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Home > News and Events > Switchworks saves City $1 Million per year |
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Wireless WAN Supports City Wide Access
Electronic Access for every citizen. This lofty goal is becoming more of a reality in cities across the world. North York, a city of 560,000 and the largest geographical city in the metropolitan Toronto area, has this commendable goal. North York's vision was to network its city government buildings together in a way that would not only allow government employees to share network resources but also enable electronic access of government services for all of its citizens. North York's plan was to initially provide interactive electronic access related to its facilities permitting and reservation systems. Obtaining a permit to hold an event at one of the city's arenas, reserving a banquet hall, or even registering for a city baseball league was envisioned to be able to be done electronically at any public government building. Perry Beatty, Supervisor of Systems for Park & Recreation and members of the staff of the Finance MIS department identified that the networks linking the Community Resource Centers, City Hall, Parks, Arenas and a mix of specialty sites needed to be upgraded to higher data rates to have the capacity needed to rapidly transmit the growing amount of administrative applications added to various sites. When this problem was identified, a series of cost, performance and benefit analysis was initiated. The city of North York needed to find a way to get a higher capacity network, network all its government buildings together (spread out over 72 square miles), and do it in the most cost-effective manner possible. The city studied traditional Telco and fiber WAN offerings. They also decided to study an alternative solution radio frequency (RF) wireless bridges. The Aironet Wireless Bridge Alternative Beatty called on the assistance of Spectrum/SwitchWorks, a local Systems Integration group, to do the integration for the city. Along with a host of wired solutions, the Aironet BR2000-E Wireless Bridge was put to the test. The Aironet BR2000-E soared past the competition. The city of North York determined that significant cost recovery cycles, ease and quickness of deployment, flexibility and distance covered proved that wireless was the way to go. The Aironet bridges operate using direct sequence spread spectrum radio in the 2.4 Ghz band (no FCC license required). An Aironet bridge pair equipped with high-gain directional antennas can create a 2 Mbps wireless link between Ethernet networks in buildings up to 12 miles apart or a 1 Mbps link in buildings up to 25 miles apart. With Aironet Wireless Bridges, all of the networks in all of the buildings can be connected without using cables or dedicated lines. The North York Installation Eight city sites were initially networked with the Aironet BR2000-E Wireless Bridges. The success of this initial phase prompted the city to order more bridges from Spectrum/SwitchWorks to link an additional fourteen sites. The ease of the installation coupled with the comparative low cost of the bridges kept the project on time and on budget. Twenty-one more installations were planned. These sites used Aironet's new BR2040-E, a 4 Mbps wireless bridge. All sites eventually switched to the new, higher-speed 4 Mbps bridge. Additional phases are on the drawing board to further enhance the electronic access to government services its citizens now enjoy. City Plans Prove Successful North York currently has 40 government sites linked together. Based on the results of the city's study, the Aironet solution saved North York 1/3 of what they would have spent to implement a traditional high- speed wired solution. In addition, the city has saved a significant amount of money by eliminating the expense of a reoccurring fee for leased lines. The quick deployment of a wireless bridge solution also benefited the residents of the city by reducing the amount of network downtime during the installation phase and the resulting loss of access to city services. "This technology provides the city a network we have total control of, saves our taxpayers nearly $1,000,000 a year in operating costs and it works. What more could you ask for!" says Beatty. The vision of electronic access for every citizen has proved to be a realizable and financially feasible goal for the people of North York. With successful implementations such as theirs as an example, this vision could soon become clearer for many others. About SwitchWorks SwitchWorks is a solutions oriented engineering firm with a proven management team, powerful strategic alliances and pivotal market positioning. The company was incorporated in 1990 and is head-quartered in Toronto, Canada. SwitchWorks software group builds mission critical groupware and office automation solutions focused on maximizing the efficiency of today's enterprise. Our suite of business applications provide service and sales groups with improved methods for office communications. Contact us today to find out how we can accelerate your team and keep your organization on top in your market. Check out our Whip The Web™ Site for wireless wide area communications services! |
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