Staten Island Ferry’s journey to seamless connectivity

As one of the oldest and busiest ferry systems in the world, providing trips to over 24 million riders per year, Staten Island Ferry in New York City needed to upgrade its existing communications network for the vessels in its fleet. The ferry system, which boasts a 24-hour, 365 day a year schedule, needed to ensure its vessels provided a safe and secure travel medium no matter the time or environment.

A connectivity challenge unlike those on shore

As part of this upgrade initiative, operators at Staten Island Ferry wanted to install high definition surveillance cameras to better keep track of issues and emergencies on the vessel. However, one large hurdle was in the way. While other mass transit systems in New York City, such as the NYC Metro and MTA bus lines, are located on land and can make use of existing cell towers to provide connectivity for their monitoring efforts, Staten Island Ferry’s over water route proved challenging due to the five-mile distance travelled in New York’s Upper Bay. Staten Island Ferry needed a secure and reliable solution that would deliver broadband connectivity for its 25-minute, 5.2-mile crossing from Whitehall Terminal, located in Lower Manhattan, to the St. George Terminal on Staten Island.

They needed a solution that would host all of their communications and data needs, while also providing a high bandwidth wireless network that was proven for its long-distance resilient operation over water. Johnson Controls was assigned as the single point of responsibility to manage the planning, installation, integration, commissioning and service of the technology systems consisting of a wireless network, IP cameras, and a video management system. BATS wireless provided its industry leading antenna tracking and stabilization solution for Staten Island Ferry’s Whitehall to St. George deployment.

Smooth sailing from one port to another

This solution allowed for each vessel in Staten Island Ferry’s route to automatically switch from the terminal network at Whitehall to the terminal network at St. George in under a second, allowing the operator to use a single high mounted antenna system for each vessel. Staten Island Ferry’s transit network was configured for continuous link tracking and advanced network switching, which would enable the antenna tracking system to travel from one port to another while enabling seamless access point handoff, key for maintaining the critical link for the entirety of the route and eliminating any live video dropouts.

Together, the fast system and advanced network switching solution notably achieved and exceeded the desired throughput for the ferry route providing Staten Island Ferry with a compelling tool – a 65 megabytes per second wireless link that was capable of delivering uninterrupted HD quality video so that operators can better assist patrons riding their vessels.

For more information, visit www.batswireless.com.