Oklahoma’s Stillwater Police Department recently rolled out a fleet of patrol vehicles equipped to connect to the city’s internal network via cellular. But the consumer-grade networking gear used in the initial deployment wasn’t up to the task: a few months in, scorching summer heat began breaking down the devices. Stillwater Police needed a tougher option – and fast. Peplink delivered a solution that not only stands up to extreme weather but also provides outstanding resilience and easy cloud-based device management.
Consumer-grade solutions just could not stand up to the Oklahoma heat.
Aaron Kelly, Public Safety, City of Stillwater
Challenge
When you’re working in weather with average summer highs of 95℉ – and the occasional spike into the hundreds — how do you keep mission-critical electronic devices from overheating? This is exactly the challenge Oklahoma’s Stillwater Police Department faced when outfitting 50 patrol vehicles with cellular-powered fleet networking.
Initially, consumer-grade solutions were used for the mobile connectivity deployment. These worked fine for a few months. But then the punishing Oklahoma heat began picking them off one at a time.
A crippled communication system puts lives at risk. So Stillwater Police decided it was absolutely crucial to replace the gear at the heart their fleet communications solution with reliable professional-grade equipment. It was time to call Peplink.
Solution
After putting the MAX BR1 through its paces, officials at Stillwater Police loved the unit and decided it would not only uniquely satisfy their requirements but also remain fully functional where no others could. With a rated operating temperature of between -40℉ and 149℉, the MAX BR1 was more than enough to handle Oklahoma weather.
The BR1 offered Stillwater Police the crucial ability to monitor connection health and signal strength. It was also versatile enough to allow them to lock down their wireless access and manage different SSIDs, fully meeting Federal security requirements. Because the BR1 supports fast roaming on Wi-Fi, they also plan to integrate it with their mesh network around the city, effectively creating a failover solution between cellular and Wi-Fi.
Stillwater Police’s setup is simple yet elegant. With a 4G LTE SIM in place, there’s enough cellular bandwidth to serve their purposes. But the BR1 is also capable of using a Wi-Fi connection in WAN mode, so it’s also been configured to connect to the internal city Wi-Fi network. Using this connection as an additional layer of resilience is already under consideration for the next rollout phase. This simple setup is distributed across Stillwater’s 50 patrol vehicles. Custom mounts were put in place to adapt to each vehicle’s layout. The MAX BR1 has its own independent power supply and is wired to a convenient power button on the center console. Thanks to the MAX BR1’s relatively low power demands, it will work using the vehicle’s battery alone, without having to engage the ignition.
I’ve never had to contact Peplink support because we’ve never had a problem. The BR1 offers substantial value over the competition. I’ve made recommendations to other PDs before and will continue to do so.
Aaron Kelly,Public Safety, City of Stillwater.
Results
Stillwater Police manage virtually every aspect of the fleet network via the cloud, using Peplink’s InControl2 and the Router Utility app. From firmware rollouts to individual device status to usage reports, everything can be accessed remotely.
With this rugged, dependable, and easy-to-manage solution in place, the department can concentrate on what it does best: serving the citizens of Stillwater.
Deployment
InControl 2
Using InControl, you can save configuration time, minimize truck rolls, stay on top of the status of your network, and proactively resolve any emerging problems with speed and precision.
MAX BR1 Classic
Using InControl, you can save configuration time, minimize truck rolls, stay on top of the status of your network, and proactively resolve any emerging problems with speed and precision.
