Sprint looks beyond Kansas City for future smart city deployments

 

Sprint  is considering partnerships with other cities on smart city deployments similar to the one it has struck with Kansas City, Mo.

Meanwhile, Sprint's partners in Kansas City, beyond Cisco Systems, are gearing up for the deployment near the carrier's headquarters in Overland Park, Kan. They include construction and engineering firm Black & Veatch and Sensity, a company that makes and manages smart sensors for lighting and other applications.

In Kansas City Sprint will deploy hardware from Cisco to construct, own and manage the intelligent Wi-Fi network as part of a smart city deployment covering a 2.2-mile Kansas City streetcar line through downtown,

The project is expected to cost more than $15 million over the next decade. The city is investing $3.7 million in public funds, Sprint is spending around $7 million and Cisco is going to pony up $5 million. The service is expected to be operational when the streetcar opens to the public, probably on or before March 1, 2016, and if the system works well, it could be expanded beyond downtown.

The project is expected to cost more than $15 million over the next decade. The city is investing $3.7 million in public funds, Sprint is spending around $7 million and Cisco is going to pony up $5 million. The service is expected to be operational when the streetcar opens to the public, probably on or before March 1, 2016, and if the system works well, it could be expanded beyond downtown.

The network will also support smart city applications that deliver maps and information, as well as help manage parking, traffic, city lighting, water and waste management. Additionally, Sprint said that its subsidiary Pinsight Media+ will operate the data analytics and advertising platform and will e-enable commerce.

One of Sprint's partners is Black & Veatch, which is also based in Overland Park. The 100-year-old engineering and construction firm supports oil and gas projects, wastewater management, telecoms and also has clients in the federal government. The company is also working with Tesla on electric charging infrastructure for Teslas's cars in California, Connecticut and New York. Several years ago, the firm started a smart cities-focused division that cuts across all of the vertical industries Black & Veatch supports. The unit supports applications for transportation, energy grids, smart parking and lighting, roadways and more.  

Black & Veatch works closely with Cisco but Cisco needed a systems integrator for the project, which is the role Ellermeier's firm will serve. Black & Veatch is also going to bring its expertise in water systems, watershed management and other areas and is working with Cisco and the city's water department on projects like advanced leak detection in pipelines.

The deployment schedule of the smart city systems has not been set yet, Ellermeier said, but will proceed in phases that will extend past the opening of the street car line.

Another partner is Sensity, which was founded in 2012 and is based in Sunnyvale, Calif. The firm decided that smart LEDs were the perfect infrastructure to embed sensors that could collect data for use in smart city applications, since many cities are moving to LED lighting.

Sensity has an application platform that exposes the data its sensors are collecting and analyzing through a set of APIs. Harrington said that lets application developers "go far beyond lighting control" and develop apps for security, smart parking traffic analytics and people counting for retail stores.

Sensity is deploying 125 core nodes and 125 video nodes as part of the Kansas City deployment and there are prototype or reference design applications that Sensity will enable directly via its partnership with Cisco. One potential use case could be using video cameras in lights to identify open parking spots, and then having an app tell citizens where the spots are and letting them pay for the spot, which cuts down on emission from cars. Another could let cities dynamically price parking based on demand. Another could store security camera footage locally in cameras embedded in street lights and only send back data when it is requested.

Pinsight, noted that the company is "a hometown team" with its headquarters in downtown Kansas City, in the streetcar line's footprint. Part of the company's role will be to deliver the free public Wi-Fi portal, which could also promote local apps, businesses and services. The firm will also enable local companies to promote targeted advertising and offers based on factors like customer location profiles and foot traffic.

Microsoft Wi-Fi Service is Coming Soon for Business travelers

Business travelers are often frustrated in their efforts to get reliable Wi-Fi service in airports and hotels. Even when they do find Wi-Fi, the user often has to fill out a form and provide a credit card number for the paid service.

Well, Microsoft appears to be working to eliminate public Wi-Fi service hassles with a service called Microsoft Wi-Fi, according to various reports about a draft website, microsoftwifi.com, that prematurely released details of the service.

Microsoft is planning to rebrand its Skype Wi-Fi service to Microsoft Wi-Fi and offer the service to Office 365 for business subscribers.

Microsoft Wi-Fi will have 10 million hotspots, up from the 2 million that Skype Wi-Fi boasts. Users can pay for Wi-Fi access using Microsoft Wi-Fi cards that can be topped off when needed.

A Microsoft Wi-Fi app will be available for Windows, Windows Phone, Mac OS X, Android and iOS operating systems. Users will be able to find the nearest Wi-Fi hotspot using an interactive map.

Cisco Prepares Customers for Wave 2 with New Access Points and Wireless Controllers

The next wave of wireless access points are starting to hit the market. Cisco is among the first to release not only 802.11ac Wave 2 wireless access points, but also Wave 2-compliant controllers.

Cisco unveiled the Cisco Aironet 1850 Access Point, a Wave 2 AP that makes use of the protocol's multi-user, multi-in, multi-out – or MU-MIMO – features to provide faster Wi-Fi connections with an enterprise.

Among the trends driving a need for Wave 2 are the proliferation of devices to the WLAN (including the Internet of Things) and the fact that apps are very chatty.

The Aironet 1850 represents Cisco's first Wave 2 AP. Compared to the previous generation of 802.11ac APs, the 1850 offers greater coverage and performance.

Cisco plans to begin shipping the 1850 AP in July

In addition to the access point, Cisco also announced two controllers to support Wave 2. They're both aimed at campus environments, although at different scales. Here's more information on both:

• The Cisco 8540 Services Controller was designed to be highly scalable and service-rich. It's intended for large campus deployments and offers up to 40Gbps of throughput, as well as support for up to 6,000 access points and 64,000 clients. According to Sethuraman, it's a 75 percent performance increase over previous controllers.
• The Cisco 5520 Services Controller was designed for medium to large campus environments. It offers up to 20Gbps of throughput and can handle 1,500 access points and 20,000 clients. Sethuraman noted the 5520 has a 33 percent performance gain over previous access points.

It's a truth for many enterprises, particularly those considering cutting the cord and Wi-Fi-enabling every device on their premises. Wave 2 makes that easier, although some industry analysts have questioned how quickly deployments of the new standard will happen.