iwce 2010: wireless video surveillance 101

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Wireless Infrastructure for Security & Surveillance

Ksenia Coffman, Firetide

IWCE 2010: Wireless Surveillance 101

March 9, 2010

Agenda

� Why wireless?

� Wireless options

� Considerations for wireless video systems

� Case studies

� Municipal public safety; Industrial operations;

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� Municipal public safety; Industrial operations;

Transportation security

� Planning a successful wireless system

Why Wireless?

� Cost savings

� Deploy virtually anywhere

� Mobility and flexibility

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� Mobility and flexibility

� Extend or back-up wired

infrastructure

Industrial TransportationPublic Safety

Who Needs Wireless Surveillance?

Education

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Industrial TransportationPublic Safety

Government Utilities

Education

Telecom

Wireless Challenges

� Availability of channels & spectrum

� RF interference

� Dynamic RF & physical environment

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� Dynamic RF & physical environment

� “Trust but verify” attitude required

Wireless Options

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Wireless Frequency Bands

Licensed? Line of site Advantage Disadvantage

900 MHz Unlicensed Not required Improved street-level

penetration

Lower throughput

for video compared

to other bands

2.4 GHz Unlicensed Required Better penetration

compared to 5 GHz

Interference from

consumer devices

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compared to 5 GHz consumer devices

4.9 GH Licensed Required Reserved for public

safety; less

interference

Requires frequency

coordination with

other agencies

5 GHz Unlicensed Required Better range and less

interference

compared to 2.4 GHz

Lower penetration

than 2.4 GHz

Point to Point

� Pros

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� Dedicated connection

� Highest bandwidth for backhaul

� Cons

� Does not scale; no flexibility

� Single point of failure

Point to Multi-Point

� Pros

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� Pros

� Simplicity of design

� Cost effective when tall assets are available

� Cons

� Limited scalability: bandwidth divided by # of subscribers

� LOS required to each subscriber unit

� Base station creates a single point of failure

Multi-Point to Multi-Point (Mesh)

� Pros

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� Pros

� Reach & scalability with multi-hop connections

� Flexibility – can be deployed a PtP, PtMP or mesh

� Cons

� Variable performance from different vendors

� More complex design vs PtP or PtMP

� Point to point

� Up to 1 Gig+

� Point to multi-point

� 20-30 Mbps total capacity typical (divided by # of subscribers)

� Wireless mesh

What About Throughput?

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� Wireless mesh

� Can deliver up to 250-300 Mbps in PtP mode or 100-150 Mbps

sustained over multiple hops

� Varies greatly by vendor: from 10-15 Mbps to 100-150 Mbps per

radio

Numbers listed are usable throughput, not theoretical data rate

Deployment Scenario: Mesh & PtP

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Deployment Scenario: PtMP

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�District 4

�District 5

Deployment Scenario: Linear Mesh

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�District1

�District 2

�District 3

�District 4

Not All ‘Wireless Mesh’

Created Equal

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Created Equal

Imagine a Traditional Wired Switch

Most efficient mesh utilizes L2 distributed wireless switch architecture

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(Wired Ethernet infrastructure)

Now, Give Each Port Wireless Capability

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Separate the Ports…


Bingo, a Virtual Ethernet Switch!

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� High throughput

� Low latency < 1.5 ms per hop

� Low packet jitter (variation in latency)

� Support for multicast traffic

� End-to-end QoS & traffic prioritization

Key Requirements for Video

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� End-to-end QoS & traffic prioritization

� Specialized infrastructure required

� APs not suitable for professional video surveillance

Wi-Fi Access Can Be Useful

� Live video in Wi-Fi ‘hot spots’

� Laptops, PDAs

� Local and remote viewing

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Wi-Fi enabled

patrol car

Radio, AP & Camera

Mistakes You Can Make

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iwce 2010: wireless video surveillance 101

Technology