Integrator Provides Hospital With Wireless 200 Mbps Connection

Aside from security, bandwidth is a common stumbling block with hospitals investigating the pros and cons of a wireless LAN (WLAN). Even the 54 Mbps (megabits per second) an 802.11a WLAN offers can be insufficient for transmitting high-bandwidth files such as CAT scans and X rays.

Global Technologies Resources, Inc. (GTRI) (Denver) is a networking integrator with extensive experience with licensed and unlicensed WLANs. In 2002, GTRI became involved with a hospital project that required 200 Mbps of bandwidth using a licensed network.

The client, a 1,000-bed hospital, has four buildings on its campus, one of which had just been built in July 2002. During the same time period, GTRI's President Greg Byles called the hospital's IT director to follow up about some past networking projects GTRI had completed for the hospital. Instead, he discovered the hospital was looking for a way to network its new building with another building on campus. "The hospital was using T1 lines for its network," explained Byles. "However, they didn't have the ability to run applications across the network; they were only transferring data back and forth. They needed a high-bandwidth network for mission-critical applications such as heart monitoring as well as for transmitting X-rays and CAT scans."

No More Cut Network Cable
In addition to high bandwidth, the hospital was looking for a more reliable network connection. Since there was frequently construction occuring somewhere on the hospital's campus, the existing T1 lines had been accidentally cut several times. "The hospital had experienced a lot of network downtime in 2001," Byles said.

To achieve the desired bandwidth, the hospital was considering having the local telecommunications provider install numerous OC (optical carrier) lines. This type of network infrastructure came with a price tag in the $15,000 per month range. Instead, Byles recommended a licensed wireless, point-to-point, fully duplexed network solution.

A Converged Data And Voice Solution
After three months of budgetary discussions, the hospital approved GTRI's plan. In October 2002, GTRI contacted wireless networking distributor TESSCO Technologies, Inc. (Hunt Valley, MD) for product technical support and assistance in choosing the equipment for this project. The final solution consisted of the following:

• 10 Western Multiplex (now Proxim) (Sunnyvale, CA) 23 GHz licensed radios
• 10 TriPoint Global (Scarborough, ME) Gabriel antennas
• Two RAD Data Communications (Tel Aviv, Israel) multiplexers (MUXs)
• Times Microwave Systems (Wallingford, CT) cabling, connectors, and grounding kits

Five radios and antennas were installed on each of the hospital's two buildings to provide the bandwidth and redundancy required for such a network. The radios connected to a MUX on each end. (Security was provided by the existing firewalls and intrusion detection software GTRI had sold the hospital before this project.) In addition, GTRI configured the network to transmit voice data. "Probably the most challenging aspect of the job was peeling off the T1 lines to accommodate the voice data. We used the MUX technology to turn part of those data lines into voice lines by integrating with the hospital's PBX [private branch exchange]," Byles said.

With voice and analog data converged on one network, the hospital was able to eliminate most of its traditional phone lines. However, some lines were kept for redundancy and fail over functionality.

Offer 200 Mbps Throughput
"When I proposed the project, I told the IT director our solution would provide 200 Mbps with 99.999% reliability, which means the network will be down less than 10 minutes a year," Byles said. "Furthermore, with our solution, which cost $150,000, there would be no monthly bandwidth fee. That meant they would probably realize a payback in less than a year."

Byles said the success of this project has prompted the hospital to pursue similar projects with GTRI for connecting the other buildings on campus. However, these connections would probably be only 45 Mbps since they wouldn't be transmitting mission-critical data.