IEEE Communications Society -- Vancouver Chapter

Community-based Wireless Networks: An Option for Vancouver?

Jonn Martell, Principal
Martell Consulting

Tue, 4 Apr 2006 7:30 - 9:00 pm
Vancouver Convention & Exhibition Centre (Canada Place) Meeting Room 1

The Chair of IEEE NOMS 2006 has invited us to hold our April meeting on the conference site.
This presentation will be open to both members of the local community and NOMS 2006 attendees.

Preregistration is recommended for this event! Please contact Prof. Dave Michelson, davem@ece.ubc.ca

Community or urban wireless networks have attracted much attention during the past few years. Philadelphia, Chicago, and San Francisco have all announced plans to deploy city-wide wireless LANs. However, developing such networks presents numerous challenges. In this
presentation, Jonn considers these challenges in light of the insights and knowledge that he gained as he oversaw development and support of
one of the world's largest campus wireless LANs (at the University of British Columbia). In particular, he will discuss the business cases,
sponsorship, implementation, support and operations, and new technology such as mesh networking. He will also consider the case of Vancouver and Mayor Sam Sullivan's recent expression of interest in establishing a free or low-cost wireless Internet service in the city.

Jonn Martell is Principal with Martell Consulting where he specializes in Wireless LANs, VOIP, mobility applications and emerging technologies with focus on meeting business needs and alignment. He has a B.Sc. from UBC and numerous industry certifications. An experienced Project Manager with over 20 years experience in computer networking and IT, Jonn has held a number of project management and architecture leadership roles in large network and IT projects. From 2001-2005, he served as project manager for UBC's Wireless WiFi network which, with a few thousand access points and over 20,000 unique users, is one of the largest campus wireless networks in the world. In 2004/2005, he oversaw the deployment of the Large Enterprise Voice over IP (VOIP) system that is being used in all new buildings at UBC. Jonn is also an experienced instructor and IT course developer for the Technology Programs at UBC Continuing Studies, BCIT and for commercial clients.