Thank you Eleanor for writing up the minutes.  I just added a few notes on technical issues.

SW Communications Committee
April 2, 2012 Meeting
At SW community Center

In Attendance:
Tarak Bolt, Account Manager
John Boutet, SW Common Council Communications Committee Co-Chair
Eleanor Coleman, Representing Robert Walker-Smith, SWAN
Rob Toscano, Sales Engineer
Kevin Robinson, Engineer
Joan Roby-Davison, Sector 4 CDC Executive Director

It was decided that, at this time, having a discussion regarding the proposed Wi-Fi hotspot locations would be more beneficial than traveling around to visit them.  While the list of suggested sites is ongoing, following are the sites proposed as of 4/2:

SW Community Center
275 Dr. Samuel McCree Way, 14611
Cross Street: Genesee St
SWAN/The Bridge
584 Jefferson Avenue, 14611
Cross Street:  Bartlett Ave
Montgomery Neighborhood Center
10 Cady St., 14608
Cross Street:  Olean St
Kennedy Towers
666 Plymouth Ave So, 14608
Cross Street:  Edith St
Plymouth Gardens
1400 Plymouth Ave So, 14611
Cross Street:  Brooks Ave
Thurston Rd YMCA
597 Thurston Rd, 14619
Cross Street:  Rosalind St  
Arnett Library
310 Arnett Blvd, 14619
Cross Street:  Warwick Ave
St. Stephens Church
350 Chili Ave, 14611
Cross Street:  Thorndale Ave
Danforth Community Center
200 West Ave, 14611
Cross Street:  Ames St

Discussion:

• Looking to impact high need neighborhoods; point made that parents are able to monitor their children’s academic progress via the Internet, further supporting desire to promote Wi-Fi expansion in neighborhoods with limited Internet access.
• While reception outdoors in a hot-spot area is a benefit, having signal penetration into houses is very desirable considering wheather and safety issues when working outdoors with a wireless device.
• Antena placement and signal penetration inside of houses and outdoors was discussed along with other technical issues:

1. • Hot-spot coverage in an outdoor open area can reach at least 500 ft out from the hot-spot antena.  Coverage is limited by the signal strenth of the computers connecting with the hot-spot antenna.  This link describes emmision paterna of Wi-Fi antennas: http://www.connect802.com/antennas.htm.  Frontier generally uses high-gain omni-directional antennas for Wi-Fi hot spots.
   • The optimum height at which the antena should be places is near the top of a telephone pole.  Putting the antenna higher would result in much of the transmitted signal passing over the houses and Wi-Fi devices it is trying to reach.
   • If we used tall buildings to place antenas on, we would have to tip the antennas to direct the signal down to the houses and probabbly use several directional antenas.
   • Interior reception depends on type of construction.  Wood frame/drywall structures allow pretty good penetration.  In some cases signal passes through woodframe structures and reception can be had outdoor or in a house hehind the first structure.
   • Penetration through foliage of trees is more difficult.
   • Penetration into masonry and metal structures is often very difficult and these usually need to have interior transmitters.
   • There are Wi-Fi Repeaters, such as Pepwave, which can be used in a house or building to relay a weak exterior signal from a wall or window where it can be detected from the hot-spot to connect with computers inside the building.
   • Frontier proposes configureing the Wi-Fi  connections so that each computer connected would have a 1Mbit/s availale data rate which is in the range of DSL sevice.  It is fast enough for normal internet use but slow for downloadinng movies and other high bandwidth activities.  It would probaly allow 50 or so computers to be connected without intefering with each other's peceived connection speed since not all are making full use of their alotted datarate simultaniously.
   • Here is a pretty good Wi-Fi overview: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wi-Fi .

• Agreed that we should approach this project in “phases.”
• Sector 4 CDC is the logical entity to apply for funding as the CDC represents all of the neighborhood groups in the SW Quadrant.
• 3 preliminary sites were targeted for initial exploration (these 3 sites form a pretty straight line and are relatively close to each other:

1. 1. SW Community Center - it is a central location; close to a Frontier office (almost across the street, which has the potential to reduce costs); primary meeting location for the SW Common Council  (SWCC) and the SWCC Communications Committee
   2. SWAN/The Bridge - located in the middle of Jefferson Avenue, currently under significant reconstruction; MCC interested in bringing college outreach program to this location; perhaps MCC could assist with funding; in a high-need area.
   3. Montgomery Neighborhood Center - community center; has a lot of space for community activity; in a high-need area.

Next Steps:

• Rob will establish a preliminary Wi-Fi design plan that includes estimated costs.  This may take a few weeks.
• John Boutet & Joan will continue to collect surveys.

Next meeting: time and place TBD