Meraki adds Wireless Multi Media (WMM) and 802.11e Quality of Service (QoS) standards for enhanced Voice and Video over WiFi

Meraki has recently released support for the Wireless Multi Media (WMM) and 802.11e Quality of Service (QoS) standards. These standards improve the performance of certain bandwidth intensive and latency sensitive applications over wireless networks.

WMM provides four different traffic classes: voice, video, best effort, and background. Devices (note that not ALL devices support WMM) that support WMM and request a higher level of service, such as WiFi handsets, will receive higher priority on Meraki network. The goal is of course to improve the overall performance of the network.

Meraki also supports WMM power save mode. Many mobile devices that support WiFi are prone to excessive battery drain. WMM power save improves on the standard 802.11 power save poll mode by allowing devices to “sleep” differently when they receive critical vs. non-critical packets. Devices that support WMM power save should experience extended battery life when used over a Meraki network.

To learn more about Meraki's new feature set, or to learn how to set up your own WiFi networks please feel to reach out to us!


Steve Amarante

Sky-Packets
www.sky-packets.com
sales@sky-packets.com
1+888.850.0245
Better living Through WiFi

The Time Has Come To Free New York City...San Francisco's Sunnydale Housing Community WiFi Deployment shows Us How...

Recently, Meraki announced its partnership with One Economy to bring wireless broadband access to low-income families around the world. Meraki products combined with One Economy's deployment, training, and educational services will help residents in low-income communities improve their lives.

One of bigger joint projects is the Sunnydale housing community in San Francisco. You can see a video of the Mayor of San Francisco (Gavin Newsom), One Economy Senior Vice President Dave McConnell, and Meraki CEO Sanjit Biswas announcing the start of WiFi service at the Sunnydale community:



I hope that the leaders in NYC are taking notice. We CAN provide ubiquitous WiFi in NYC. Co-op City in the Bronx, lefrak city in Queens, the need is there. Sky-Packets, Meraki, along with the Town of Babylon have set the tone...let's keep it moving.

WiFi as a means to offer Muni-"over the air" applications? Cablevision is banking on it.

A recent study conducted by the Dell 'Oro Group believes Cablevision's recent increase in subscribers is mostly attributed to the cable company's roll out of WiFi in its service area. Cablevision reported a more than 70% growth in subscribers during the fourth quarter. This equates to the largest growth for any cable operator in the US during that time period.

"Cablevision's Optimum WiFi service is rekindling interest in municipal WiFi applications among other large service providers," said Ben Kwan, who is analyst of wireless LAN research at Dell'Oro. "For this and other reasons, we believe municipal WiFi applications will become an increasingly important growth driver for the service provider mesh market in 2009."

The more free WiFi the better--but the key word here is Free. As it stands, Cablevision offers its Optimum WiFi service free to its subscribers only. It would be hard to reconcile in the minds of tax payers that tax dollars are going into supporting a private company in which the only way they are allowed to get "FREE" WiFi is to be a PAID subscriber. Outside of gaining more subs, Cablevision is hoping to "double dip" with the installed networks in order to provide services to the Muni's. The implications of having Muni-over the air applications running on a private networks would also imply that as the company goes, so does the municipality. A municipal WiFI should be about empowering the end-users and the muni becoming more independent of private sector.

The ideal solution would be to balance the use of the private sectors data networks (back hauls) and the public sectors implementation of SaaS solution like the one provided by Meraki Networks.

Steve Amarante
Sky-Packets
www.sky-packets.com
1+888.850.0245
Better living Through WiFi

Lessons From The San Francisco Video Surveillance Study

A study conducted by the UC Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society reveals that the surveillance cameras installed around San Francisco have
certain limitations and negative results. Specifically, in certain areas, the surveillance cameras failed to deter crime. There where some aspects that where overlook during the installation process that can and should be leveraged when installing Wi-Fi IPCAM:

1. Make sure the right department has access and controls the IP Cam. oddly enough, it’s not the SF Police Department in charge of the cameras in SF, rather, a cluster of agencies are overseeing the project. This leads to communications conflicts and diluted accountability.

2. Attorneys and police officers not trained to use the footage; You have the footage now what? Who owns it? Who does what with it? A plan on what to do with the footage should be in place before the IP-CAM are installed.

3. Poor quality of the video: SF video cameras are set to film only three to four frames per second (movies shoot between 25 to 30 frames per second); This leads to a question if the right quality is even available when footage is needed in say a court case.

The study is pretty detail and we have provided here for download!

