Case Studies

The Mid-Western Regional Council and the Port Macquarie–Hastings Council both have widely dispersed networked offices. They were both using unlicensed free-to-air channels in the 1990s and early 2000s when the use of telecommunications and radiocommunications equipment exploded, rendering the channels unsatisfactory – overcrowding in the band caused interference and drop-out.

Mid-Western Regional Council

When the free-to-air network proved unreliable Andrew Sutherland, now IT Manager, Mid-Western Regional Council, needed an alternative for the Mudgee Council’s (as it then was) network linking Mudgee, Gulgong and other sites.

The local telecommunications provider could only offer very slow speeds (512 kb) at a cost the council could not afford. They could not guarantee reliability and offered maintenance as repair, not prevention or monitoring.

The solution came through John Adams of Systems and Wireless, working with EM Solutions.

The unlicensed links were replaced with licensed links, and the Mudgee to Gulgong link was the first to use an EtherMux-PTP Link giving 100 Mb up and back (even today the local teleco today offers 2 Mb up and back). Mid-Western Regional Council now has nine links, and there are plans to install at least one more.

When the Mudgee and Rylstone councils amalgamated about five years ago, their two systems needed to merge. Kandos and Rylstone were still using UHF radio, but couldn’t hear the Mudgee channels, and the ADSL network connection between Mudgee and Rylstone dropped out and was too slow. They haven’t had a problem since Rylstone was linked to the Mudgee office using the links.

The wide area network connects Mudgee with branch offices and depots. For example, the operator in Gulgong can monitor water systems at Kandos, and the Mudgee office can monitors the Gulgong office using the security system’s video surveillance system.

The council has recently started using the network for voice traffic, although not traditional VoIP. Radio repeaters ‘talk’ using networking via the EM Solutions links.

The network’s reliability, more than 99.9%, is a major contributor to its effectiveness.

Port Macquarie-Hastings Council

Tyron Barker, IT Support Officer at Port Macquarie-Hastings Council, has also installed EtherMux-PTP Links to implement a wide area network, 100 Mb up and back, for voice and data communications.

They had the same problem using free-to-air radio units operating in a smaller bandwidth without a dedicated channel.

The council started to install EM Solutions links about four years ago, building a network that supports all corporate data, including VoIP at the Port Macquarie office, but not yet with other infrastructure such as the water system.

The maintenance agreement through Systems and Wireless with EM Solutions has worked well. A few early networking issues were fixed, and the monitoring picks up problems which are also fixed, often before Barker is aware of them. Any problems covered by warranty are fixed the next day.

FUTURE

Extra capacity was built in to the Mid-Western Regional Council network at installation and there are plans to use this capacity in the following ways.

• Adding VoIP telephony. Trials are planned for later in 2009, and full implementation early in 2010.
• Linking the water and sewerage systems so they can be operated and monitored from one location. This way, if one water system goes down one of the others can take over.
• Working with the Rural Fire Service to monitor fires using surveillance cameras.
• Disaster recovery and security.

Port Macquarie-Hastings Council are looking at adding another link, this time to Wauchope, in two paths of 25 km and 14 km. Barker considers that the existing capacity is sufficient for the immediate future.

Benefits

Both councils’ long distance links save them money, the good bandwidth includes the redundancy they require and it is guaranteed (should another operator try to use it, they would have to answer to the Australian Communications and Media Authority). The system is robust – both councils have links extending as far as 28 km.

They are enthusiastic about the maintenance and support agreements with Systems and Wireless and EM Solutions, regarding their service and support as invaluable. The online monitoring means problems are often repaired and operational again before the client is aware there was a problem. The support and maintenance agreements extends the warranties and, according to Sutherland, this has been a godsend.

The councils’ systems have a built-in design life of about five years, and the links are replaced in 10 years, giving the councils some certainty for their outgoings over that time.

Adams considers preventative maintenance to be important in regional Australia: long distances, poor infrastructure, poor power supply and archaic towers all conspire to challenge suppliers, not to mention whirlwinds and regular lightning strikes.