Cutting the Camera Cord
Broadband Wireless Networks Ease Video Security Deployments
By Khali Henderson

IK-WB11A, Toshiba’s indoor/outdoor wireless network cameras.

IP VIDEO and fixed broadband wireless network technologies are combining to bring lower cost and quicker deployment to video surveillance. While microwave radios have been used for years to provide point-to-point connections over untrenchable terrain, free spectrum and multipoint radios are making wireless economically and operationally feasible in a greater range of deployments.

Unlicensed spectrum, particularly in the 2.4GHz and 5.8GHz radio frequency bands, is being targeted by vendors and service providers to support wireless data applications such as video transmission. Unlike nonscalable point-to-point systems, today’s broadband wireless access system support multiple devices from a single access point into the Internet or private IP backbone. One IP radio, also called an access point (AP), can support many client devices, such as RF-equipped cameras. The AP connects to the network via standard Ethernet CAT5 cable. RF nodes also are available that serve the dual roles of access point for clients (cameras or remote-viewing devices such as PDAs or laptops) and transport link between nodes, thus forming a mesh network.

iQinVision’s iQeye3W Wireless Smart Camera System

Mesh networks are self-configuring and self-healing, and only one node requires a physical connection back to the data network, thus easing and lowering the cost of deployment.

While proprietary broadband wireless access systems exist, the telecom and data communications industries are circling around a few standards, such as IEEE’s 802.11 (also known as Wireless Fidelity or Wi-Fi), which is designed for use in the LAN.) This standard allows for interoperability of network and client equipment from various vendors, lowering the total cost of ownership for a system that can be built mostly from plug-and-play hardware.

Panasonic’s new IP camera is wireless compatible.

In fact, many wireless video camera systems, particularly those for consumer and SOHO applications, are using the 802.11b or 802.11g standards, which support bandwidth speeds of 11mbps and 54mbps respectively, in the 2.4GHz range.

IQinVision’s iQeye3W Wireless Smart Camera System (left), for example, is a wireless version of its smart IP camera equipped with a card slot for off-the-shelf wireless network interface cards (NICs) supporting 802.11b. Hutton Communications Inc., a distributor of wireless communications equipment, is using the iQeye3W as part of a wireless surveillance solution that also uses Proxim Corp.’s Tsunami MP.11 802.11-based radio and existing power in buildings or light poles.A version with battery backup and another dubbed SolaCam (pictured below) powered by solar energy are available, offering customers options to deploy camera systems to outlying or temporary settings.

The ComCam 10BNC microserver with Wi-Fi NIC slot.

ComCam Inc. makes a microserver that converts signals from any analog camera, including its own models, into digital ones (pictured at right).

It offers the option of connecting to the internet or private network using a Wi-Fi NIC plugged into the back of the unit.

Panasonic’s high-resolution IP cameras, such as the WVNP472 (pictured below) are being used in deployments with 802.11b Aironet 350 Series Wireless Bridges from Cisco Systems Inc. in campus environments, says Steve Surfaro, senior manager of sales engineering for Panasonic.

The bridges can connect buildings up to 25 miles apart. “The key consideration is maintaining quality of service,” Surfaro says. “[With wireless] there may be interference or bandwidth limitations, but typically long-range systems [like Cisco’s] are robust.”

Hutton’s wireless SolaCam uses Proxim’s APs and iQinVision’s IP cameras.

Toshiba America information Systems Inc. also is making 802.11b-compatible cameras in the new IK-WB11A (pictured top left) and IK-WB01A models released last year. 802.11g-compatible units are expected to be available early next year. Toshiba’s Joe Cook says wireless security video is gaining momentum as more people come to understand the technology. He says the push now is from systems integrators familiar with data networking — not from the traditional CCTV installers. “Wireless video security is finding homes where they already have installed wireless data networks. The wireless is already there. They just put the cameras up and partition the bandwidth for security,” he says, noting this is part of a shift from having separate security and IT groups that has started in the past six months.

The traditional security industry has been slow to warm up to the use of broadband wireless and lends its endorsement for select scenarios — like parking lots, remote areas or temporary needs — where running copper, fiber or coax is impossible or prohibitively expensive.

The 2002 Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, for example, was the first deployment for IQinVision’s iQeye3W. While the option has been available since July 2002, IQinVision’s Rick Davitt admits it is not flying off the shelf. “It’s not driving the business, but it helps with odd customer require says, speaking in an interview at ISC West in Las Vegas this spring.

“There is a tremendous amount of disinformation about IP network technology, and that extends to wireless (FUD),” he says. “There is fear, uncertainty and doubt.” This socalled “FUD” is concentrated on perceived vulnerabilities in transmitting data over the air.

Davitt says it’s a common misconception that because Wi-Fi networks use spectrum that is free and open, they’re not secure. Encryption standards make such networks “reasonably unhackable,” he says. He explains the iQeye3W is programmed to allow access only from designated IP addresses associated with devices for viewing or management.

Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA), which incorporates 128-bit encryption key and dynamic session keys with access controls and user authentication, is supplanting commonly used WEP, or Wired Equivalency Privacy. The Wi-Fi Alliance and the IEEE 802.11 standards committee also are working to develop new security standards such as 802.11i and 802.1x that use advanced encryption technologies such as Advanced Encryption Standard and Temporal Key Integrity Protocol.

Security integrator Steve Dunn, CEO of STRON, says wireless network security has been a concern among his clients. Even if they agree to use it for the video surveillance system, they are reluctant to link into the wired LAN they use for corporate applications and have requested S-TRON build a separate network just for the security system.

To overcome some objections, vendors also offer an alternative to 802.11 with extra security protocols. ComCam, for example, has partnered with Wave Wireless Networking, which makes broadband wireless access systems that comply with the government’s AES. Instead of plugging the Wi-Fi card into the analog-digital signal converter, an Ethernet cable is used to connect to an antenna for transmission to the base station radio. The combination of the ComCam cameras, microserver and IP radios is packaged within a lighting pole from Beacon Products Inc. to create the Wireless Camera Surveillance System (WCSS) (pictured above).

Beacon Product’s Wireless Camera Surveillance System

Don Gilbreath, ComCam’s CEO, says he uses 802.11b with no trouble for many applications, but commercial and government accounts often want something “more robust.” Panasonic’s Surfaro says his company’s IP cameras and DVRs often are paired with Motorola Canopy technology, a proprietary system that runs over 5.2GHz, 5.7GHz, and most recently, 2.4GHz. Canopy uses over-theair Data Encryption Standard encryption that provides 56/64bit encryption and in some places AES. The East Bay Municipal Utility District, headquartered in Oakland, Calif., is using Motorola’s Canopy to monitor data at its pumping plants, reservoirs, dams, water treatment plants and other sites.

Once venues are assured of the security of the network, they can appreciate other advantages of wireless networked video security. Chief among these is avoided costs for cabling and installation. Integrator Dunn estimates, based on a conservative configuration, wireless represents a 50 percent cost savings. S-TRON is running four cameras per subscriber module and four subscriber modules per AP.

Panasonic’s Surfaro says wireless video without Ethernet is limited to point-to-point, which requires a transmitter and receiver with every camera. In addition to being expensive, he says that makes it difficult to distribute video from the source. “You have to bring it back to the control room and feed the signals back out,” he says. In contrast, with IP cameras equipped with RF, the video can be transmitted to remote handhelds or laptops in the field. “IP cameras will be able to transmit to a 360-degree cell site,” he says, enabling roving guards to see and respond to alarms in a more timely and informed manner.