The City Of Riverside Switches To Mobility To Improve Connectivity

Moving Ahead from Radio to Cellular The Riverside, California fire and police departments were longtime Radio IP users. But when economics required a change in mobile access, they found their former mobile VPN wasn’t up to the challenge. A changeover to NetMotion Mobility® handled the switch to a modern cellular network and made multiple connections seamless for users.

Multiple Connections, Growing Networks

Trouble surfaced for Riverside when economics made staying with their 800 MHz radio network cost-prohibitive. Their Radio IP VPN wasn’t up to the challenge of handling the new 3G cellular network connections. Those cellular connections were critical, because they provided essential redundancy alongside the city’s 4.9 GHz public-safety network. But as Senior Systems Engineer Richard Blue explains, “Radio IP works great when you use it with radio. When we tried to use it over multiple connections and with cellular, we ran into problems, and, ultimately, it didn’t work.”

In making the transition, Riverside faced a situation familiar to many municipalities. While implementing 3G, they had to preserve every possible piece of pre-existing hardware and software, including their Motorola CAD system. “Because of budgets, there were items we had to live with,” Blue said. “We couldn’t just throw them away and purchase all new equipment. We had to make it work.”

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