Applications
Mobility
The fast pace of life today keeps us constantly on the move - commuting daily, traveling frequently, and engaging others in-person throughout our communities. Wireless communications have helped to sever the ties to our office, enabling us to access the public Internet and corporate intranets via a growing number of Wi-Fi HotSpots and wireless municipal networks.
These Wi-Fi networks combine the best of several wireless worlds for municipalities that host them, delivering broadband data rates, affordability of Wi-Fi mesh, and the seamless roaming of cellular communications to enable mobile Wi-Fi connectivity for users anywhere, anytime. Wi-Fi mobility adds high-speed roaming access to public Internet services in public transportation systems such as commuter trains, subways and buses. It also provides public safety officials and public works staff with powerful mobile multimedia communications while they protect and serve the community.
Today's mobile Wi-Fi networks are really HotZones, aggregates of HotSpot "cells" that support seamless roaming throughout a neighborhood or metropolitan region, or extend along a transportation corridor such as a railway, major thoroughfare, or harbor.
SkyPilot's SyncMesh solution makes it possible and cost-effective to deploy roaming Wi-Fi services among a large network of HotSpots. With a wireless mesh that is self-forming and self-healing, service providers and municipalities can quickly and easily install a HotZone over a common SkyPilot infrastructure, without having to deploy and manage separate 3rd party access points. SyncMesh architecture allows for multiple wireless paths, allowing the network to overcome obstacles, expand readily into new territory, and deliver mission-critical reliability. Once ubiquitous and contiguous Wi-Fi coverage is in place, wireless mobility routers installed in agency vehicles are able to roam automatically throughout the SkyPilot HotZone coverage area, with roaming handoffs able to accommodate freeway speeds.
The result is constant connectivity that is secure, reliable, and able to accommodate the voice over Wi-Fi (or VoFi) transitions of dual-mode phones as they migrate between traditional cellular services and Wi-Fi HotZones. When involving moving vehicles for first responders and public transit, a rugged mobility router can be mounted to serve as a multi-user gateway for a "vehicle area network" or VAN, in effect, creating a mobile HotSpot in and around the vehicle. Multiple mobility routers can create an extended HotSpot throughout a multi-car commuter train, allowing occupants to enjoy uninterrupted roaming without the need for special mobility software.
SkyPilot partners with best-in-class vendors who specialize in Wi-Fi mobility including wireless mobility routers and the backend application software needed for mobility management and accounting. Solutions can be tailored to specific needs. In all cases, wireless mobility routers are purpose-built for the task with the ability to utilize available power sources and environments, and specific features of the SkyPilot SyncMesh solution help optimize mobile performance. For example, the mesh can be configured to support different scanning techniques, authentication methods, and persistent IP addressing schemes of wireless mobility routers. All access points can share channel, SSID, and pre-shared keys to accelerate handoffs without compromising security, even while the vehicle is in motion at speeds up to 60 mph (100 kph).