Wireless Networks In Motion?

Barkmullz asks: "Working closesly with a public safety department in my town, we have been thinking of implementing a mobile wireless network. This would, theoretically, allow public safety officers to send and received data (such as CAD) while in a moving or stationary vehicle. One of the requirements is to be able to move across multiple wireless networks. There are several vendors that offer such technology, like the Cisco 3200 Mobile Access Router. Even though we have a fairly good idea of what needs to be done, we are experiencing difficulty in finding good examples of other implementations of this kind. Sure, there is Seal Beach, Buffalo Grove, Lufthansa and others, but they are more sales-pitches than in-depth white papers. Security is, naturally, of great concern to us. However, due to funding constraints we are planning to use the publicly available 802.11x for the most part, use EAP or Cisco's LEAP and a RADIUS server for authentication, along with TKIP for encryption (aka WPA). Has anyone dealt with a wireless network of this type? If so what were some of your challenges and what are your recommendations for implementation?"

Pebble Linux

[ThenAgain]

Check out Pebble Linux [nycwireless.net] which has mesh support as well as secure login. It is developed by the NYC wireless guys and was featured in the Linux Journal (Sep. 2003 Issue).

step 3 profit

[emptybody]

step1 - build wireless network in town
step2 - ???
step3 - profit

It strikes me that if the government, who wants this utility, would help fund a commercial entity to build it, they could contract to get the end result at a discount thus saving money over the long haul.

At the same time they would be promoting a new company and potentially many more new companies that would spring up to make use of this network.

NEtMotionWireless!!

[crapnutassneck]

http://www.netmotionwireless.com they make a "roamable vpn" that has a lot of public safety uptake. I used to work for a CDPD/GPRS vendor and we had a lot of success with these guys. They used to be part of WRQ.

check out Colubris CN1050, mobile IP, WPA/802.1x

[ykoehler]

http://www.colubris.com

Secure wireless product offering what you're looking for ;-)

802.11x vs GSM

[BrookHarty]

Why would you build out an entire network for Public Safety and use 802.11x?!. Go with a Wireless Telecom that specializes in Public Safety that use Edge (ATT Wireless) or 1xRTT. (Verizon). Edge is faster and has larger coverage area, but you need to check your location and see what fits you best.

I recommend using a dual Edge/802.11 pc-cards, for mobiles. Buy a dedicated connection (VPN/etc) to a telecom for Edge, and use 802.11 for hot spots. Most telecoms will also assist you in 802.11x setup, so you can switch easily between networks. The only thing you have to support is the Radius server for authentication. Everything else is outsourced to the Telecom. They can also assist in establishing VoIP and give you additional savings for local public offices.

While technology can save money, you have to weigh the man power required to run it. And with IT/IS departments being understaffed in local government offices, you might want to outsource, the network piece, and just run the server/back end piece locally.

If you want CAD...

[Anonymous Coward]

Issue Nextel phones to your field crew and hire a dispatcher for $6/hr. It's cheap, works great (better than 802.11 anyway) and it gives some poor girl a job.

Don't be a techno schmuck!

Operator...

[fredjflintstone]

Tank, find a structural drawing of this building; find it fast.

mobileIP

[ipb]

Try 802.11, + your favorite linux distro for routers + one of the mobile IP implementations. That should do the trick, giving you mobility from lan to lan while still maintining your original IP connections. You will still have some problems with access while moving, since 802.11 isn't designed to handle devices moving at highway speeds. But once you slow down you should recover your connection.

802.11x is goofy pipe-smoke. RTT 1x is real.

[aminorex]

Use something like T-mobile with a Sierra
Wireless 750 PCMCIA card, for $39.99/mo
unlimited traffic. Employ a standard VPN.

Paying an all-you-can eat price really
demotivates opportunistic 802.11x leeching.

yeah

[echo465]

This is something that I'm looking at also. We're looking at either adapting something like Motorola's canopy [motorola.com] series.

We're also looking into the XTS 5000 [motorola.com] portables. They have included USB and serial ports, but documentation on their site is pretty sketchy.