Abstract

Ponca City is a city located strategically between Oklahoma City, OK, and Tulsa, OK, and Wichita, KS.  It has approximately 26,000 citizens and 25 square city miles of footprint.  It has an additional footprint utilized by City-owned Ponca City Energy, which supplies electricity to another 85 square miles.  The City provides water to its constituents from two local lakes. 

This webinar will provide a perspective on how being an island away from the “big” cities leads to the City independently building its own vision to achieve its goal of being one of the most mobile communities in America.  Learn how Ponca City created its own fiber optics company; began selling broadband services; and recently installed one of the fastest, 100 percent fiber back-hauled, Tropos wireless broadband mesh networks to benefit the entire community.  Honeywell was the contractor selected for the deployment and provided system planning and integration services for the project.

The wireless network is being used by all city departments such as police, fire, electric, water, community development, and other departments.  With seventy-five percent of the city’s staff performing duties from the field, the network has become an important productivity enhancement tool, enabling workers to access the same applications around town as from their office.  In addition, there are over a 100 IP-based cameras the city has installed around town – some connected to fiber and many via a wireless connection.  The live video feeds from these cameras are accessible by any city personnel from their desktop, mobile vehicle, or across the Internet for remote viewing for surveillance, traffic and weather monitoring.  These cameras have already been a key contributor for several life saving incidents which when combined with operational efficiency savings, have justified the cost of the wireless mesh network.  As part of the presentation, there will be several live demos of mobile cameras.

In addition to benefiting city services, Ponca City recognized the importance of Wi-Fi access for its citizens.  Ponca City today delivers 2.5 Mb symmetric Internet access to all citizens for free, contributing towards the City’s goal to improve economic development and tourism.  

Topics will include:

• How this metro-scale wireless broadband mesh network has allowed City departments to become more efficient, provide faster response to citizen’s request, and access the municipal network in the field
• How Police officers back each other up by monitoring other officer’s video feeds
• How ambulances communicate with the hospital’s Emergency Room enabling faster treatment for trauma patients
• How the iPhone is being used as a tool and a justifiable expense for mobile City workers
• How to deploy a network in an efficient and timely manner while keeping network integrity high
• How to empower city workers to be a partner in the process rather than just as an end user
• How you sell the value of a city-owned wireless broadband mesh network to Mayor and Commissioners
• How to fund a network of 500 wireless broadband radios -- without incurring debt
• Why wireless mesh was selected over cellular and other communication network alternatives
• How local ISPs, cable Internet providers, and other telecommunication companies responded to the City offering free Wi-Fi access to its citizens
• What tools were developed to expedite installation as well as ongoing inventory control of mounted radios as well as mobile radios
• Coverage experienced by Tropos radios – indoors and outdoors
• How other topologies can be mixed with the wireless mesh to extend the network to 750 square miles or even to the proposed 3,000 square miles in Ponca City’s case

About Craige Baird

Mr. Baird is a graduate of Oklahoma State University and a retired Army Military Police Officer.  He has over 25 years of IT experience starting with 10 years with Conoco and then E.I. DuPont.  Starting in college and throughout his professional career he wrote software for over 100 Oklahoma municipalities. He took the position of Technology Services Director over 10 years ago with the City of Ponca City.  He currently serves as the Oklahoma Government Information Technology Association’s (OGITA) President.  During his tenure, he has optimized the citizen/business/city government communication through deployment of various technologies.  He has improved the City’s communication infrastructure and made it a key advantage for the city by installing over 120 miles of fiber (the city is only 25 square miles).  The fiber network has enabled the City to become a broadband provider to major industries and the medical profession; is leveraged for its Advanced Metering Infrastructure; supports a web based portal for government-citizen-industry collaboration.

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