As well as great tennis, good information flow is vital
to the Wimbledon tennis championships.
This year's tournament is no different, and will rely even more
heavily on its dedicated
wireless network, as well as on the traditional wired system,
to ensure that live match data gets out to the press and public as
quickly as possible.
The Lawn Tennis
Association, which runs the Wimbledon championships, has been
working with
IBM Global
Services to build a dedicated wireless Wi-Fi network to cover
much of the grounds.
The association started working with IBM Global Services in 1990
to devise electronic scoring and statistics systems. In 1996, IBM
created the graphics that the BBC uses in its coverage of
Wimbledon. Since then, IBM has helped to develop IT systems to
cover everything from intranet and internet access to ticketing and
gate security.
"We are introducing all of this new technology while the club
maintains a 'tennis in an English country garden' appearance," says
Paul Figgins, senior IT specialist at IBM Global Services, who is
effectively Wimbledon's IT manager.
He says that technology is assisting Wimbledon in remaining the
premier Grand Slam tennis event. It is worth noting that IBM also
provides the technology for the three other Grand Slam events: the
French Open, Australian Open and US Open.
This year, Wimbledon has a wireless network comprising more than
70 wireless access points around the site, giving key user groups -
officials, press and players - wireless access to the internet and
Wimbledon's various intranets and applications.
The wireless project started in 2003, when IBM piloted wireless
access in the press centre, Centre Court and Court One, mainly for
photographers to send images to their photo editors straight from
the courts. Cisco provided the networking equipment, including 16
access points.
"It was a resounding success, and people asked to have more
coverage the following year, and we have been building on that ever
since," says Figgins.
Between 2003 and 2006 only a handful of journalists had
wireless-enabled laptops, and Figgins configured them individually
as required. But last year, a couple of hundred members of the
press arrived as the tournament began, all demanding web access for
their laptops.
"The logistics of configuring, supporting and helping all these
individuals is quite something, particularly when they come in on
Monday morning expecting access, and there is a queue of people
banging on the table and saying 'configure my computer now'," says
Figgins.
As a result, IBM has extended the cabling across the site to
ensure that more areas are both Wi-Fi and Ethernet enabled,
including the whole of the press centre. It also encourages users
who can link into the wired Ethernet network to do so to ease
network traffic.
As well as facing demand from more users, the network has had to
adapt to bandwidth-hungry users, such as press photographers. In
2003, says Figgins, there were two or three photographers from the
agencies who wanted to upload images from Centre Court and Court
One. Now there are dozens of them, taking photographs with cameras
that can instantly upload the images via a wireless link.
So IBM has had to make all of its local access points available
in the tennis courts, in particular, providing a 12mbps pipe, and
balancing the load on the wired and wireless networks to provide
the optimum bandwidth for all users.
Figgins says, "The Wi-Fi equipment is based on the
802.11g standard, which in theory offers data transfer speeds
of 64mbps. But in reality this comes down a bit, and if you have
got a mixed
802.11b and
802.11g client
environment this brings it down a bit further. So you are
effectively looking at something like a 10mbps hub.
"In Centre Court, for example, you have three access points all
on different channels. We make all that available, so there is no
clash in interference, and try to optimise it. By adding in the
wired network and sharing out bandwidth, it lengthens the life of
that particular system."
But the press are not the only users of the wireless system. As
time went by, the club received requests for network access from
users who were working in temporary huts and marquees that were
being erected beyond the courts. As no cabling was in place, and
because the tennis courts could not be disturbed, extending the
wireless system was an attractive alternative. Eventually, these
locations will be wired, says Figgins, as this will offer a more
robust and reliable network link.
More recently, IBM started demonstrating
PDA technology over the wireless network, giving handhelds to
hospitality guests to show off its Pocket Wimbledon information
system. The system includes a database of scores and statistics,
biographies and history videos, as well as live streaming video
from the matches.
IBM is currently extending the wireless network to run an
application for Group 4
Security, which escorts the players to and from courts. Group 4
staff will use handheld devices to enable them to know when matches
are starting and finishing.
For Wimbledon 2006, the security team on the gates located at
the far points of the Wimbledon compound started using the wireless
network. Sending data to the central
IBM DB2
database from Symbol PPT800 handheld ID badge scanners via wireless
links enabled them to confirm the identity of contractors and
full-time and temporary staff in real time as they entered the
grounds.
The system requires all workers to present an accreditation
badge to security staff, who scan it to ensure it matches the
photographic records held on the Club CRM system, Aegis (All
England Global Information Systems), developed by
First Sports
International. There are links to the police intelligence
system.
This year, the system will also cover ticket retail. "In the old
days, people used to put their tickets in the bin, and every so
often someone would go around and empty the bins and resell the
tickets. This year, people will have their ticket scanned, and the
system will reprint it up at the top of Henman Hill," says Figgins.
As a result, visitors will be able to keep their tickets as a
souvenir, he says, and the Lawn Tennis Association will be able to
reduce fraud.
Wirelessly enabling the far-flung kiosks did pose some
challenges, says Figgins, because they needed power to be cabled
down to them.
"At the very back of the site is a little hut in the middle of a
field, which is an entrance. We needed to get scanning facilities
and an access point to there, so the club's cabling and electrical
teams had to dig a trench 200 yards through the field to put in
cabling for an access point in this little hut."
Another physical problem that the IT team faces is the growth of
trees and bushes, which can emerge during the year between the
access points and user sites, restricting wireless access.
The building works, which began in 2006 to refurbish Centre
Court and build a new roof, have also provided another challenge.
The project will last three years and building work continues
throughout the year except for the two tournament weeks.
The IT team wants to install wireless access points in the
building to cover the courts, restaurants and other areas.
Most of the fixed network elements were tested five weeks ago,
but, to a large extent, Figgins had to wait until the temporary
cabins and marquees had been installed before he could configure
and install the last access points, ensuring they could be managed
from the central
Cisco Works console.
This tool gives a visual overview of the whole Cisco switched
Ethernet infrastructure, a fibre-based backbone network across the
whole site, which has dual or triple routes everywhere. The IT
system incorporates about 30 different Cisco switches in racks
around the site, and more than 70
Cisco Aironet 1200 series 802.11g access points.
"Cisco Works gives us a map on the screen, and we can get an
alert to tell us exactly what part of the site has a problem, and
what device it is. That could be anything from a switch to a PC, a
server or an access point, and it is not just the wireless network
that is covered: it is the whole network," says Figgins.
The IT system underwent two major tests in March and April,
focusing on the referee system, the scoring system and the radar
system.
Two weeks before the tournament started, the applications team
arrived to test their various applications. A few days later, the
internet team came in straight from the French Open at Roland
Garros to ensure the various web technologies were up and
running.
The final "dress rehearsal" test took place last Friday, three
days before Wimbledon opened. This test brought together Figgins'
team of 160 IBM personnel, which includes IT architects, systems
builders, technical specialists, the internet support team, 80
data-entry staff who input data at the Show Courts and Centre
Court, the Lawn Tennis Association's IT group, and BBC technical
staff and producers.
More on
Wimbledon's wireless security >>
Wimbledon 2007 site >>
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