Integrated City-Wide Communications

The Situation

Every city strives to provide the best for its employees and citizens, but shrinking budgets and economic turmoil present significant challenges. The City of Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, addressed this by realizing the need for a robust, reliable, and secure network infrastructure to support its services and applications, from the water department to city hall.

Wauwatosa previously relied on leased T1 lines for data transfer and bandwidth for its city services. However, these lines suffered from limitations in speed and bandwidth, and their recurring costs, especially for upgrades, were prohibitive. The City required a solution offering sufficient bandwidth, security, and reliability to underpin critical city services.

The Solution

The City of Wauwatosa implemented a solution using Motorola's point-to-point (PTP) and point-to-multipoint (PMP) products, establishing a reliable, secure, and redundant wireless network infrastructure connecting key utilities, buildings, and worksites. This cost-efficient network supports critical functions such as video surveillance at remote sites and vital city data replication and backup.

Motorola partner Baycom collaborated with the City, initially focusing on enabling video surveillance at critical water department sites. Baycom demonstrated how Motorola's PTP and PMP solutions could provide the necessary wireless connectivity. Their analysis revealed a broader opportunity: a more robust wireless network could unify and extend the City's reach, supporting future applications.

Michelle Dahlen, Public Safety Systems Administrator, noted, "Originally, we just wanted to provide video surveillance at city sites that didn't have IP connectivity via our wired network, but Baycom had the vision to see that we could create a wireless network that could both meet our current needs and lay the foundation for future applications."

Customer Profile

• Agency: City of Wauwatosa, Wisconsin
• Location: Wauwatosa, Wisconsin
• Industry: Local government, utilities, fire, police

Wireless Network Solution

• Backbone: PTP 400, PTP 600
• Spurs: PTP 200, PTP 300
• Access layer: PMP 120

Solution Features

• Secure, high-bandwidth wireless network supporting critical water department, city hall, public works, fire department, and police department activities.
• Low-cost, high-value solution replacing leased T1 lines with wireless connectivity that extends to areas where wired connections are not feasible, enabling future growth.
• Wireless video surveillance system with advanced camera control, real-time monitoring, and video backup.
• Enhanced wireless bandwidth, security, and reliability significantly reduce backup times for critical city data.
• Network redundancy ensures applications and systems run smoothly, even during disasters.
• Supports IP telephony, video, and data sharing, replicating, and backup.

The Result

The City of Wauwatosa now benefits from bandwidth for simultaneous data, voice, and video. The solution has enabled advanced surveillance with over 40 cameras, centralized video monitoring and capture, cost savings, and speed upgrades compared to the old leased T1 lines. IP telephony services have also improved audio clarity.

Thomas Otzelberger, Manager of Information Technology, stated, "When you put it all in perspective... and think that this wireless system has mushroomed from an initial idea of wanting to capture video to what it is today—centralized video monitoring for the entire City, voice, data backup and everything else—it's really just incredible."

Keeping Up with Ever-Growing Data Demands

Wauwatosa, a city of 47,000 citizens located in the western Milwaukee metropolitan region, is an innovative community that continues to build for the future despite shrinking city budgets. As technology advances and the need for reliable mobile connectivity grows, data demands have continued to skyrocket. The City's dependency on T1 lines became a primary area for improvement, offering significant return on investment.

Otzelberger explained, "To move ahead and do any of the kind of things we wanted to do with connectivity, we either had to go wireless or invest in burying fiber optic lines, which comes with staggering costs and long cycle times to deploy. Once we saw what kind of wireless reliability, security and bandwidth Baycom and Motorola could provide, we knew that was the answer for us."

Working Together to Provide a Complete, City-Wide Solution

A few years prior, the water department received a grant for a video surveillance system. The fire and police departments also expressed interest in video capture. Recognizing this common need, the City formed a committee to avoid overlapping departmental investments.

Baycom, a Motorola-authorized channel partner, became involved, and the City understood the necessity of a wireless solution providing reliability, security, and bandwidth. Otzelberger noted, "Early on, everyone wanted to go off in their own direction, but we instantly recognized the potential that could be realized from an integrated Motorola wireless network."

Laying the Foundation for a Cutting-Edge Video Surveillance System

The initial objective was to enhance the security of water resources. Otzelberger highlighted the vulnerability of water utilities, stating, "In this day and age, when you have various threats out there, even for towns of our size, the water utility is one area that could potentially be vulnerable." The City had two options: lay new fiber optic lines or invest in a wireless network.

The City chose the wireless route, investing in a Motorola wireless broadband system leveraging the PMP 120. This system extends 14 Mbps wireless connectivity to remote sites for voice, video, and data. It provides a reliable, secure, and nearly instantaneous connection between a centralized hub and surveillance systems at water department sites, enabling real-time monitoring, capture, storage, and seamless backup. The wireless nature allowed cameras to be placed optimally, unconstrained by wired technology's trenching requirements. This surveillance enhanced security for water department sites and the City's citizens.

