Emergency Management Implements Continuity Equipment

Wireless Bridge

Emergency Management recently implemented a portion of their business continuity planning with the addition of two sets of long range wireless bridges.  These two sets can be utilized to quickly establish high speed network connectivity (500 Mbs) to a facility.  Much of a business or government agency’s daily functions rely on internet access to function and when that gets severed, our ability to work is hampered.  These wireless bridges have been cached to bring emergency connectivity to situations where connectivity is severed due to an extended communication outage or an organization needing to move to a temporary facility.  They can also be utilized to bring connectivity to planned events or incidents where high speed internet access is needed and not present.

Each bridge set is capable of established a wireless link between two sires at a distance of 25 kilometers and with our two sets we have the equipment to provide two hops (maybe over a ridge) back to a service provider.  Examples of where we might utilize this technology include an office building that is unable to be occupied due to water damage and the office is temporarily moved to a rented warehouse.  Another situation might be a large wildfire occurs and a fire camp is setup in the middle of a field where there isn’t connectivity.  Really the potential uses are limitless, but by already have this equipment cached in the county we hope to provide a connectivity solution in a matter of hours compared to waiting days for equipment to be shipped or trenching in services.

This solution was implemented at a cost of $600.00 through grant funding provided by the Montana Community Foundation as part of our incident cache upgrade project.