The rule states: “U-NII devices already play an important role in meeting public demand for wireless broadband service, particularly wireless local area networking and broadband access. This foundation, coupled with increasing demand for wireless broadband applications and new Wi-Fi technology, signals a bright future for unlicensed operations in the 5GHz band. To meet continuing demand, in this first rule and order, we are taking a number of actions to increase the utility of the 555MHz of the 5GHz band already available for U-NII operations, while protecting incumbent users from harmful interference.”

“This new rule changes the 5.150-5.250GHz band to be available for outdoor use, the transmission power level is increased to 1W and the EIRP [Effective Isotropic Radiated Power] is increased,” Nelson explains. “These changes will result in easier adoption and integration of all available spectrums to devices.”

Campuses Can Face Pesky Snafus
Campuses looking to install wireless video for perimeter protection often face challenges related to camera placement and the need for systems to conform with their existing security processes.

“For networking experts, installing cameras on the IP backbone is easy compared to the challenge of locating cameras for optimum video coverage and security benefit,” Tynan says.

As the unique needs of a particular hospital, school or university may require installing cameras beyond the reach of the existing power and network infrastructure, campuses and their integrators need to look beyond traditional surveillance devices to help the facilities gain the level of surveillance coverage required for external security applications.

“Site surveys to determine line of sight, stray RF, distance to target and Google Earth maps are all tools used to develop a bill of materials that will lead to a predictable installation event,” Tynan says.

The biggest struggle with wireless deployments will often arise from not doing a proper site survey of the installation site, says Jake Shehan, director of merchandising for Greenville, S.C.-based ScanSource, a wholesale products distributor and value-added services provider. He says that sometimes the integrators hired to complete an installation might not have the tools or expertise for this type of task. Integrators might bring in an expert prior to the installation.

Due to the very nature of wireless being unseen, the technology itself can seem mysterious, Nelson says. Understanding what is in the air can be half the battle to successfully designing and deploying a wireless solution. There are a number of tools, from a laptop to a sophisticated spectrum analyzer, that can be used to see and detect what is in a site’s wireless environment. Mitigating interference using frequency, channelization, antenna location and directional antennas can all help to ensure a robust and reliably performing wireless security network.

“Knowing how many Wi-Fi access points and devices are in the same general area of deployment can be critical to understand where and how to deploy your wireless security system,” Nelson says. “Other RF-emitting devices can impact your signal quality and reliability.”

Also common, installing security contractors will start down the wireless path and forget about electrical power. Wireless systems can carry video and data wirelessly, but the cameras and wireless networking devices still require power.

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