RE: Why didnt superbowl use antenna's Volume plain and simple. I don't think iSign can comprehend how to handle 75000 people in one place at this point in time. To handle a crowd of that size would take more than 30 antennas, just look at the investment it has taken to provide wireless coverage at the stadium. Baby steps is all I say...read the article below and tell me that Super Bowl would be willing to pay for the installation of an unproven tech but maybe next year based on hopefully positive results from the media party?
When 73,208 fans file into the New Orleans Superdome for the Super Bowl on Sunday, they'll have to follow the usual rules: no booze, no weapons, no fireworks, and no food (though food and beer can be purchased inside the stadium at exorbitant rates).
They'll also be prevented from bringing in any wireless equipment that might interfere with the proper workings of the Superdome Wi-Fi network. Lots of time and money went into giving ticket holders a wireless connection that rivals the one in their living rooms, and the NFL doesn't want anyone messing it up.
"The NFL has a very robust frequency coordination solution in place," Dave Stewart, director of IT and production for Superdome management firm SMG, told me in a phone interview. "Every device that enters the building has to go through a frequency scan and be authorized to enter. At the perimeter the devices are identified and tagged. If they present a potential for interference, they are remediated at that moment. Either the channel is changed or it is denied access. It's all stopped at the perimeter for this event."
In Stewart's words, the goal is to prevent any "rogue access points or rogue equipment from attempting to operate in the same frequency" as the stadium Wi-Fi network ("rogue" as in "not under the control of the system administrators").
During the Super Bowl, the network will be able to handle up to 30,000 simultaneous connections, which should be enough.
It's hard to imagine fans, press, or stadium staff deliberately trying to sabotage Super Bowl Wi-Fi, but some may do so unintentionally. Interference can be produced by "everything from someone operating a network wireless camera to someone operating pyrotechnics equipment that utilizes wireless service to trigger their equipment," Stewart said. "Imagine if you were to bring in a wireless camera and that wireless camera is tuned to the 2.4GHz frequency range [also used by Wi-Fi] and is continually broadcasting a signal. Anything that's going to operate in the same frequency range has the potential to cause interference. Some of those interfering devices are minimal, but others are impactful."
The biggest concern, he said, comes from "non-Wi-Fi-compliant continuous broadcast devices such as wireless cameras."
The best defense against such "rogue" wireless networking is to prevent the wrong devices from coming into the stadium, but you can't stop everything. "You can't stop a laptop from coming in. Working press needs to use that," he said. Yet laptops can be problematic if their owners try to create their own private Wi-Fi networks. "Anyone who enters the facility with a laptop has the ability to become a rogue by going to ad hoc [wireless networking] mode," Stewart said.
That's why wireless security doesn't stop when the game starts; the Superdome will use spectral analysis equipment to detect interference. "We're always monitoring the network. So we have a plan in place if there is an interfering signal to identify that and remediate that problem," Stewart said.
So if you're broadcasting a rogue wireless signal, well, you might just get a tap on the shoulder from a Superdome employee. Isn't it more fun just to watch the game, anyway?
Is the TV timeout over yet?
Well, maybe not. The NFL manages to spread 60 minutes of clock time across three hours in a typical game. What with time running off the clock between plays and the typical play lasting about four seconds, an average game ends up with only 11 minutes of action. And given how long Super Bowl halftime shows last, the game might not be over till Monday.
So fans have plenty of time to check their e-mail, upload pictures to Facebook, or get instant replays and game-related information on their mobile devices. While the NFL's strict control over wireless equipment might sound draconian, it's in service of the greater good: Wi-Fi for everyone who wants it.
The Superdome already had one of the most robust cellular networks among football stadiums, because 18 months ago AT&T built a carrier-neutral distributed antenna system on site to boost mobile signals. But that wasn't enough. Cellular providers want Wi-Fi in places like the Superdome because it offloads traffic from the cellular network, and fans like it because they're less likely to drop their connections or wait for videos to buffer.
The Superdome (or the Mercedes-Benz Superdome, to get the branding right) previously had Wi-Fi—but only for staff, press, and systems like ticketing. "That was not getting us where the NFL wanted us to be relative to the Super Bowl needs," said Superdome General Manager Alan Freeman. The new, Super Bowl-scale Wi-Fi network was just put in this season, with trial runs in a couple of late-season Saints games and in the Sugar Bowl. The Super Bowl will be the first time the network is publicly advertised as available to all fans, so the load will be greater. No password will be required to get on the Wi-Fi network.
More than 700 wireless access points will distribute signals inside the Superdome. Another 250 access points will provide Wi-Fi outside the stadium, including in parking lots and in Champions Square. (Another 300 access points are in the adjacent New Orleans Arena, which hosts the city's pro basketball team.)
During the Super Bowl, the network will be able to handle up to 30,000 simultaneous connections, which should be enough. At last year's Super Bowl in Indianapolis, Wi-Fi from 604 access points supported 8,260 simultaneous connections at its peak, while 12,946 attendees were on the Wi-Fi at some point during the game. 225GB of data was downloaded and 145GB uploaded, with peaks of 75Mbps down and 42Mbps up. (We're told the cell network for all carriers at last year's Super Bowl handled another 560GB of data total, including downloads and uploads.) Usage is expected to be higher this year, but it's impossible to predict exactly how much it will increase.