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Siklu’s Gigabit Connectivity Enables Smart City Functions

The Overview

The Scottish Government have set their sights on 2020 as the target for building Scotland’s digital future. Their digital strategy means using innovative technology to build Connected Smart Cities, and Dundee City Council are leading the digital charge by working with Rapier Systems to see that vision prosper.

Rapier Systems and Dundee City Council have a long and trusted relationship, and have been executing an ongoing networking project for over 11 years. Rapier Systems sought Purdicom’s assistance, using Siklu and Ruckus Wireless, to further and upgrade their ever-growing network.

The Challenge

The Dundee City Council takes pride in being solely responsible for providing communication services in its jurisdiction. The Council network is constantly growing and the amount of data transmitted to and from the sites is huge. The project has been evolving for the past 11 years and throughout this time has undergone 3 major capacity leaps. It started off with microwave links providing a capacity of 10Mbs, before the network was then ramped up to 30-35Mbs with Sub 6GHz technology, and recently Siklu EH- 1200F links were brought on board for a major ramp up, and have successfully been delivering 1Gbps without a hitch.

When a tall building in the city centre was to be demolished, the council wanted to take advantage of the change to upgrade the CCTV and surveillance system, as well as add more WiFi access points to the ground. This was just one of many projects that were put into action across Dundee, the largest metropolitan area in Scotland.

The Solution

Rapier understood the need to deploy a high-capacity solution capable of supporting the capacity demands of heavily used WiFi as well as HD cameras, and consulted with Purdicom, its supplier. Rapier’s partnership with Purdicom meant that they had access to the best wireless technology on the market, as well as full technical support in terms of installation and aftercare.

While Ruckus, known for its super high capacity per user in dense environments, was selected for the access indoor points, Siklu’s Gigabit radio was chosen to concurrently backhaul both the HD CCTV and the super-fast WiFi. This was due to Siklu radios operating in the 60-80ghz spectrum, therefore allowing the Ruckus axis points to achieve ultimate performance in the 5ghz spectrum without interference from the backhaul.

The Results

Siklu and Ruckus Wireless’s perfect partnership meant that the CCTV and internal WiFi were elevated to peak performance, creating a secure and trustworthy internal network system.

There are now 150 ‘always on’ sites connected on a wide area network in Dundee. The Council network includes a number of schools, video surveillance locations, corporate traffic for council housing and municipal buildings, and public WiFi. There are 300 WiFi Ruckus access points in the council network, provided by Purdicom along with Siklu links, which deliver fiber-like connectivity on the E-band spectrum, which leaves more sub-6GHz spectrum for the access points and doesn’t suffer from interference from the WiFi.

Siklu has become our product of choice thanks to the ease of deployment, the very small form factor and excellent performance. We have never had any issues with Siklu, and so have no reason to consider anything else.”

Stuart Wilson, Director at Rapier Systems Ltd