its wireless business (because it requires too great of an investment and uncertain success) and sold off its spectrum to Verizon; Cox is now reselling Verizon’s LTE service.

Related articles:

Hernando County, Florida issues RFP for WiMAX or LTE network

Hollywood, FL muni Wi-Fi network a flop

© 2012 MuniWireless: WiFi, LTE, 4G, wireless applications. All Rights Reserved.

Qualcomm Atheros unveil Wi-Fi display technology: at last we can connect our TVs and displays directly to our devices (laptops, iPads, iPhones) without having to go through the access point

Microsoft develops new kind of Wi-Fi network: “Rather than using a conventional Wi-Fi radio, it uses an array of tiny, low-data rate transmitters and receivers. Each of these broadcast and receive via a different, narrow range of spectrum. Bundled together, they work just like a regular Wi-Fi radio, but can switch between white-space frequencies far more efficiently.”

LightSquared signs up ISP Store to use its wireless broadband network: ISP Store is a wholesale aggregator of Internet services; it resells these services to ISPs and WISPs.

In-car WiFi set to become the norm: Sigh . . . do we need yet another technology that will distract drivers?

© 2012 MuniWireless: WiFi, LTE, 4G, wireless applications. All Rights Reserved.

In addition, Iliad unveiled an entry-level price plan for €2 ($2.50) per month with no contract that includes 60 minutes of calls and 60 SMS messages per month, which the operator says is four times less expensive than rival offers.

Free will begin selling the iPhone 4S beginning 27 January this year. They have very aggressive pricing on that too, for example, for the 16 GB iPhone and a 36-month contract, you would pay 1 EUR in the first month and 20 EUR per month for 35 months.

Recommended reading:

Iliad-Free gets fourth mobile license, plans innovative pricing

© 2012 MuniWireless: WiFi, LTE, 4G, wireless applications. All Rights Reserved.

The problem is that the number of people being connected per week is far too low to meet the demand. OpenNet (not the ISPs) is responsible for making the physical connections from the fiber network to the users’ premises. At present the quota is 2400 connections per week, meaning it will take close to eight years to connect all households in Singapore. ISPs have suggested that OpenNet expedite business customers’ connections over residential customers (in part because commercial enterprises pay three times more than residential customers). Some ISPs have called for the government to impose heavier penalties on OpenNet’s failures to connect customers in a timely manner. At present, for every month of delay, OpenNet pays the ISP only S$15 (US$11).

A bit of history: OpenNet won a $750 million contract from the Singapore government to build Singapore’s fiber optic broadband network. At the time, Singapore’s Next Generation Nationwide Broadband Network was considered the “gold standard” by many countries aiming to bring high-speed broadband to their citizens. And indeed, it still is, but other countries need to learn from the experience of Singapore’s OpenNet to avoid making the same mistakes.

Singapore’s fiber network is open to ISPs that want to deliver fiber broadband service to residents and businesses. In this regard, it is much more open to competition than fiber networks being rolled out in Europe and the United States, which are owned and monopolized by only one telco. Singapore ISPs began offering fiber broadband service on the OpenNet network in 2010, but by October 2011, only 76,000 people had signed up for service (see Singapore Straits Times article about OpenNet’s problems). The article also says that the network reaches 85 percent of homes and offices, and by the middle of 2012, it will reach 95 percent.

Singaporeans complain of long delays (6 weeks or more) between signing up for fiber broadband service with the ISP and the consortium actually connecting the residence or business to the network. Among the reasons are disagreements between OpenNet and the condominium or apartment building association on how the building is to be connected as well as errors made in identifying a building as commercial versus residential and charging the residential customer three times more.

Fiber broadband service in Singapore is expensive

Other people have complained about the high prices of fiber broadband service. At present, ISPs such as M1, Singtel and Starhub are offering fiber broadband service, albeit at a steep price. Below are screenshots of Starhub and M1 fiber broadband plans for residential customers (the fastest service for about S$400 or US$310 per month).

Note that “International Bandwidth” is the “maximum achievable bandwidth when surfing hosted or routed outside of Singapore.” A lot of people have complained about this limit since most of them visit websites outside Singapore.

M1 fiber broadband home plans

Singtel, the incumbent operator in Singapore, has similar plans but for residential customers, they don’t offer up to 1 Gbps. Singtel also has international bandwidth limits.

OpenNet Singapore is fixing these problems

Despite the rocky start for OpenNet and the ISPs, things are looking up. The Singapore government has acted swiftly in getting the OpenNet consortium to address these problems. Indeed, I’ve spoken to several tech entrepreneurs in Singapore and they’ve told me that OpenNet is finally moving quickly to solve the delays and connect households and businesses. When I mentioned the high prices for 1 Gbps service, they told me that over time, the ISPs will offer lower prices as they compete. Indeed, although the prices seem high (to me), one entrepreneur told me that a lot of people in Singapore can afford to pay US$300 for broadband and are more than willing to do so, although as prices creep downward, more people will sign up for higher speeds.

