Service Provisioning for Wireless Mesh Networks Eric Koskie

Overview What services are commonly being deployed on municipal networks Wireless Mesh Networks Service Offerings Free Internet Access RegisteredUnregistered Fee-based Public Access Flat-RateDifferential-Rate

Overview Web Filtering Wireless Spectrum Preservation Public Safety Video Surveillance Mobile Government Users Virtual Private Networks Voice over IP (VoIP) Meter Reading Government as Anchor Tenant Dedicated Internet Access Advanced Network Services

Introduction Municipal Wireless networks are a hot new topic in the face of telecom today Enhance services to community Over 300 governments have created Municipal Wireless networks Several Reasons for Municipal Wireless Networks Bridge the digital divide Combine government services and public access

Introduction These networks will be owned and managed by many different entities Multi-system Operators (MSOs) Wireless ISPs Phone Companies

Wireless Mesh Networks Based on WiFi Laptops, PDAs, Cell Phones May eventually migrate to WiMAX 8 to 30 WAPs to cover one square mile WAPs use mesh capabilities to bring all network traffic back to a single access point This access point provides the backhaul for all other WAPs Uses DSL, Cable, T1, point-to-point wireless, or WiMAX

Service Offerings Free Public Access UnregisteredRegistered Flat-Rate Fee-based Public Access Differentiated-Rate Fee-based Public Access Web (URL) Filtering Spectrum Preservation Public Safety Video Surveillance Mobile Government Users

Service Offerings (cont.) Virtual Private Network (VPN) Voice over IP (VoIP) Meter Reading Government as Anchor Tenant Dedicated Internet Access

Free Internet Access (Unregistered) Free Internet Access Roaming capability of mesh networks allows for users to move between access points A stationary device may seek out the best possible connection

Free Internet Access (Registered) Requires RADIUS server to authenticate users Standards-based Authentication, Authorization, and Accounting (AAA) Juniper Networks Steel Belted RADIUS server is deployed to ensure use by only registered users

Flat-Rate Fee-Based Public Access New requirements emerge with fee-based access Need special billing systems Interact with network and allow access from customer service representatives Limit user bandwidth to what they pay for Need to be aware if users are active and have paid Steel Belted RADIUS sets up Multiservice Edge Router

Differentiated-Rate Fee- based Public Access Customers receive different charged for different levels of service Users may pay for unlimited usage Users may be limited to a peak information rate Users may be limited to a certain number of bytes of download per day Users may be guaranteed a minimum information rate or any of a number of QoS Parameters It is possible a user’s payments are not current and need to be restricted from the network

Web Filtering Non-profits and municipalities restrict users from being able to reach certain sites Use of a firewall BlacklistWhite-list Sites are stored in database

Wireless Spectrum Preservation Each WAP has a limited amount of bandwidth With the success of adding users, the network will become more constrained Operators will place control on several types of users Abusive users must be prevented from placing malicious traffic into the network Worms and DoS attacks use up backhaul bandwidth At-risk users Intrusion Detection and Prevention firewalls

Public Safety Public Safety communications have high standards to meet These standards have risen over the last five years due to well-known failures of these networks Police, fire, and rescue teams need be given higher priority than other traffic Operators need to be able to control the access rate that devices send traffic onto the network

Video Surveillance Presence of cameras can be a crime deterrent and storage of video helps ensure convictions Video cameras can monitor traffic Video at special events can be quickly arranged with a WiFi connection QoS parameters must prioritize video data Ability for operators to increase bandwidth to a certain camera to increase quality

Mobile Government Users Spend significant amount of time traveling to locations throughout the municipality Inspectors Building Inspectors DPW employees Need security due to dealing with public trust data Odyssey Client on user laptop for security Steel-Belted RADIUS

Voice over IP (VoIP) Two categories: Calls conducted with the network and network operator’s knowledge SkypeVonage Calls conducted without the network and network operator’s knowledge

Meter Reading Currently labor-intensive Water and electric meters Traffic monitoring Speeding Tickets Red light tickets Handheld devices can transmit tickets, public safety inspection reports and other government forms

Government as Anchor Tenant Key to overall success of Municipal Wireless Network Government is very large with significant telecom needs Allows for fiscal security

Dedicated Internet Access Bridging the digital divide Serve the Small/Medium Business (SMB) Market MSOs, telcos, and wireless ISPs are trying to expand customer base SMBs only need firewalls and LANs

Advanced Network Services Operators will want to introduce new, advanced services after initial deployment Operators will want to sell these new services