|
CoastWorks
Solves Tough Network Problem for Wireless
System Wins Out Over Fiber-optic
Connection When one
of the largest BC Government Ministries
moved a department to a new office in
downtown Kamloops one of their biggest
problems was to maintain the integrity of
their computer network. The department
maintains a large GIS database that is
mirrored at Kamloops and several other
sites in the Province. The cost of a
fiber-optic 10 Mbps connection was very
expensive to install and commanded a high
monthly lease cost. CoastWorks Internet
was called in to see if a wireless
solution was feasible.
The main
problem to overcome was geography; there
was no line of sight between the buildings
because of the steep river valley. Tall
masts were out of the question because of
building code height restrictions and
strong winds in the valley. There was also
a very crowded 2.4 GHz radio spectrum -
serving twelve schools, the hospital and
Courthouse
CoastWorks
solution was to establish a repeater site
and use radios that could operate in a
crowded spectrum, without interference.
Cisco Aironet direct sequence spread
spectrum radios and Tiltek antennas were
chosen because of their quality,
reliability and remote manageability. As
indicated in the photo a strategic
repeater site was established on a
microwave tower overlooking the City, to
relay data between locations.
CoastWorks
installed the link over a three week
period allowing the office move to
continue as planned. The equipment was
purchased by the department, avoiding any
monthly connection or bandwidth
charges.
Only a
twenty-minute drive from the downtown
Kamloops this site was ideal for our
purposes. The last mile to the site is
a dirt road that we later drove in the
snow with a front wheel drive car
without a problem
This is
a perfect antenna location to cover all
of Kamloops. CoastWorks is planning to
install a multi-point system in the
near future to provide high-speed
Internet services to business and
residential customers throughout the
region.
Tower
Monkeys
Mike and Ed hard
at work stringing waveguides in the
November sun.
The weather
cooperated the whole time. Although
it was windy on some days, the
temperature on this day reached 13
Celsius; normal high temperatures
are around -5.
The easy part was
installing the Cisco Aironet Radios. A
simple Ethernet link between radios set
in bridge mode gives the power
necessary to cover the distance between
the sites.
Another manufactures
radios were used initially but their
output was to low for reliability. By
installing the Cisco radios on one
link, we were able to bridge to the
other manufactures unit to stabilize
the service before swapping all the
radios to Cisco Aironets.
Since this
experience, we have used Cisco Aironet
radios exclusively for all critical
applications. They have provided 100%
quality of service since being
commissioned on December 6, 1999
View from the
downtown site - behind the antenna,
looking up at the repeater.
That's right, the
signal is coming from way up there
in the trees.
Boxed Set of
Radios
The radios at the
Environment Office - one to the BCAL
link on Rose Hill, the other to the
Parks office to the west.
The six Cisco
Aironet radios in this wireless
network have provided 100%
reliability Since December 1999,
despite severe thunderstorms that
damaged equipment in adjacent
buildings.
The View From
The Top of the tower showing the sight lines of
the links.
The
main equipment used for this installation
is:
Cisco
Aironet BR 500 (Cisco 340) series 11 Mbps 2.4 GHz
DSS radios
Copyright © 2000 Coastal Networks Inc. |
