In Arizona, the corridor follows three highways and spans 487 miles, long portions of which lack reliable cellular and landline service. In April, however, the state started a pilot that will allow first responders to communicate on a Wi-Fi network along a 30-mile stretch of the highway. The network could also bring some much-needed technology to schools in rural areas along the corridor.
In 2003, Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano announced plans to transform the Arizona portion of the CANAMEX Corridor into a "smart corridor," showcasing technological solutions to problems such as traveler safety and telecommunications access for rural areas. She formed the CANAMEX Task Force to start creating partnerships and securing grant money to fund smart corridor initiatives.
"[Gov. Napolitano] expressed a desire to make the Arizona segment of the CANAMEX Corridor a smart corridor, thereby improving the lives of those living within the corridor's rural communities and those traveling through it," said Galen Updike, telecommunications development manager for Arizona's Government Information Technology Agency (GITA). "How the vision of a smart corridor was to be fulfilled was left open, and given to the CANAMEX Task Force to solve."
The task force consists of community members who live along the state's southern border with Mexico, and representatives from GITA and the state's departments of Commerce and Transportation. The Arizona Telecommunications and Information Council (ATIC), a nonprofit organization promoting the use of broadband throughout Arizona, also joined the task force.
In May 2004, the Department of Homeland Security's Information Technology and Evaluation Program (ITEP) announced a grant competition to focus on using IT to improve information sharing and integration, especially among first responders.
The ATIC and GITA applied for a grant to test deployment of a Wi-Fi network along one portion of the CANAMEX Corridor to serve first responders with voice and data transmission.
Last fall, the ITEP awarded the Arizona Division of Emergency Management (ADEM) $499,821 to test the Wi-Fi network. Updike said the ITEP generally disburses grants to agencies that are familiar with the DHS' administrative processes, so ADEM will administer the grant money, while GITA will oversee the project and ATIC will implement it.
Test Run
With the help of private-sector partners WI-VOD and RoamAD, the state is conducting a nine-month, proof-of-concept pilot to Wi-Fi-enable a 30-mile stretch of highway from Green Valley in Pima County to Rio Rico in Santa Cruz County.
Allan Meiusi, chief solutions architect of WI-VOD, said the main goal was to provide high bandwidth, user prioritization and proof that Wi-Fi can play an extremely important role in delivering voice and data service cost-effectively.
"We are deploying a string of highly robust municipal networks that are intertwined by an enhanced network management solution to provide a coverage area that can continue to expand as the user base grows and their demand, as well as their usage of the infrastructure, matures," Meiusi said.
To stand a chance at receiving the funds for the project, the grant had to include security guidelines. The groups generalized other successful jurisdictions' uses of secure Wi-Fi, such as that of Graham County, Ariz., which deployed the technology to its departments. As the CANAMEX project gets under way, the groups will define security requirements, said Oris Friesen, ATIC project coordinator. Specifics include the use of encryption and virtual private networks.
WI-VOD deployed a demonstration network at the end of January, and Meiusi said participants were satisfied with the results.
"When we successfully maintained a VoIP conference call with one of the participants moving in excess of 75 miles per hour, we definitely knew we had something," he said, explaining that the companies hoped to deploy 32 miles of continuous Wi-Fi coverage along I-19, one stretch of the CANAMEX corridor in Arizona, by the end of April.
During the pilot, first responders will work closely with WI-VOD to integrate applications for use on the Wi-Fi network, said Friesen, rather than over the current cellular or radio frequency links in use.
Integral to the pilot's success is solving what ATIC calls the "middle mile" problem, Friesen explained, or the link required to connect an ISP operating in a rural area to an Internet backbone provider.
"In our case, the middle mile is the linkage between the access point antennas and the Internet," he said. "An area around each vehicle will act as an access point, so for example, a laptop computer within the vehicle could be removed and used to access the Internet from a location near the vehicle."
Friesen added that vehicles will be used in their normal course of duty, and while in the corridor, they will have access to Internet-based communications.
Because this is a proof-of-concept project, Meiusi said, one key goal is gathering evidence and learning as they develop and roll out the best infrastructure. The companies are devising ideas to "daisy chain" bandwidth to overcome geographic challenges, such as undulations, which he said would cause vehicles to lose signals in coverage shadows.
"Engineering around those hills, in between the north and southbound lanes of the highway, takes more resources and deserves extra attention in the placement of nodes."
Another challenge inherent in the project was maintaining a high-speed connection for those driving in excess of 70 miles per hour.
"The challenge is really mapping out how each node talks to each other and how you route the links back to the primary backhaul," Meiusi said. "Technically we have a good antenna and access point mixture and a target range of 1-4 Mbps throughput while any vehicle is on the highway. As coverage expands, we should be able to get those same results throughout our coverage area."
Something for Everybody
The plan is to use existing public and private facilities to mount the equipment, though Meiusi is uncertain as to the final number of towers they will eventually establish. The reason for the uncertainty, said Meiusi, is because the vendors and agencies will continue to build coverage areas so segments of the population besides first responders will benefit from the connection.
The business model outlined in the grant, he elaborated, illustrates that extending the footprint from the Pilot Travel Center in Rio Rico can potentially serve thousands of people with properly placed 30-foot antenna towers or roof-mounted units that have line of sight with the primary backhaul.
"Currently we are looking at eight to 12 locations that will need build-outs so we can provide the coverage and connectivity we want to deliver to those end-users," he said.
As a result, schools, private businesses and Santa Cruz County residents along the highway will have access to the Wi-Fi network. More than two-thirds of Santa Cruz County's schools are situated less than half a mile off I-19, Friesen said.
WI-VOD has already discussed providing services to two school boards in the initial coverage area, and plans to look at extending beyond the "grant" area as school requirements are assessed. To address these other segments, Friesen said the lateral reach of the signal varies with the terrain.
"But it averages roughly one-half mile on either side of the highway," he said. "In a few segments, WI-VOD has seen its technology reach other antennas two and a half miles away."
Wait and See
Under the grant terms, funding will last until April 2006, at which point all parties involved hope they can depend on the enthusiasm of local communities to contribute to the connection's sustenance.
"We hope to engage the local community to a degree where various needs can be provided at a reasonable cost. Possibilities might include advanced applications that use secure interagency communication in times of emergency, such as a broadband link to telemedicine and mobile EMT facilities," said Friesen. "Other examples might include the possibility for local developers to get in on the ground floor of an innovative model for rural broadband. The understanding of what the network can provide continues to grow with groups in the area. As they model their expectations and their patterns around this new connectivity, it seems their enthusiasm continues to grow."
Local developers will also have the opportunity to get involved at the ground level to devise models for rural broadband, he added.
"There will be a variety of competitive service levels, ranging from lower throughput up to the high throughput required for business services," he said. "WI-VOD plans to provide specialized bandwidth services for specific requirements that will be priced on an individual case basis."
He does, however, envision the service cost to be similar to what residents of large municipalities enjoy.
Because a major beneficiary of the access will be first responders, they will play an important role in the service's success. The feedback they provide will help continue to develop applications specific to their needs.
"After the grant period is over, it will be up to the first responders to assess the value of their experiences and the capability of the network to service their requirements," Friesen said.
Whatever the project's outcome, a clear reason for Wi-Fi on the highway has been outlined for all of the parties involved. The infrastructure works, making rural highways just a little safer by improving the communication capabilities of those who travel them.