"Once we saw what kind of wireless reliability, security and bandwidth Baycom and Motorola could provide, we knew that was the answer for us." - Thomas Otzelberger, Manager of Information Technology for the City of Wauwatosa

Agency Sharing and Wireless Data Backup Done Right

Following the successful implementation of the water department surveillance system, the City recognized the broader potential of wireless connectivity. Previously, vital data was manually transported via couriers between city hall and the police department, a time-consuming and costly process.

With Baycom and Motorola's assistance, Wauwatosa installed a high-speed wireless connection between city hall and the police department using Point-to-Point 600 series wireless Ethernet bridges. This provided high-performance connectivity, enabling the City to establish two data centers (one in city hall, one in the police department) that sync every 15 minutes, creating a redundant storage system for vital city data. This also eliminated courier costs, yielding further savings.

Police Dispatch, Mobile Video and More

The network connectivity allows the police department to leverage broadband for dispatch and records management. In addition to water department cameras, the police department has 25 cameras transmitting data. Motorola's network speed enables real-time camera control and mobile video delivery to officers in the field.

Michelle Dahlen explained, "With the speed and reliability of the network, we're able to wirelessly deliver video out to the squad and control cameras with pan, tilt and zoom functions from anywhere on the network." Video feeds can be transmitted to first responders, providing crucial real-time information. Despite heavy network traffic, the Motorola system provides instantaneous camera control.

The Reliability and Security to Bolster Disaster Recovery Plans

A reliable, secure, and redundant network allows departments to focus on operations rather than network issues. Otzelberger highlighted the disaster recovery capabilities: "We could sustain the loss of one of our two data centers and recover in very short order. Our entire operating environment and all the applications would fail over to the alternate data center."

Motorola's PTP and PMP technologies provide carrier-class performance in challenging environments. The wireless broadband systems seamlessly integrate with existing systems. The network's resilience was proven during a severe blizzard, where communications remained uninterrupted.

"As this project evolved, it became a great example of departments with varying interests working together toward the best interest of the City and its citizens as a whole. Because of this, each party has achieved its goals. The system has already returned the full capital investment through savings, and we've created tremendous opportunities for expansion into other service sectors." - Jim Archambo, City Administrator

Leveraging Connectivity for Government Business Applications

Beyond surveillance and police dispatch, the Motorola wireless network provides day-to-day connectivity for employees across the City. It enables email, timekeeping, web browsing, and ensures data from applications like payroll and financial functions are replicated throughout the day. Services at city hall, including business licenses and tax documentation, are accessible remotely, enhancing information sharing and redundancy.

Nearly every daily function relies on Motorola's network, including hundreds of daily phone calls over the network-enabled IP telephony communications.

Eliminating Costly T1 Lines

With nearly all key applications running on Motorola's wireless network, the City decided to eliminate costly leased T1 line contracts. Otzelberger stated, "We realized with a couple additional bridges, we could get the entire wireless network running with 100% redundancy."

Wauwatosa invested in PTP 200 series bridges, capable of transmitting up to 21 Mbps. This allowed them to let their T1 line contracts expire. Otzelberger described the integration: "All these technologies have to play nice together... but in just a short while everything was in place and it was all tested and running smoothly. The whole system has been pretty much bullet-proof since then."

A Trusted Partner

Baycom played a crucial role in the implementation, with their dedication and knowledge significantly impacting the City. Otzelberger commented, "They're just an awesome vendor to deal with. That technology is not the easiest thing to talk about and they made it really easy to understand what it is and what it could do for us. They've really done Motorola proud with the things they've done."

Leveraging Bandwidth for Future Applications

Motorola's wireless broadband network has lowered costs and improved efficiencies. Wauwatosa is now exploring future applications, such as advanced traffic light controls, wireless controls for sewer and water gates, and extending connectivity to hard-to-reach areas.

Otzelberger noted, "It's just opened the door for us to do so many advanced things, things that we never could have done with the T1 lines because of the costs and the lack of bandwidth."

Solutions That Can Make a Difference

Wauwatosa's IT managers and CIOs are impressed with the City's advancements. They are years ahead in technology and disaster recovery. The City has demonstrated that reliable and secure wireless broadband offers limitless possibilities, significantly improving safety, efficiency, and cost savings, making it a role model for other communities.

Product Highlight

PMP 120

PMP 100 series systems from Motorola provide wireless broadband connectivity for voice, video, and data last-mile access. With a broad array of access points and subscriber modules, these systems are capable of meeting the current and future needs of network operators.