CCRPF is a community of 17 towns and villages spread around the Charles de Gaulle airport north of Paris which covers an area of approximately 15 km. Although CCRPF has a low-density population of 54,000, there are many industrial sites within the community, with over 100,000 workers arriving every day. Because of its close proximity with the airport, there are also a large number of warehouses, freight areas, hotels and caravan parking lots within CCRPF.
The challenge
Due to the high density industrial sites as well as the large number of tourist locations, CCRPF is sensitive to crime and as a result they were the first community in France to receive approval from The Ministry of Interior to establish a communal police force, which acts as the general authority for the local police of each village within the community. CCRPF was looking for a way to increase the security and safety of the community while saving on IT and infrastructure costs. Furthermore, CCRPF required a cost-effective network that could overcome both the lack of modern communications infrastructure in the area and topology limitations.
The solution
In 2003, CCRPF decided to deploy a wireless video surveillance network and after issuing a public tender, they selected system integrator HUARD to build it using Alvarion products. The network included over 80 BreezeNET B point-to-point (PTP) links and several BreezeACCESS VL point-tomultipoint (PtMP) base stations. Due to budgetary constraints at that time, the video surveillance project was stopped, however CCRPF's IT department decided to utilize the network for their communication needs including replacing leased lines to connect the town halls, upgrading the PBX to support VoIP and centralizing operation and supervision of over 1000 work stations.
In 2008, the community received the funding they required for the video surveillance project, however local regulations required that the video surveillance project have its own dedicated network. CCRPF issued a new tender and once again, they selected system integrator HUARD to deploy the network using Alvarion's BreezeNET B and BreezeACCESS VL product lines. The BreezeNET B PTP links connect the town halls directly to police HQ using Mesh topology while BreezeACCESS VL PtMP sectors connect the village cameras to the network. The longest link in the network extends as far as 15 km and all the equipment feature AES-128 encryption mechanisms for enhanced security.
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| CCRPF deploys the network using Alvarion's BreezeNET B and BreezeACCESS VL product lines |
The result
In addition to a significant reduction in costs, increased efficiency and fast ROI enabled by Alvarion's initial network, the video surveillance network deployed in 2008 allows the police force to access files in real time and on-demand by retrieving information from a centralized data base while maintaining close control and monitoring within each village. Both networks coexist with one another with minimal interference and when CCRPF hired a team of hackers to try and infiltrate the network, the enhanced security capabilities featured in Alvarion's products prevented them from breaking in.
CCRPF has also installed a BreezeACCESS VL subscriber unit (SU) within a mobile police vehicle which enables police personnel to access real time information on-the-go. The vehicle features a VoIP connection for all telephony needs to prevent tapping and interference on police frequencies and in the future, CCRPF plans on expanding their fleet of patrol cars to include several of these mobile offices.
