 |
 |
“We believed offering free WiFi access in our downtown core would convey the
image Moncton wants to convey, but we had to be cognizant of costs. HP
showed us the way to do it.”
—Dan Babineau, Director of Information Systems, City of Moncton
|
|
|
Like many other North American cities, Moncton, New
Brunswick—population 126,000—knows its economic
future depends on attracting entrepreneurs and
technology-based businesses. That means the city itself
needs to project a technology-friendly image.
What better way to project that image than to offer
free municipal WiFi in its downtown center?
The challenge, of course, is that “free” isn’t truly free.
But with HP’s help, Moncton found a budget-friendly
way to implement a municipal wireless network, saving
not only installation costs but ongoing connectivity
dollars as well.
Exciting vision, budgetary constraints
Dan Babineau, Director of Information Systems, City of
Moncton, runs the city’s 15-person information systems
department; it fell to him to make municipal WiFi a
reality. It’s an assignment he embraced with
enthusiasm. “We wanted to make our downtown more
vibrant,” Babineau says. “We believed WiFi could be
a catalyst. It could show we’re on the leading edge of
technology.”
Unfortunately, enthusiasm alone isn’t enough, and the
city’s WiFi vision came with a caveat: Babineau’s
funds for installing the network were limited.
Furthermore, the city didn’t want its municipal wireless
to incur significant ongoing costs down the road. “We
couldn’t endorse WiFi if it was going to be too
expensive,” Babineau says. “It’s counterproductive to
add additional cost burdens to taxpayers in the name
of economic development.”
So Babineau set out to see what his options were.
His first step was to choose vendors. The city’s existing
wireless was a Cisco network, supplied by HP. After
considering his options, Babineau decided to rely on
the proven success of this powerful duo, choosing
Cisco equipment for the new wireless network and
selecting HP to act as systems integrator for the
installation.
The answer: a mesh design
HP figured out how to make the installation costeffective.
“HP explained that there were two ways to
set up the network,” Babineau says. One choice was to
wire each access point to the Internet. That would have
been relatively expensive because it would have
required quite a bit of new cabling and Internet
gateways.
The other option was a “mesh” deployment. With this
design, individual access points aren’t hardwired to
the Internet. Instead, data is sent to a central Internet
hub via wireless transmission. Each access point
becomes part of the network’s data transmission
infrastructure, passing data from other access points
across the network to the hub and back.
Because the mesh deployment didn’t require new
cable to be laid, it was significantly more cost
effective. “The reduced cost made it very compelling,”
says Babineau. It was also inherently scalable. If the
city wanted to expand coverage, it could just add new
access points.
Still, Babineau had some reservations. For one thing,
an outdoor wireless mesh network had never been
installed in Canada. HP addressed that concern by
presenting case studies of other mesh network
implementations it had successfully implemented. “We
ended up confident that HP had done this before and
could steer us through it,” Babineau says. HP’s strong
relationship with Cisco—HP Canada was named Top
Wireless Partner by Cisco Canada at Cisco’s Partner
Summit Award Ceremony earlier that year—was also
reassuring. “We knew HP is an expert at installing
Cisco equipment.”
That left only one other issue: Babineau was skeptical
that the system could be deployed as quickly as HP
promised.
HP took only three days to install the network and
Babineau is a believer now. “I couldn’t fathom that
happening,” Babineau says. “But it did.”
Live in three days
Of course, the city deserves some of the credit for the
speed of the implementation: it performed the
installation itself. This, Babineau says, enabled the city
to fund the installation internally instead of relying on a
contractor for the work.
Planning preceded the installation. Once Moncton
agreed on the mesh design, HP determined how many
access points were needed and where they should be
installed to provide the most coverage.
HP worked with Cisco to provide the necessary
equipment: Cisco 4400 Series Wireless LAN
Controllers, Cisco 1130AG Series Access Points, a
Cisco Wireless Control System, Cisco ASA 5500
Series Adaptive Security Appliances, and Cisco 1500
Series Outdoor Mesh Access Points.
HP also helped Babineau’s team configure a captain
page—the web page that greets people who sign onto
the network.
Meanwhile the city’s public works’ department
identified light poles to power the access points. It also
built mounting boxes to house the access points
themselves, allowing maintenance workers to service
the lights without touching the wireless system and vice
versa.
Once these decisions were made and the housing
units were built, the city installed the access points—
and the system was live.
Happiness is . . . free downtown WiFi
People started using the network immediately,
Babineau says, thanks to press coverage and the
support of local businesses. “We started seeing 50
users logging on per week right away.” The city also
helped build awareness by placing Moncton WiFibranded
signs in specific areas to let the public know
where the network is available.
Since then the network has become increasingly
popular. The number of registered users quadrupled
within three months and continues to rise. When
Babineau passes through the heart of the city, it’s
common to see restaurant and café patrons working
wirelessly on their laptops.
Users also offer feedback. This comes to Babineau in
two ways. The network’s captain page asks people to
answer a few questions to help the city understand who
is using the network and why. The biggest surprise to
come from this data is how many non-residents use the
network—about a third of the total user base. Some of
these users are tourists, but the network also became an
important tool for visiting business travelers.
Users are also invited to send comments via email. The
city receives quite a few thank you notes, Babineau
says. It also receives questions, which usually ask one
of two things: will the network be expanded and will it
continue to be offered for free.
The answer to both of those questions is “yes,” thanks
to the network’s cost-saving design. “We came in
under budget by about $10,000 Canadian,” Babineau
says. That extra money will be allocated to add
additional access points.
Ongoing maintenance costs will be minimal as well,
which means the city won’t have to charge users to
access the network. “If we’d used a traditional WiFi
design, it would have added $40-$50 a month, per
access point, to our connectivity costs,” Babineau says.
“By integrating the new system into our existing
network topology, we avoided that expense.” He adds
that since implementation, the network has performed
flawlessly.
A worthwhile investment in infrastructure
It was a small investment—and has only begun to pay
off for the City of Moncton. Moncton is now
considering how to leverage the network further. One
example: the parks department could enable its staff to
submit reports from the field. Babineau would also like
to see the city’s public transit systems WiFi-enabled to
make them more commuter-friendly.
But the most important payoff is the immediate one:
the Moncton WiFi contributes positively to the city’s
image. “Moncton had reached a point where,
demographically, we were becoming an aging
community. Offering free WiFi was a way to invest in
our infrastructure and show we’re a young, hip, vibrant
city. Now it’s common to see people with their laptops
sitting in our cafés, using our service. It’s heartening to
see, and it sends a great message to our community.”
|
|
For more information on how working with HP can benefit you, contact your local HP sales representative, or
visit us through the Internet at our world wide web address: http://www.hp.com
|
|
|
|
