CELLULAR SERVICES: CDMA for Big Brother

In the last couple of years, CDMA has played a major role in the Indian
telecom revolution. Apart from the growth in telecom subscribers across the
country, enhanced applications and services have played an important role in
this contribution. Most players in the market introduced a variety of new
services and built up a differentiated strategy and gained wide customer base,
even in the early stages of this technology being introduced in the country. And
their efforts were backed by the huge potential of the CDMA technology.

In the early stages of this technology, when the players chose to deploy the
CDMA 2000 1x networks, the expectation was that voice services would play a
dominant role. But these networks, with their ability for providing a wide range
of broadband data services, also had the capability of smoothening the path
towards 3G services. This feature made the CDMA2000 1x a favorite with the
service providers.

Some data services that are likely to play major roles are real-time video
and audio conferencing. These services have a big potential in the near future.
Video mobile surveillance for the police deparatment is one such application
that may have big potential in the Indian context. CDMA technology can fulfill
the surveillance requirements of the police department not only on the basis of
technical requirements, but also as far as their budget goes.

Mobile video surveillance can be done over a CDMA network. Live video is streamed to a control-room from either a moving or a stationary remote observation pointÂ

Mobile video surveillance through a CDMA network aims at streaming live video
to the predestined control end from either a moving or a stationary remote
observation point over the wireless network. The remote end is a specially
designed vehicle that is equipped with the required hardware and the necessary
power supply along with the transmitting devices. The central control room,
where the monitoring is performed, is equipped with receiving devices along with
the required software. The over-the-air service provisioning is engineered on a
3G CDMA network.

Setting It Up

n Phase 1: Central Side

A leased line of 2 Mb is extended from the public data service network (PDSN)
to a computer on the customer's premises, using leased-line modems and Ethernet
converters.

The system works with the network interface unit (NIU)
dialing a specified number on the PDSN network and the router getting an IP
static from the PDSN, thereby establishing the data connection. In the case of
mobile video surveillance, data collected from the camera gets on the customer
device (PC) and then converts into IP and transports to the central side.

nPhase 2: On
the Vehicle (Remote End)

• 3G NIU is used with data enabled and incoming barred

• The RS232 port of the NIU connects to the router

• Ethernet port of the router is connected to the device
  which is connected to the camera

The remote end is a moving vehicle, which is equipped with
cameras mounted over a hydraulic motor lift. The lift can be elevated to a
height of 20 feet. The camera captures live pictures and transmits them to a
video crunch transmission unit (VCTU), which further process the received data
from the camera and transmits them to the control room end. The VCTU can
simultaneously process images from four quad cameras, which are connected to it.

VCTUs can also be designed to be used for streaming the
captured live video as well as the audio, simultaneously. The vehicle end
includes all the necessary power supplies, which are specially designed to
exacting specifications. The remote vehicle includes an I-access router and a
CDMA NIU for routing streamed images to the control end.

Transmitting the Data

Images captured at the remote moving end are transmitted wirelessly through
a CDMA NIU. Leased-line connectivity, from the main switching center to a DCP's
office, builds up the private network between central sides and the remote end.
CDMA technology, along with cooperative engineering from service providers,
enhances live transmission to provide clear video at high speeds . The wireless
media also provides the prerequisite security to avoid unauthorized intruders in
the system. Speeds at which the transmission is carried on are 86.8 kbps at 9.6
baud.

Control Room End

A control room equips the CDMA phone, which is connected to the computer
running the VCTU software. The

software has provision for storing the captured imagesand retrieving data at a
later stage. Connectivity to remote end can also be accomplished from the
control room itself.

Already service providers in the country are exploiting the
potential of CDMA to offer innovative services like this mobile video
surveillance that we have seen. The day is not far when CDMA networks would be
able to offer applications that are full-fledged 3G. The Indian market would
then be using applications that it had perhaps only dreamed about before.

Kalpa Madhav Biswal
solution architect, TIEBU

Potential Target Segments

Potential Usage by Police

• Security for processions, public meetings, and the like

• Tracing criminal activities

• Police patrolling