Steve Amarante
Sky-Packets
www.sky-packets.com
1+888.850.0245
Better living Through WiFi

Could The Recession Rekindle Momentum and Need for Public Wi-Fi Networks?

Last night, as I flicked through channels trying to find something to watch on my over sized flat screen, I ran across a new NetZero commercial. Yes, that NetZero, of the dial-up kind. It seems that as the recession kicks into high gear, the need for alternate or legacy internet connectivity has revived, somewhat, those pesky ISP's Earthlink and NetZero. End-users consumers are either trading down from broadband to save money or delaying their move to high-speed services.

Last month, EarthLink began pitching "Connect for Less," an offering that pushes dial-up service for $7.95 a month, or about 25 cents a day. In December, NetZero introduced a $9.95-a-month plan. Both providers are marketing the offerings as a way to save money.

Historically, one of the obstacles in deploying Muni-WiFi networks has been public support. Amist the recessionary cloud perhaps there is a sliver lining. Although the efforts of EarthLink and NetZero reflects an economic down-turn, in the same breath the market for dial-up services is still declining. EarthLink's dial-up business lost 173,000 subscribers in the fourth quarter in 2008 , while NetZero lost 86,000 subscribers. With the new American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), the publics need of getting something a little quicker then dial-up, and the publics need to pay a little less to log on, this may be the right time to re-introduce or implement that Wi-Fi Mesh network.

There may never be a better time for Municipalities, Goverment Agencies and local Business District to gain public support (and funds) on WiFi deployments then now...

Steve Amarante
Sky-Packets
www.sky-packets.com
1+888.850.0245
Better living Through WiFi

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA)--Calling all Municipalities!!

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) will begin holding meetings beginning on 2 March 2009 to discuss the implementation of the Broadband Grant Programs under the Broadband Data Services Improvement Act and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA). A couple of interesting notes about today's meeting was that although creating and establishing "The pipe" is the major focus (that's to say getting people on line and using data) applications are not excluded. WiFi Meters, IPCAM (over WiFI), security applications, just to name a few, have a stake in the ARRA. It's important that as we build out WiFi networks, that they are build with the expectation of user growth and potential applications that can be used over the WiFi network.


Steve Amarante
Sky-Packets
www.sky-packets.com
1+888.850.0245
Better living Through WiFi

If Closing The Digital Divide & Increasing Broadband Penetration Is The Goal-- Should it Matter Who Installs WiFi?

A bill proposed out of Pennsylvania is out to make sure that the private sector (specifically Tier one Telcos and Cable companies ) would not allow local government to build out a Public WiFi network like the one being built in Babylon Long Island. It's all very dubious and fortunately past attempts to pass such a bill have failed. The interesting part is that often the public sector has no choice in the datalines (backhauls) available, thus the private sector is generally invovled either way. The NTIA is about to give grants to local governments and private entities (as well as non-profits) for broadband projects based on the Obama stimulus plan...Do you think that the telecom and cable incumbents want to see the public sector creating broadband options? Maybe, maybe not.


Steve Amarante
Sky-Packets
www.sky-packets.com
1+888.850.0245
Better living Through WiFi

McDonald's WiFi Deployment a Model for Municipalities?

A recent article in guardian discusses how offering free WiFi services increased customers "traction" at local McDonald's. The global recession, and peoples need to be connected plays a role for sure-but the availability (and affordability)is crucial. What if we could "Mesh" all McDonald's restaurants in the New York City area? Taken it a step further-What if municipalities can "Mesh" existing government/public own building and facilitates (i.e Public libraries, Schools, DVM office, etc)? Most of these facilitates already have some type of "backbone" or data pipe coming into the building. All that would be required is to strategically place the proper gateways and access points in designated areas. Something to think about....


Steve Amarante
Sky-Packets
www.sky-packets.com
1+888.850.0245
Better living Through WiFi

Affordable or Free WiFi...Why Not New York City?

Free Wifi in NYC? Maybe, maybe not. We have partnered with the folks at Wireless Harlem with the goal of bridging the digital divide. As we see in the video below, with the proper scalable hardware, planning, community involvement and yes,funding--"free" and or affordable WiFi can become a reality.




