Ruckus Wireless and Xtivity Solutions Team on Large-Scale Video Surveillance Project for One of Nation's Largest Housing Authorities

SUNNYVALE, Calif., March 21, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Ruckus Wireless™ (www.ruckuswireless.com) today announced that it has teamed with Xtivity Solutions (Xtivity), a leading wireless integration, security, and information technology services firm, to provide high-speed, long-range Wi-Fi systems to the Chicago Housing Authority (CHA), one of the nation's largest public housing authorities.

Currently in the first phase of an aggressive Wi-Fi project, the engineers at Xtivity Solutions have designed a sophisticated outdoor network using high-speed 802.11n Wi-Fi bridges from Ruckus Wireless at select CHA locations. The Smart Wi-Fi (http://www.ruckuswireless.com/products) bridges are being used to backhaul video surveillance files from the housing complexes to central sites where the video is stored and monitored.  In the Chicago area, CHA operates some 972 buildings in 59 different locations.

CHA was created in 1937 to own and operate housing that was built by the federal government under President Franklin Roosevelt's Public Works Administration, and is the largest owner of rental housing in the city of Chicago. CHA provides homes to more than 50,000 families and individuals while supporting healthy communities in neighborhoods all across the city, through almost 9,200 apartments in buildings designated for seniors and more than 8,600 units of family housing. It also oversees the administration of 36,900 Housing Choice vouchers that allow low-income families to rent in the private market.

"A number of recent advances that make Wi-Fi much faster and more reliable created a unique opportunity for us to deliver high-speed connectivity (http://www.ruckuswireless.com/products/zoneflex-indoor) and backhaul between different CHA facilities," said Terry Crowley, President and CEO for Xtivity. "Instead of physically trenching locations to install copper wire or fiber from one building to other nearby buildings, we're using 5GHz 802.11n Wi-Fi point-to-point bridges to deliver 100 Mbps or more of capacity, an approach that's much quicker and far less costly."

With the Ruckus Smart Wi-Fi, multiple IP video cameras at each building send compressed video traffic over the secured Wi-Fi link at data rates of 1.5 Mbps per stream. To manage the wireless bridges, Xtivity will be making use of the Ruckus FlexMaster Wi-Fi management (http://www.ruckuswireless.com/products/flexmaster) system. Capable of supporting tens of thousands of Wi-Fi infrastructure devices such as Wi-Fi access points and bridges, FlexMaster is a comprehensive and full-featured Wi-Fi platform for managing large-scale Wi-Fi service infrastructures.

"Long-range, reliable Wi-Fi bridging lets our customers eliminate monthly recurring costs associated with alternative solutions such as copper and fiber connections," said Crowley. "Over time, these savings can run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars when you're talking about large-scale deployments such as with CHA."

For many organizations, extending broadband communications links between different sites using satellite, microwave or fixed line access is often cost-prohibitive and time consuming to architect. New high-performance 802.11n point-to-point and point-to-multipoint bridges eliminate much of this cost and complexity. Lightweight, these 5GHz 802.11n bridges are a fraction of the cost of conventional technology and markedly easier to deploy.

According to Xtivity, the Ruckus Smart Wi-Fi deployment is the first phase of a larger vision that will ultimately include providing Wi-Fi access across CHA locations. "As one of the most forward-thinking housing authorities in the country, CHA has taken a very innovative view on the use of next generation Wi-Fi to enhance the operation of their facilities and to enable creative new services. Eventually, they'd like to use the Wi-Fi network to allow police cars to gain immediate and secure access over wireless to video surveillance data, as well as to bring broadband access to residents."

A Better Way to Backhaul

After extensive competitive testing, the Ruckus ZoneFlex 7731 system was selected by CHA system integrators to provide high-bandwidth backhaul capacity. Using the ZoneFlex 7731 Wi-Fi bridges, video surveillance traffic is now backhauled to a central CHA site where it is viewed and stored.

Weighing less than two lbs., the Ruckus ZoneFlex 7731 is a 5 GHz, 802.11n wireless bridging system designed for harsh environmental conditions (IP-65 rated).  Each device integrates a directional 14dBi antenna and supports speeds up to 190 Mbps over a one-mile distance and 50 Mbps at six miles with line of sight. Auto Channel Selection and Dynamic Channel Management allow the ZoneFlex 7731 to automatically choose the best performing RF channel to ensure the highest possible performance and reliability.

Auto-pairing of wireless bridges, in addition to flexible mounting options, forgiving antenna patterns, and easy-to-use aiming software, allows installers to deploy and optimize a wireless link in a short time, significantly increasing productivity and reducing deployment costs.

Ruckus Wireless can be found on Twitter at www.twitter.com/ruckuswireless and on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/ruckuswireless. The company's blog can be read at www.theruckusroom.net. Ruckus also has a YouTube channel at http://www.youtube.com/user/ruckuswireless.

About Ruckus Wireless, Inc.

Headquartered in Silicon Valley, Ruckus Wireless is supplier of advanced wireless systems for the mobile Internetworking market. The company markets and manufactures a wide range of indoor and outdoor "Smart Wi-Fi" products for mobile operators, broadband service providers and corporate enterprises around the world. Ranked as the top telecom company in the 2009 Inc. Magazine 500 list and named a World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer, Ruckus Wireless has realized dramatic growth. Since 2006, revenue and shipments have grown by over 1000 percent. Ruckus invented, and has patented, innovative state-of-the-art wireless technology that steers signals around obstacles and interference. This unique capability extends signal range and ensures consistent reliable distribution of delay-sensitive multimedia content and services over standard 802.11 Wi-Fi. The company has shipped over 2 million Smart Wi-Fi systems around the world and has raised $51 million in funding from premier investors such as Sequoia Capital, Focus Ventures, Sutter Hill, Motorola, T-Ventures, Telus Ventures and Firelake Capital. The company is led by Ms. Selina Lo, president and chief executive officer. For more information, visit Ruckus Wireless at http://www.ruckuswireless.com.

About Xtivity Solutions, LLC.

Xtivity Solutions, LLC (Xtivity) is a wireless integration, security, and information technology services firm based in Chicago, Illinois. Xtivity is at the forefront of designing, installing, and managing large, high-speed wireless, data and VoIP broadband networks that provide secure and reliable data to organizations across the United States. Cutting-edge expertise and proven engineering successes facilitate a turn-key approach to providing core technologies, which separates Xtivity from its competitors.  The community networks Xtivity designs and supports service the commercial, public and private sectors including municipalities, government agencies, Utilities, and the transportation industry. For more information, visit http://www.xtivitysolutions.com.

SOURCE Ruckus Wireless