Chesapeake, Virginia’s hybrid smart city network enables creative problem-solving

"Implementing an LTE private network allows us to enhance public safety, improve city infrastructure management, and provide reliable connectivity for critical services," said Harvey Miller, Broadband Development Officer for the City of Chesapeake.

Working with Boldyn is part of a broader initiative the city has taken to improve its communications infrastructure, which began in 2020. The city worked with Magellan Advisors to develop a next-generation wireless and wireline network plan that would include a 175-mile municipal broadband fiber ring and two wireless technologies: LoRaWAN and a private LTE network. 

Chesapeake leveraged ARPA funding for these three networks, which have been constructed over the past five years.

And while the LoRaWAN network will continue to have utility for the city’s needs, it has its own limitations that will need to be complemented by the LTE network. “We knew we wanted a wireless technology that would allow us to not just be able to monitor, but also to be the control,” Miller said. “LoRaWAN is also used for monitoring water meters, but the bandwidth isn’t there for controlling surveillance cameras and providing Wi-Fi.”

Boldyn, for its part, saw a city that had put together a thoughtful RFP and plan for its smart city vision. The company saw that the city had a plan that reflected three key themes it is pursuing in other regions: the city acted like a service provider, the city’s open access fiber network, and the applications Chesapeake wanted to offer its departments. 

Chris Zack, SVP Wireless Solutions for Boldyn Networks, said the city’s vision aligned with the kind of communities it looks to partner with. “Chesapeake’s vision aligned with what Boldyn is looking for,” he said. “We’re not an OEM or a system integrator, so the opportunity attracted us and got our attention.”

Supporting today and tomorrow’s needs

While the LTE, LoRaWAN, and fiber networks are all different, Chesapeake sees them all as complementary.

As these technologies fit together, they all play a specific role depending on each city department’s focus. “All three of the technologies we use fit together,” Miller said. “Some things only need to be monitored, while other things need to be moved and controlled and respond, and not just receive information, so we needed something that provided more bandwidth, and LTE was a great solution for that.”

Through its work with Boldyn, Chesapeake continues to identify use cases that are not only relevant to solve its department’s current needs, but also potentially future needs.

Miller said that the broadband team he oversees has become an innovation center. “We are plugged into all of our departments to find out what their needs are but also bringing stuff they did not know even existed,” he said. “As we are talking to our departments, we are telling them, did you know we have a solution for you for surveillance or other applications?” 

For example, a large majority of the Chesapeake Water Department’s pump stations are in areas where installing fiber would be challenging, making private LTE a viable solution. “For the Water Department, we can erect a three-antenna array and point it to a server we have at our public safety building,” Miller said. “We can then take that data, analyze it, and respond and make decisions off on it."

Melissa Ashurst, VP of Emerging Markets for Boldyn Networks, agreed and added that the experience with Chesapeake enables it to not only pursue other cities with similar needs, but also how it can serve other industry segments.

“The ability to work with the city at the level we are working with Harvey and his team gives us insights into new applications and new needs we’ll see in other verticals like airports, universities, and other institutions,” she said.

And with cities like Chesapeake looking to keep costs in check, the Boldyn network can reduce its reliance on leveraging expensive services from commercial carriers.

Specifically, the LoRaWAN will enable real-time monitoring of infrastructure such as flood sensors, trash bins, streetlights, and air quality meters.

It will also support emergency response and environmental monitoring without relying on traditional cellular data.

Likewise, the low-power, wide-area network (LoRaWAN), which is already operational with seven antennas installed and four more scheduled to ensure full city coverage, “is designed to support smart city services by enabling devices to communicate over long distances using very little power.”

Multi-use fiber

The private wireless network developed with Boldyn Networks is the latest innovation to emerge from Chesapeake Connects, a city-led initiative to modernize the city's digital infrastructure and expand access to high-speed connectivity.

Supported in part by American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding, the initiative will deliver various solutions, with additional sites and services to be rolled out.

One of the key elements of Chesapeake Connects is the Chesapeake Broadband Ring, which the city estimates will reduce the city’s contracted network service costs from $1.38 million to $243,454 by the fifth year in operation.  

The city noted that operating costs will total $1.52 million in Year 5 to cover staffing, hardware/software maintenance, and data center collocation and edge services.