Steve Amarante
www.Sky-Packets.com
Better Living Through WiFi

Sky- Packets helps the Town Of Babylon Long Island Deploys New MR58 by Meraki, Inc

We of course where happy to be a part of one of Meraki's first MR 58 Deployment and grateful to both the Town of Babylon and it's constituents. Below is a reprint of the Press release posted by Meraki today:


Meraki Launches High-Performance Three-Radio 802.11n Access Point

New Rugged Device Designed to Provide Robust Wireless Connectivity Across Large Areas Quickly and Cost Effectively

SAN FRANCISCO — February 24, 2009 – Meraki, an award-winning hosted networking company, today launched the MR58, a powerful, next-generation three-radio 802.11n device. The weatherproof MR58 provides five times the capacity and speed of standard 802.11b/g wireless devices, delivers high bandwidth across multiple hops, supports long distance links, and is ideal for high-bandwidth content like voice and video. The rugged MR58 includes the premium networking features of Meraki’s cloud-based Hosted Services, such as centralized configuration, monitoring and security.

The Meraki MR58 provides wireless access for large outdoor networks across campuses, apartment complexes, hotels and resorts, and other large outdoor areas like cities and public spaces. It is less than half the cost of traditional wireless networks and can be deployed in a fraction of the time. In addition, the MR58 is well suited for indoor areas with high-bandwidth needs such as classrooms, convention centers, stadiums, student housing and manufacturing facilities.

“The Meraki MR58 is the ideal solution for those looking to build fast, strong and secure networks that cover large areas,” said Hans Robertson, vice president of product management at Meraki. “Also, unlike any other product in its class, the MR58 is actually easy to use and quick to deploy.”

Meraki’s technology is unlike any other wireless access technology currently available, and it significantly changes the economics of Internet connectivity. With powerful hardware and integrated hosted services, Meraki provides enterprise-level networking services to customers of any size. Meraki’s patented networking systems and technologies enable the rapid creation of better WiFi networks at lower cost. Today there are thousands of Meraki networks with millions of users across more than 130 countries.

Meraki MR58 Deployed at Babylon, NY
The Town of Babylon, NY is providing free wireless Internet service in all of its 38 town parks and beaches using Meraki MR58s. Authorized Meraki reseller and local network specialist Sky-Packets (a division of Corporate Biznis, Inc.) is leading the deployment, which will be completed in time for the summer season. The wireless network will serve 220,000 residents and their guests. Town Supervisor Steve Bellone said the first locations to receive Meraki MR58s are Tanner Park and Venetian Shores Park in Lindenhurst.

“Wireless coverage is a cost-effective amenity we can offer our community to make our public spaces even more valuable. In these economic times, we knew we had a real responsibility to our residents to make sure that we were getting the best system at the best price. Sky-Packets and Meraki were able to bring us a top-notch wireless network at less than half the cost of competitors’ solutions. Meraki’s hosted services make it simple enough for us to manage the network on our own,” Bellone said.

Pricing and additional details
The Meraki MR58 is sold in packages starting at $1,499. The unit is rugged and weatherproof for tough indoor and outdoor environments ranging from -4°F to 122°F (-20°C to 50°C) and can be mounted in a wide range of locations, including walls and poles. For additional information on the Meraki MR58, visit www.meraki.com/MR58.

About Meraki
Meraki is an award-winning provider of WiFi networking solutions. Meraki’s patented networking systems and cloud-based management services are fundamentally improving the quality, speed of deployment, and economics of providing high-speed wireless Internet access. Today there are thousands of Meraki-based networks with millions of users across more than 130 countries throughout the world. Meraki is located in San Francisco, California, and is funded in part by Sequoia Capital and Google. For more information, go to www.meraki.com.



Steve Amarante
Sky-Packets
Better living Through WiFi
www.sky-packets.com

Beyond just "Internet", Muni WiFi Can Help Reduce Water Cost by Steve Amarante

Often Muni WiFi is looked as a means to address the "Digital Divide" or perhaps as a means to improve communications among Muni-Employees. But in North Ridgeville, Ohio (pop. 28,000; 23 square miles)the municipalities is upgrading the water meters in homes and buildings to Wi-Fi enabled meters that allow the city to monitor how much water people are using. North Ridgeville plans to install 11,500 water meters. The project is said to costs between 2.5 - 3 million dollars. The city says that the new system will allow them to find leaks and cut down on tampering of meters. Residents will know in real time how much water they are consuming and take appropriate steps towards conservation. It would make sense to open up the network to the public(assuming the security protocol and bandwidth is there to share....)

Read more how Ridgeville is revamping its water meters.

Is Free Muni WiFi An Expecation From Residents?

A recent survey conducted by Devicescape, The Cloud and Trustive reveals that 84 percent of respondents want citywide WI-Fi and 91 percent expect Wi-Fi when they are traveling (i.e. when they are in airports, bus terminals, train stations and ferries).

Two other interesting figures from the survey: 56% are willing to pay for citywide Wi-Fi access as a utility like water, gas or electricity, although 79 percent believe that Wi-Fi should be free. Here are more interesting results from the survey and my analysis.

