LTC 005-2008 Status of Wireless Miami Beach WiFi projectR'~~;~'~~11'
2008 JA~d -9 ~~ 12= 0 ~
m M11AM1 BEACH ~-r~ ~~~ ~~~~ ~:;-~~~_
OFFICE OF THE CITY MANAGER
NO. LTC # oos-zoos LETTER TO COMMISSION
TO: Mayor Matti H Bower and Members of the City Commission
FROM: Jorge M. Gonzalez, City Manager
DATE: January 8, 2008
SUBJECT: Status of Wireless Miami Beach WiFi project
The purpose of this Letter to Commission is to communicate the current status of
the Wireless Miami Beach WiFi project.
At the beginning of October, IBM turned the citywide WiFi network over to the
City to begin acceptance testing. The City engaged Jim Geier, founder of
Wireless-Nets, Ltd, and a renowned expert in wireless-based networks, to
conduct citywide tests to validate and verify that the network provided by IBM
meets the requirements specified in the contract with the City. Testing has been
completed and a comprehensive report of all the findings has been supplied to
the.City. The report has been provided to IBM.
The "Wi-Fi System Verification Test Results for the City of Miami Beach, Florida"
dated December 20, 2007, includes a section summarizing overall test results
and recommendations. The section is included below:
Based on the testing that Wireless-Nets conducted, the system did
not pass verification testing. The existing system as tested has
widespread coverage holes in both outdoor and indoor locations.
For example, outdoor coverage is approximately 80 percent, and
indoor coverage is approximately 30 percent. This falls far short of
signal coverage requirements. Roam testing also indicates that
improvements are necessary to provide a seamless roaming
solution. In addition, current operational support readiness is far
below what is necessary for successfully managing the network
when outages occur. The response to major outages during the
testing, for example, indicates very sluggish response to the loss of
several simultaneous gateway backhaul connections.
Wireless-Nets highly recommends that IBM implement major
improvements to the network and operational support mechanisms
prior to the system becoming operational for users. IBM should
activate or install additional mesh nodes, as explained in this report,
to provide required outdoor signal coverage and utilize indoor CPE
(customer premise equipment) for indoor connections to the
network. !n addition, IBM should refine the roaming solution and
improve operational support response to major outages. After IBM
has corrected deficiencies in the network, the City of Miami Beach
should repeat the majority of the verification testing to ensure that
the network with modifications satisfies all requirements.
IBM was given preliminary test results before the official test results were
officially available. They are currently evaluating the official test results in order
to design the solutions that they wilt implement to cure deficiencies found in the
system. Once implemented, these solutions will be tested by the independent
engineer. At that time, if the system passes the tests, it will be available for the
public to use during a 90 day acceptance period. If no major failures are found
during this period, the system can be accepted.
Additionally prior to test completion, a number (approximately 10%) of Tropos
wireless nodes, installed on Miami Beach and FDOT circuits which operate at
480 volts, have failed and appear to have received higher than expected voltage.
The Tropos wireless node is designed to accept voltages ranging from 110 to
480 plus or minus 10%. FP&L standards are to provide line power of 480 volts
plus or minus 5%. We contacted FP&L in early December and they have set up
monitoring equipment to determine the source of potential power anomalies. The
contractor in charge of maintaining the FDOT lights, UnderPower Corp, is also
involved in the search for the source of the power anomalies. We expect to have
preliminary report from FP&L early next week.
The Administration will continue to work with IBM, FP&L, and the independent
testing engineer, as this project proceeds, and provide updates as they become
available. In the meantime, if you have any questions of need additional
information, please do not hesitate to contact me.
JMG/PDW/AS
~A\WiFi\commission update 1-3-08.doc