Cisco Cisco Aironet 1522 Lightweight Outdoor Mesh Access Point 정보 가이드

EdTEch

mag.com | September/October 2009

September/October 2009 |

EdTEch

mag.com

Wireless

Watch

Marquette University extends video surveillance beyond

campus borders with a wireless system, and crime rates drop.

ith campus safety and

security a nationwide

concern following

incidents at several

universities, the Department of

Public Safety at Marquette University

in late 2006 decided to fortify

security beyond campus boundaries.

While officers routinely patrolled off-

campus neighborhoods in the areas

adjacent to the university’s location

near downtown Milwaukee, the DPS

electronic surveillance system did

not extend off-campus. Thus, instead

of a costly and inefficient strategy of

deploying more officers, DPS turned

to a wireless video surveillance

system to extend security coverage to

neighboring streets.

“Public Safety came up with the idea

for the wireless surveillance system

beyond campus. They were looking

for a force multiplier,” says Dan Smith,

Marquette’s senior director of IT serv-

ices. “Putting feet on the street is very

expensive, and they were looking for a

more cost-effective way to provide the

same, or better, level of service.”

Much of the infrastructure was

already in place. Marquette started of-

fering wireless network access in aca-

demic buildings and common areas to

its 11,000 students and 2,500 faculty

and staff in 2001. And since 2007, stu-

dents in the dorms have had wireless

access over a Cisco Unified Wireless

Network. The university has also used

surveillance cameras running over the

wired network for many years, with

hundreds installed to monitor both in-

terior and exterior spaces on campus.

But to extend the reach of DPS into

the community, the university needed

two things: a wireless mesh network

and its neighbors’ cooperation.

With the Unified Wireless Network

already in place, the IT department

decided to add a Cisco mesh net-

work solution, but only after the due

diligence of comparing it with the

offering of another manufacturer, says

Mary Simmons, director of security

and networks.

“We investigated another solution,

but it was very proprietary, and we

shied away from it because of that,”

she says.

Smith says that he and others

involved in the decision also selected

Cisco because they thought the ven-

dor’s technology would offer better

end-to-end control over quality of

service and more easily let them give

video priority across the network.

Community Cooperation

It was relatively easy to persuade

Marquette’s neighbors to let the uni-

versity set up cameras on their prop-

erty as part of a system that beefs up

security in the community, says Smith.

“In most cases, the community is

pleased to do it, and they’re actually

providing the power for [the camer-

as],” he says. “They now have security

cameras up out-

side their property

that Public Safety

is watching for

them.”

At present, the

outdoor wireless

grid supports

12 surveillance

cameras mounted on commercial

and residential buildings at important

locations near the university, Smith

says. Fifteen Cisco Aironet 1520

Series lightweight outdoor mesh ac-

cess points, along with Cisco Catalyst

6500 wireless service modules that

enable centralized control, were in-

stalled on the periphery of the

Marquette campus. They provide

the wireless connectivity needed

to transmit operating instructions to

and video data from the cameras.

According to Simmons, the only

glitch in the implementation oc-

curred when older model access

points originally purchased for the

outdoor wireless system proved un-

suitable to Marquette’s needs.

“The first outdoor access points

that we used were really not made

for the environment that we had,”

Simmons says. “But we replaced them

with the newer outdoor access points,

and they seem to be working just fine.

Both CDW•G and Cisco were willing

and ready to jump in and work on all

problems that we encountered.”

Public Safety staff monitor the

real-time video from the outdoor

wireless installations, along with

the data from more than 400 other

campus surveillance cameras, on a

video wall at the department’s

Command Information Center,

says Lt. Brian Joschko, DPS support

services coordinator. Video from the

cameras is stored for about 30 days

on a network digital-video recorder,

unless it records a crime or other-

wise represents evidence, in which

case the data is shared with local law

enforcement officials and burned to

permanent storage media.

While signals between the mesh

access points and cameras travel over

the 2.4-gigahertz network, video from

the access points is backhauled over a

5GHz link to root access points con-

nected to Ethernet ports inside cam-

pus buildings. The result is that video

from the off-campus surveillance

cameras is available over Marquette’s

Cisco Unified Wireless Network.

One important piece of the wireless

initiative was extremely low-tech. To

maximize deterrence, the university

posted signs in the area around the

campus that read: “You are under vid-

eo surveillance.” The signs are part of a

focus on preventing crime or stopping

it in progress, rather than catching

criminals after the fact, Joschko says.

“Absolutely, our goal is to use

these [cameras] as proactive tools

— to catch people looking into car

case study

By Tommy PeTerson

windows before they actually break

into them, and catch people who are

hanging out on street corners with

their hoods up,” Joschko says. “Once

we identify those people, we send

officers out to get involved before a

criminal act occurs.”

Promising Results

With more cameras planned for

installation in the future, results from

the outdoor wireless surveillance

program are promising, says Joschko.

Total incidents were down 17 percent

in the first quarter of 2009, compared

with the first quarter of 2008. In the

same period, robberies dropped from

10 in 2008 to just three this year, and

personal crimes (robberies, sexual

assaults and battery) were down from

17 last year to seven this year.

Marquette is in the vanguard of a

growing number of mostly urban

colleges that are pushing their sur-

veillance capabilities out to the com-

munities around their campuses, says

security consultant and analyst Jim

Webster, president of Security Design

Services in Estell Manor, N.J. The

trend began with programs to beef up

5 Reasons

foR outdooR

suRveillance

1. A well-publicized surveillance

program deters crime.

2. A real-time wireless surveillance

system helps public-safety staff stop

crimes in progress, and surveillance

videos can be used to identify and

apprehend perpetrators after the fact.

3. The program improves

relationships with neighbors,

who reap the benefits

of increased safety in

the community.
4. Outdoor surveillance

technology leads to more

effective allocation of the public

safety department’s financial and

human resources.

5. The system offers safety

assurances to current and

prospective students, as well as

their parents.

Los Angeles police reported

40%

drop in crime the year after

the installation of a well-publicized

wireless video surveillance

system at Jordan Downs public

housing project.

souRce:

Los Angeles Police Department

LT. BriAn JOschkO says

the goal of the wireless

surveillance system is to

catch people before they

break into apartments,

stores or cars.

MAry siMMOns and DAn sMiTh say crime
rates are down on the Marquette campus in
Milwaukee thanks to the school’s outdoor
wireless surveillance system.

y J