Monday, March 30, 2009

Firetide Forecasts Big Jump in Large-Scale Municipal Wireless Networks in 2009

In addition, Firetide issued a forecast calling 2009 the year for large-scale, municipal wireless mesh networks. The company said its growth will be driven by a number of confluent factors: its market and technology leadership in city-owned video surveillance networks which are expected to expand; the Fed's stimulus package designed to dramatically increase spending on state and local infrastructures; and the new 400 Mbps bandwidth solution.


Firetide, which specializes in wireless infrastructure mesh networks, announced its new, MIMO-based Firetide HotPort 7000 wireless solution delivering up to 400 Mbps throughput. The greater capacity is expected to drive the deployment of large-scale municipal, industrial and enterprise wireless networks for video, data and voice applications. The HotPort 7000 leverages MIMO (multiple input, multiple output) infrastructure mesh technology to enable city-wide video surveillance, traffic management and intelligent transportation systems, Wi-Fi access for mobile city workers and wireless broadband for underserved areas. Key attributes include:

  • up to 400 Mbps throughput; fiber-equivalent latency at .9 ms per hop; 1,000 VoIP calls per node

  • built-in interference mitigation; intelligent routing; end-to-end QoS on a per-flow basis

  • integrated spectrum analysis; network capacity planning and antenna alignment tools

  • dual configurable radios in 2.4, 4.9 (U.S. public safety licensed band) and 5 GHz frequency bands; indoor and outdoor models.


With up to 400 Mbps capacity, the Firetide HotPort 7000 MIMO-based infrastructure mesh exceeds the performance of wired solutions like T1, Fast Ethernet and OC-3 fiber.


Firetide also noted that it has doubled its revenues every year since its founding in 2003. In the U.S., over 300 municipalities have deployed Firetide-enabled wireless video surveillance systems and are expanding the use of their wireless infrastructure to include other applications that protect and serve their communities. Firetide customers include some of the largest NFL U.S. municipalities: Chicago, Dallas, Orlando, Denver, Phoenix and Los Angeles County.


Internationally, Seoul, Korea has deployed two municipal networks covering 700 square miles and supporting upwards of 10 applications each: video surveillance for public safety, tourist information over Wi-Fi, video cameras for monitoring wildlife, sensor connectivity for water level monitoring, and event location services such as finding missing children in the park.
http://www.firetide.com