Case Study   State of Delaware (USA)   Organization: State of Delaware Location: Dover, DE Users: 700 Market Segment: Government Applications: Traffic camera monitoring, law enforcement applications, employee training, Polycom PVX videoconferencing, systems management, email. The Challenge When tiny Delaware ratified the US Constitution on December 7, 1787, it became the very first colony to join the United States. Since then, the nation's second-smallest state has been a trailblazer in providing advanced services to constituents. Cutting-edge technology, for example, plays a key role in helping the state serve its 783,600 residents. Today, wireless networking is integral to the day-to-day operations of four state departments. The Department of Transportation (DOT) and the Department of Technology and Information (DTI) rely heavily on wireless connectivity to ensure employees have fast access to critical data. The Division of Finance uses wireless-enabled laptops to create mobile staff training labs. Most notably, the state police use wireless LANs (WLANs) to swiftly exchange law enforcement and administrative data with their squad car computers as soon as they park outside troop buildings. Previously, however, Delaware's wireless networks were based on systems with proprietary security solutions, locking the state into a single vendor's product line and making future upgrades both costly and difficult. Moreover, these systems did not meet US Government standards for data security, preventing the state police from working effectively with federal authorities and potentially compromising the privacy of information ranging from tax bills to traffic patterns. Finally, the state needed more bandwidth than its legacy 802.11b wireless access points could deliver. To safeguard confidential data and future-proof its wireless networks, the State of Delaware sought a standards-based wireless solution with built-in Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), an encryption technology that meets the exacting wireless security requirements of the US Government. Why 3Com The State of Delaware examined products from Cisco, but quickly discovered 3Com offered a robust high-security solution at a significantly lower cost. A longtime 3Com customer, the state worked with its value-added reseller, InfoSystems of Wilmington, DE, to select the following 3Com® systems: 3Com Wireless Access Point 8750 Read more here 3Com 11a/b/g Wireless PC Card with XJACK® Antenna Read more here The standards-based 3Com wireless systems deliver dual-mode 802.11a/802.11g connections, operating up to five times faster than 802.11b WLANs. Furthermore, they offer the highest level of wireless security using the AES algorhythm, which generates 128-bit, 192-bit, and 256-bit encryption keys. Both the access point and the wireless PC card must use the same key to decrypt the transmission, creating a significantly more secure environment that the older WEP and WPA protocols. "Thanks to 3Com, we now have wireless LANs equal to anything the federal government uses at half the price of what Cisco could offer," said Jamie Stant, telecommunications technologist for the State of Delaware. "We turn to 3Com year after year because we're always confident that 3Com will come through with the equipment we need, when we need it." The Benefits With a total of 75 Access Point 8750 wireless access points statewide, the State of Delaware can now offer state employees in four departments fast, secure connectivity in places and ways not previously possible. Agencies, as a result, are more efficient and effective resulting in better services to citizens and organizations. The Delaware State Police's headquarters and nine barracks statewide are equipped with Access Point 8750 wireless access points, which officers use to send e-mail, update software, and transmit data from their cars with no fear of interception by prying eyes. The new 3Com WLAN also operates 100 times faster than the previous wide-area wireless network, allowing police to spend less time at their barracks and more time on patrol. At the Department of Transportation, Access Point 8750s extend the wired network at headquarters, providing fast, simple network access to often-mobile employees. In addition, the DOT has mounted several access points on IP-based traffic cameras, turning them into wireless "hot spots" exclusively for department employees. Instead of climbing utility poles or lowering the cameras to ground level, DOT employees now securely troubleshoot and manage the cameras from wireless-equipped laptops — or simply check in with the office — without leaving their trucks. The state's Division of Finance, too, has equipped its Wilmington office with Access Point 8750s to support the portable wireless lab it uses for employee training with no concern that outsiders can access the WLAN and view state financial records or tax data. Finally, the 3Com solution enables employees of the Department of Technology and Information — the state's IT staff — to move among multiple offices and server rooms in four buildings up to 50 miles apart with no need to reconfigure software or worry about unauthorized users. The IT team is also testing wireless videoconferencing using laptops equipped with Polycom PVX software, Plantronic headsets, and Logitech Quickcam Pro 4000 webcams. In addition to one-to-one conversations, DTI hopes to introduce this application as a tool for group meetings, employee trainings, and other uses. "Our 3Com solution combines all the convenience and flexibility we expect from wireless networking with all the power and security we need to conduct state business," Stant concluded. "It dramatically improves our productivity — so that we can serve the citizens of Delaware more effectively."