Wireless Riverside

SmartRiverside in conjunction with the City of Riverside has gone out to request for proposal (RFP) for a free City Wide Internet project to make Riverside a leader in technology deployment. This project will benefit merchants looking to attract residents looking to eat or shop anywhere in the City and still have access to e-mail, work projects or the Internet rather than having residents restricted to their households. It will also enable companies and residents looking for more cost effective Internet Service Providers to consider this network. Residents that cannot afford a computer or Internet Access will be able to take part and qualify for a free used computer and take advantage of the free Internet service as well through SmartRiverside’s Digital Inclusion Program. The City of Riverside continues to be a leader in technology innovation and use and the City-wide Wireless project will continue the charge of making Riverside a Smart City.

Coverage

The selected vendor has provided over 78% coverage for the developed areas of the City’s 86 square miles which equates to approximately 54 square miles. Access points will be placed at the rate of 30-35 per square mile with each having a range of approximately 1,000 feet depending on topography. Access points will be installed on street lights, traffic signals, and City facilities (so areas further than 1000 feet from any of these may have limited to no access).

What is the speed

Speeds will vary based on the location of access (outside versus inside and proximity to an access point). Average speeds are expected to be 1MB - 2MB connection. It likely will not be as fast as cable and DSL services..

Are there health concerns

Various studies are in process concerning the health impacts of the radiation of Wireless Access Points. The technology being implemented in the City of Riverside emits less radiation that a typical microwave oven. Studies will be posted as they are published: http://microcast.biz/mw0206health.pdf

Will it be secure?

The Network shall support multi-layered security protocols and methods to include, at a minimum, the following:

a. Physical security for all critical network equipment components via secured facilities.

b. Mechanisms to prevent or mitigate the risk of hackers, spammers, denial of service and other forms of malicious attacks on or through the Network. These mechanisms should balance the need to prevent these attacks, while at the same time not punishing or burdening unnecessarily all users of the Network.

c. No client software that is specific to the Network Operator or Service Provider(s) shall be required on PCs, laptops, or other mobile devices in order to use the Network.

d. Support for Media Access Control ("MAC") address filtering.

e. Support for Wired Equivalent Privacy ("WEP") encryption, including both 64 and 128 bit keys.

f. Support for Temporal Key Integrity Protocol ("TKIP") encryption.

g. Support for Advanced Encryption Standard ("AES") encryption.

h. Support for WiFi Protected Access ("WPA").

i. Support for 802.lx authentication using Extensible Authentication Protocol ("EAP") and Remote Authentication Dial-In User Service ("RADIUS").

J. Support for the suppression of Extended Service Set Identifier ("ESSID") broadcasts.

k. Support for multiple ESSIDs and the ability to map ESSIDs individually to Virtual LANs ("VLANs").

l. Support for filtering of traffic based on Internet Protocol ("IP") addresses, subnets and Transmission Control Protocol ("TCP") ports.

m. Support for VPN tunneling using Internet Protocol Security ("IPSec"). This VPN support must support true end-to-end encryption, regardless of at what point in the Network users elect to terminate their session.

n. Support for encryption of all control and network management traffic.

o. Provide tools for spam blocker, pop-up blocker, virus blocker, parental controls and privacy controls.

Connection Problems

Please contact the 311 Call Center at 951-351-6190 if you are experiencing problems getting connected.