Outdoor and Large Venues

The Customer

A North American city of about 500,000 inhabitants with an average density of 3,800 per square mile.

The Needs

• Offer guest Wi-Fi to citizens, visitors and municipal employees throughout the city and the public areas and buildings.
• Provide different Wi-Fi experiences based on where the user will be.
• Deliver a fast, simple, one-time sign-in Wi-Fi connection to users who are already clients of the primary mobile operator in the city.
• Allow roaming between public areas.
• Capable of defining and managing user session characteristics.
• Provide email-based Wi-Fi connection to other users.
• A fully managed solution for Wi-Fi access and infrastructure, monitored 24x7x365, with breakfix service in case of issues.

The Solution: Developing a Custom Wi-Fi Solution

• Custom, vendor-agnostic Wi-Fi network development specific to the city’s needs, layout and characteristics.
• Tailored outdoor and indoor Wi-Fi solutions that address the requirements of a wide public area, several municipal buildings and different levels of user density, each catering to hundreds or thousands of simultaneous users.
• Customized captive portal based on the town’s branding with messaging related to current municipal events.
• Customized captive portal linked to a directory from a major mobile operator to allow for quick connections with its clients.
• Other users are invited to enter their email address to connect to Wi-Fi.
• Session parameters differentiated by zones (parks, libraries, municipal buildings, etc.) with intelligent roaming features.
• Session management for total bandwidth, authorized bandwidth and time limitation.
• Content filtering for distracting or inappropriate website access.
• Integration of a credit card module to enable charging for services (self-provisioning) in some of the covered zones.
• Dataview Analytics Solution to monitor Wi-Fi sessions and infrastructure by zone and traffic flow as well as provide data in case of public events.
• 24x7x365 helpdesk to help answer user-facing problems.

Ensuring Service Delivery and Network Security

• Infrastructure Management services for 24x7x365 management and monitoring, with full four-tier helpdesk support.
• Consistent service delivery and network health with Datavalet 24x7x365 proactive Network Operation Center monitoring.
• Break-fix “feet on the street” dispatch capabilities, complete with forward-deployed equipment depots for rapid replacement of damaged or failing equipment.
• SLAs to guarantee rapid service restoration in the event of any diminished service or outages.
• Security enabled through cutting-edge firewall services, as well as intrusion prevention and detection capabilities.
• Network design and RF spectrum analysis to optimize equipment and bandwidth.

The Results

• Improvement of citizens’/visitors’ satisfaction and employees’ productivity.
• Mobile municipal employees are now able to stay connected with consistent service levels.
• Municipality’s image as a connected city rose significantly.
• Improved connectivity access for some “less-developed” parts of the city, servicing many lower-income residents.