Corpus Christi, Texas, to Deploy Tropos Networks Metro-Scale Wi-Fi to Increase
Productivity, Lower Costs
CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas -- (BUSINESS WIRE) - -07/28/2004 -- First phase of 147
square mile project for automated meter reading, public works, police and fire
use
Tropos Networks, the leading supplier of equipment used to build metro-scale
Wi-Fi networks, today announced that the City of Corpus Christi, Texas, will
deploy the Tropos Wi-Fi system for use by the city-owned water and gas
utilities, public works departments, and public safety agencies. The city
anticipates significant cost savings and increased effectiveness in the mobile
workforce as a result of the wireless broadband network. After successful
deployment of the 18.5 square mile first phase, the city plans a complete
build-out of the entire 147 square miles of Corpus Christi by March of 2005.
The most immediate cost savings will be seen as a result of the automated gas
and water meter reading that will utilize the Tropos metro-scale Wi-Fi system to
relay automatically generated usage information twice per day from all meters in
the coverage area. By eliminating the need for utility personnel to visit each
meter and manually record customer consumption, the city can more quickly and
accurately provide up-to-date billing information to their service recipients.
Additionally, utility customers have immediate, real-time usage data available
to them through a Web-based billing and information system run by the city and
automatically updated with each wireless meter polling.
"We saw an exciting opportunity to simultaneously increase our customer service
standards while reducing operating costs," said George "Skip" Noe, Corpus
Christi's City Manager. "The Tropos system is very quick and easy to deploy, and
allows us to implement a plethora of communications tools across many city
departments. I think we've only scratched the surface of the applications that
this system will enable."
In refining the scope of the Wi-Fi deployment, and conducting detailed research
for the bid process, the City of Corpus Christi worked closely with Public
Technology, Inc. (PTI), a national non-profit technology research and
development organization based in Washington, DC, representing local governments
nationwide. PTI's mission is to bring the benefits of technology to local
governments.
"The Corpus Christi wireless project is a perfect example of how technology,
when properly applied, can make local government more efficient and effective,"
said Brian Anderson, Chief Information Officer for PTI. "Once the scope of the
project was established, it became clear that an open-standards solution from
Tropos was the simplest and most economical way to achieve the City's goals."
In addition to the utility applications, the network will be available for use
by city public works crews, as well as the Corpus Christi Police and Fire
Departments. The public safety agencies, with more than 315 police, fire, and
EMS vehicles in their collective fleet, will use VPN authenticated access to all
of the applications currently available only in their offices. The city also
plans to operate GPS-based asset and vehicle tracking applications over the
Wi-Fi network, increasing both officer and community safety.
The pilot network will utilize approximately 300 Tropos 5110 Wi-Fi cells, an
outdoor-optimized and ruggedized wireless mesh router based on the 802.11
standard. The Tropos 5110 quickly and economically uses the intelligent Tropos
Predictive Wireless Routing Protocol (PWRP) to provide pervasive coverage over
metro areas. The Tropos PWRP routes traffic wirelessly, eliminating up to 95% of
the wired backhaul associated with traditional access point solutions. Tropos
Wi-Fi cells form a wireless mesh, dynamically routing traffic along the highest
throughput path to a wired gateway. This intelligent routing negates effects of
radio frequency (RF) interference, wired backhaul failure and node failure. PWRP
also scales to thousands of nodes with the lowest routing overhead in the
industry. To further minimize costs, Corpus Christi will use existing city fiber
for its minimal required wired backhaul connections. Network support costs are
minimized via the central management capabilities of the Tropos Control Element
Manager, a configuration, monitoring and maintenance tool.
About Tropos Networks, Inc.
Tropos Networks, Inc. is the leading supplier of systems used to build
metro-scale, outdoor Wi-Fi networks. Tropos' unique Wi-Fi cells, along with the
first element manager to control large Wi-Fi networks, enable public agencies
and service providers to deliver ubiquitous, city-wide mobile broadband to users
in any locale. These carrier-class IP networks are low cost and easy to install
and scale. The Tropos cellular mesh architecture and use of optimized
open-standard radios dramatically reduce the need for wired backhaul while
eliminating expensive proprietary clients and complex software. Using the
patented Predictive Wireless Routing Protocol, Tropos solutions deliver maximum
bandwidth to the user regardless of conditions, at unprecedented Wi-Fi network
scale. Tropos Networks is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. For more
information, please visit www.tropos.com, call 408-331-6800 or write to info@tropos.com.
Tropos Networks, Tropos and PWRP are trademarks of Tropos Networks, Inc. All
other brand or product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their
respective holder(s).
About Public Technology, Inc.
Public Technology, Inc. (PTI) is a national non-profit technology research and
development organization based in Washington, DC., representing local
governments. Our mission is to bring the benefits of technology to local
governments. Membership in PTI is open to all local governments.
PTI offers a variety of technology products and services to assist local
governments in addressing their technology needs. Through research, focus
groups, online discussions, publications, conferences, pilots and
demonstrations, and other information sharing vehicles, PTI's local government
and industry members work together to develop and apply technology to the
challenges facing communities of all sizes.
CONTACT:CLS Communications, Inc. Scott Green, 650-679-9044 (Media) teamgreen@rcn.com
SOURCE: Tropos Networks
07/28/2004 08:30 EASTERN