Siklu Communication Inc., the global market leader in millimeter-wave radios, today announced that its 60GHz and 70/80GHz wireless radios were deployed to enable gigabit wireless backhaul and to cost-effectively extend the town of Vail’s underground fiber infrastructure for communication and surveillance. 

One of the largest ski resorts in the world and a prime venue for concerts and music festivals, Vail, Colo., has almost 2 million visitors a year. Details such as security, capacity-rich Wi-Fi, and environmental aesthetics are of utmost importance, but also a tall order in this challenging geography with its advanced infrastructure. The town’s underground fiber optics connect the town buildings, facilities and surveillance cameras, and Ruckus Wireless access points deliver advanced, high-speed free Internet. 

Aspen Wireless sought a wireless solution to extend the reach of the municipal fiber network, as in many locations, terrain challenges made fiber laying a physical impossibility. The solution needed to provide copious amounts of bandwidth without congesting the Wi-Fi service. The town was also looking to add new megapixel cameras and to upgrade analog surveillance cameras to IP. 

“Who cares about 100’s of megabits when everyone wants Gigabit,” said Jim Selby, Aspen Wireless Technologies, Inc., when considering a solution for the town’s wireless POPs that are connected to a 10Gbps backbone. Selby selected Siklu’s mmWave radios to deliver interference-free Gbps to futureproof Wi-Fi and CCTV services, and enable speedy and foolproof recovery. Aspen Wireless deployed the links within days and were delighted with the ease and speed of installation “Siklu’s solution is just so easy to deploy,” added Selby.

With its diminished latency, and interference-free Gigabit capacity, Siklu backhauled the selected cameras; SurroundVideo®, cutting edge, multi-sensor panoramic cameras from Arecont Vision, and HD megapixel dome cameras from Axis Communications, to provide high resolution video surveillance. Aspen Wireless integrated the new cameras with Milestone’s Xprotect® Expert version VMS to create a reliable surveillance network ready to handle today’s and tomorrow’s challenges. 

Today, the Vail network utilizes 60, 70/80GHz frequencies for wireless backhaul, with the whole of the 2.4GHz and 5GHz spectrum free to service end-user Wi-Fi devices. The network reaches speeds and performance quality far beyond expectations. Wireless backhaul capacity has soared from 20-50Mbps to Gbps and the new cameras have improved video quality from low-rate standard resolution to multiple megapixels at 30fps. Ruckus ZoneFlex™ 7762 outdoor dual-band Wi-Fi access points and ZoneFlex 7782 Series carrier-class 3x3:3 2.4/5 GHz outdoor APs, featuring integrated antennas with patented BeamFlex™ technology for unprecedented performance in high-density, high-capacity applications, perform at top throughputs of over 100Mbps per end user device, while apps run without a snag.