UNDERWAY IS THE ONLY WAY:
Customer: U.S.COAST GUARD Western Rvrs units: (16)65-75 foot Tug & Barges.
The Problem:
Seeking Wireless-WAN solutions for (16) Tug&Barge platforms while they are underway throughout 22 Midwestern Rivers States, covering 7,000 miles of navigable waterways.
All Cutters are equipped with (4) WinNT 4.x platforms. All four wksta are equiped with NIC cards and external modems. When underway, Each cutter has one Cellular connection, that is shared between VOICE, FAX and DATA. All standard wkstas are equiped as CITRIX clients.
All Cutters inport have WAN through either DialUp56k, ISDN, or T1 (depending on locations with other Coast Guard Units).
The “BIG-CHOKE”.
When these Cutters get underway, the <9600baud (or less)line-speed that the cellular phone allows. WinNT chokes. Much of the Area of operation is outside of digital range, and at a minimum; 25% of the Area of operation is outside of all cellular range.
The kicker is: The customer cannot afford satelite connectivity. These are small units with small budgets. Technology to reach these Wide Area Network clients running WinNT does not appear to exist yet. Is this true?
CDPD (?) available in one of the Cutter's area ofoperation. All others are cellular-capable. Half or more of the cellular-able are using analog service (vice digital).
All 16 of the cutters are equiped with VHF/FM(voice). Organization owns an extensive VHF/FM Footprint (VHF/FM High Level Sites) that cover the entire area required. Are there any IT Solutions for Data that are VHF/FM capable? Are there other than Cellular, Satellite or VHF/FM that we are remiss in looking into?
My migration timeline is Sep2000-Dec2000.
All options considered!
Enjoy 🙂
mlv//
pri: Mark460@trdesk.com 314.495.8296
sec: mleveck@detstlouis.uscg.mil 314.539.3900 x251
ter: leveck@icss.net 618.593.7439