But the initiative is not just about savings alone. It can create a ripple effect on revenue for the city.

Since its network will include 175 miles of fiber with 160 miles of conduit, Chesapeake can lease excess fiber capacity to local broadband providers that can serve residents and businesses.

Likewise, it can extend the private LTE coverage to partners who require wireless service and smart infrastructure partnerships using the LoRaWAN network.

“This network will improve connectivity for city operations, public safety, education, healthcare, and businesses—especially in areas that currently lack access to high-speed internet,” the city said on its website.

Controlling its broadband destiny

To enhance the broadband capabilities for the city, Chesapeake is building an open-access fiber network with 175 miles of conduit already in place.  

While Virginia State law prohibits Chesapeake from building a last-mile broadband business, the city’s Chesapeake Connects entity can have a network that others could use the network to deliver services.

The city’s thesis is simple: having the local ring in place will make it more attractive and economical for commercial firms to offer broadband service to homes.

Initially, the Chresapeake Connects network will support various city entities, including the police, fire, schools, and municipal buildings. This network has over 100G of capacity with two providers for redundancy. Today, it connects 210 endpoints.

A key consideration for building its own network was cost. The city found that it would be too expensive to deliver the speeds it wanted to its city buildings through local incumbent telcos or cable operators.  

“For us to put a gig at every fire and police station using the incumbents, it would be cost-prohibitive,” Miller said. “Instead, we figured that using the ARPA funds and creating our own middle-mile network, we can now provide services necessary for our citizens to do business with our city.”

In the second tier, Chesapeake Connect found there are places where it’s necessary to have open access to Wi-Fi services.

Stopping short of being a competitor to a local incumbent, it would have an ISP provide service outside of a school or at a local community location. 

“The wonderful benefit of having this middle mile there is we can partner with smaller ISPs that would like to get a head start to be in our footprint,” Miller said. “We can offer an IRU agreement that allows a local, smaller provider like Spark Network to use the network and potentially partner with our LoRAWAN and private LTE network as well, now that we have a suite of communications technologies.”

With a future mindset, Chesapeake foresees other applications like providing services to a local retailer or helping public housing entities.

A convenience store could leverage the LTE network to monitor inventory, or a public building could leverage the network to monitor temperature or occupancy.

Today, Chesapeake’s public housing authority is using the network for market rates.

“It’s important as we set up this network with Boldyn, we’re looking at future uses, not just what the city needs,” Miller said. “There are a lot of use cases we are seeing with this network.”

Pursuing IRU agreements

With its fiber network being open access, Chesapeake Connects is looking across the spectrum at various service provider partners.

However, while it has proposed offers through early conversations, nothing has been finalized yet. Other entities are also coming to the table through the regional ring being developed by the Hampton Roads Regional Broadband Initiative.

Hampton Roads Planning District Commission (HRPDC) proposes building a fully integrated regional fiber network that connects employment areas, higher education facilities, research institutions, and municipal facilities throughout the region.

“We’ll put out some offers, and we’ve already talked to many of them,” Miller said. “We also have a regional ring that’s being developed by the Southside regional authority, so some will come to us through that initiative.”   

Boldyn is looking at every city fiber initiative carefully in how it aligns with other opportunities. The company had built out a fiber ring in the Bay Area and was then approached by the state to help with its multi-billion-dollar middle-mile effort. 

“We agree that fiber is critically important to everything we do, but we’re going to be opportunistic when we invest in a market,” Zack said. “The California Middle Mile was opportunistic because we were building out a fiber ring for the Bay Area Rapid Transit system, and the state targeted us because we were building out a ring and asked us to expand it.”

Zack added that because Boldyn likes investing in places like Chesapeake, “we see a long-term vision where we ask what we can do with this, and that’s part of the curious nature and bringing in use cases from different sectors.”

Economic development opportunities

Being a forward-looking city, Chesapeake sees potential in using the city's broadband infrastructure to support economic development initiatives.

During a recent internal customer service team meeting, Chesapeake’s Economic Development Department noted that the smart city network facilities could be an asset they can use to attract new companies to locate in the city.

The city recently received a $700 million investment from a South Korean company, which is doing subsea cable development in the city.

“That conversation happened because people now ask Do we have internet?” Miller said. “How fast they can connect and get access to subsea cable in Asia is part of the discussion now.”

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