What others can learn from the Singapore fiber broadband experience

As Mies van der Rohe said, “God is in the details.” I have posted many articles on MuniWireless about fiber broadband deployments around the world and yet, when you look at how many people actually have broadband service that consistently delivers over 50 Mbps (downstream and upstream), let alone 1 Gbps, it’s very few.

I am one of the very few people in the US who happened to enjoy 25+ Mbps upstream and 50 Mbps (and often more) down and that was in San Francisco via an ISP called Webpass that served only condos, apartment buildings and commercial buildings in San Francisco and Oakland, California. Fiber broadband is being rolled out in the US, slowly. Indeed Google’s fiber project in Kansas City is one of the few shining starts.

In Paris (supposedly a hotbed of cheap fiber broadband service where you’d think more than 50% of people would have already signed up for fiber broadband), one of my correspondents tells me that the adoption rate is not growing quickly even though fiber is in the ground (via the sewer system and the Metro) and even though all the optical central offices were already set up by the 3 fiber operators to serve the entire city. The problem, as my correspondent put it, is that fiber is not in the apartments. The delay in getting fiber to the end user seems to be a global problem – not just something that happens in Singapore. It’s part of the unsexy details that people rarely focus on and the glowing press releases never mention. Moreover, in Paris, some people are now considering using VDSL2 instead of pure fiber to the home, especially in dense areas where the operators don’t want (or don’t have enough money) to invest in the vertical fiber access in the buildings. He believes that ARCEP, the French regulator, may allow the use of VDSL2.

What this means for countries that are keen on bringing fiber broadband is that in the contract with the company or consortium rolling out the nationwide fiber network, it is absolutely critical to ensure that the fiber broadband service actually gets to the residential and commercial end users. Therefore, the contracts must specify the time frame for connecting the END USERS to the network, to work closely with ISPs, with stiff penalties for delay. It’s not enough to lay down the network under the streets. The most important statistic is how many users are being connected per month. These numbers must be monitored regularly.

I think the Singapore model — public/private partnership deploying a nationwide service that is open to all ISPs — is the best model. But as you can see from their experience, the government needs to be stricter and more vigilant.

© 2012 MuniWireless: WiFi, LTE, 4G, wireless applications. All Rights Reserved.

Demand for high-speed Internet access by library visitors is what initiated the 802.11n wireless LAN project. Firetide worked closely with the Library’s IT team to identify network requirements and designs which would provide the desired performance and coverage at each of the 14 facilities Today, each library has 200-300 unique users utilizing the wireless LAN daily. LonsTech, a wireless network and security system integrator in Korea, completed design and installation of the network in just two months, during July and August of this year.

Ms. Moon Enhwa, IT Manager of the Busan Library, was assigned to lead the project from its inception. “Providing high-performance wireless access in our libraries has become a critical need as books continue to migrate to a digital form,” stated Moon. “Not only was Firetide able to meet all of our requirements but has exceeded performance expectations. With thousands of daily users, the demand on the network is tremendous and Firetide’s wireless LAN has been extremely reliable. ”

At each library, the Firetide solution includes a FWC 2000 WLAN Controller and 100 HotPoint 5100 Indoor Access Points. The WLAN Controller supports automatic network discovery and centralized provisioning and management of Access Points. The HotPoint 5100 Access Points are mounted inside the library enabling users to connect to the network from just about any location.

“It was inspirational to work with the Busan Metropolitan Simin Municipal Library team and to be a part of their vision for extending how a library delivers information to visitors in this digital age,” said Bo Larsson, CEO of Firetide. “They are on the forefront of how libraries are adapting to digital delivery of information and we look forward to helping other libraries build wireless into their future.”

© 2012 MuniWireless: WiFi, LTE, 4G, wireless applications. All Rights Reserved.

Headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana, Solutions4ebiz has an extensive knowledge base as well as expertise to accommodate the growing volume of hosted WiDirect services, making them a natural fit for the hosted WiDirect product line.

“Hosted services will now be hosted exclusively by Solutions4ebiz for the WiDirect services,” says Philip McQuade, President and General Manager of AllCity Wireless, “which allows us a greater capacity than we previously had available.  This expansion of space in cloud services will allow us to expand these offerings even faster than previously designed, in order to meet the growing demand of our hosted customers.”

Service fees for the hosted WiDirect line will continue to be the lowest in the industry and are based on a per hosted WiClient schedule.  There are still no per user management fees and the hosted WiDirect solution works on a simple flat rate, per location.

For more information about AllCity Wireless’ hosted services, please visit:  http://www.allcitywireless.com/hosted/

© 2012 MuniWireless: WiFi, LTE, 4G, wireless applications. All Rights Reserved.