(1) Device most often used to connect to Wi-Fi when traveling:

35% iPhone
30% Laptop
20% Nokia phone
6% Windows Mobile for smartphones and other devices
3% Netbook (e.g. Asus EEEPC)
4% Other
1% Blackberry


(2) Where people use their 3G/Wi-Fi device:

66% Home
59% Hotel
56% Bar / restaurant / cafe
54% Airport
53% Work
37% Outdoors
29% Train station
16% While Driving
6% Petrol station

(3) What irritates you most when trying to connect to a Wi-Fi hotspot:

50% Complicated login screens
35% Complex payment procedures
37% Difficulty identifying which hotspots I can use
33% Poor quality of service
11% Poor tech support
24% All of the above

Esme Vos of www.muniwireless.com commented:

"It’s not surprising that the respondents hate complicated login screens more than anything else. Look at where they use Wi-Fi: it’s when they’re traveling (see #2 above). So imagine you are waiting in an airport or a train station. You click to join a Wi-Fi network and the first thing you see is a login screen that requires you to spend more time trying to log in than the time it would take you to check email or find an address on a map. This is what people get in many train stations in Europe, not to mention airports everywhere except where the airport has free Wi-Fi.

More than one-third cited the difficulty of finding hotspots to use. This happens when you are confronted with several Wi-Fi networks and you’re trying to figure out which one is the best connection (actually there is a company called WeFi that makes a software client you can download that finds the best Wi-Fi network for you — disclosure: I am on the advisory board of WeFi)"

Other results:

(4) The overwhelming majority of smartphone users (81%) prefer using Wi-Fi over 3G for browsing Web sites, downloading data, Google searches and sending e-mail.

(5) The most widely used application is email (84%), followed by Internet browsing activities such as reading news websites, blogs, using social networking sites (78%). The rest use Chat/IM/Skype (32%) but very few play online games (4%) or watch streaming video (14%).

(6) 86% of respondents want device manufacturers such as Nokia and Motorola to build Wi-Fi into their handsets and 82% of respondents want the mobile service provider to provide an overall 3G/Wi-Fi data package. 90% want their mobile service provider to allow them to roam between Wi-Fi and 3G networks.

(7) Skype which was chosen by 85% of the respondents as their preferred VOIP service, followed by Truphone (11%), Jahjah (2%), EQO (1%), and Defi (1%).

Who were the people surveyed?

38% come from the US, 28% from the UK and Europe (except Russia), Asia Pacific (7%), Japan (7%), Russia (4%) with the rest coming from Mexico, Canada, India, the Middle East, China, etc. The vast majority, over 90%, were male.

Age group:
3% 17 and under
15% 18 - 25
24% 26 - 34
32% 35 - 45
26% Above 45

What do they do? 14% are students, 21% own businesses or are consultants, contractors and freelancers. 10% report that their job requires them to travel frequently. 21% are engineers, programmers and other technical workers.


Clearly the demand is there...the question becomes: Is the local leadership (at the Muni level) there to gain the funding where required and build the community support?

Steve Amarante
www.sky-packets.com
Better Living Through WiFi

Why partner with Meraki?

I ran across this video clip in which Sanjit Biswas, CEO of Meraki, discusses the benefits of deploying Meraki equipment for wireless internet access in low income residents. Why partner with Meraki you ask? Simple. Meraki is changing the economics of internet access...





Steve Amarante
www.Sky-Packets.com
Better Living Through WiFi

Senate Trims Down Broadband Tax Breaks by Steve Amarante

The Senate last week fine-tuned the language in its proposed economic stimulus package, cutting $1.5 billion from the $9 billion proposed for broadband buildouts and clean-up some of the language to tighten up tax credits for all buildouts.

Under the original language, Telcos might have gotten a $1.6 billion tax break from a 20 percent tax credit for any investment in say 100 Mbps broadband service to any home.

Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., was the original proponent of the $9 billion broadband investment and proposed an amendment to significantly tighten the rules and increase the amount of tax credit. The new plan would only offer credits for broadband services to rural and unserved areas, with a 40 percent credit for 100 Mbps or better service and 30 percent for slower service of at least 5 Mbps. Wireless data services allowing downloads of 6 Mbps or better also get the 40 percent credit and 30 percent if they manage at least 3 Mbps.

One concerning part is that tax credits for Internet service to low-income areas have been eliminated too. The notion is that some operators were already planning on bringing broadband services to low-income neighborhoods. Read more on the NYT tech blog.