Dec 01, 2014

When you’re developing or running a business, one of the most important things to consider is protection for your company’s assets. This holds for enterprises of all sizes. If you have a small store space, you want to make sure it’s not infringed on during off-business hours. And if the entity you’re overseeing just happens to be the tallest building in the world, you’ll want to make sure that’s protected, too.

Standing at 2,716.5 feet, the Burj Dubai – also known as the Dubai Tower – is the tallest man-made structure in the world. Even in a city with many buildings that scrape the sky, the Burj stands out as an absolute giant, one which serves as a visual and symbolic representation of Dubai’s burgeoning role as one of the most instrumental cities in the world – a place where art, engineering and leadership intersect.

“In Burj Khalifa, we see the triumph of Dubai’s vision of attaining the seemingly impossible and setting new benchmarks,” stated Mohamed Alabbar, chairman of Emaar Properties.

But a look at the outside of the building only tells a fraction of its story. It’s inside where things are happening. Spread out among the building’s more than 160 stories are homes, many corporate suites and a luxury hotel. Recently, on top of all of that, the Burj added a special observation deck on level 148 from which people can look out at the Dubai cityscape. Of course, in order for all of this to be possible, the building had to be expertly constructed. But for a structure of unprecedented size, the actual construction of the Burj proved to be a challenging feat. Fortunately, it was made easier with a Firetide solution.

Firetide helps Burj rise to highest heights
When construction crews first started building the Burj, they didn’t run into significant communication problems. People working on the site simply used walkie-talkies, the traditional means of communication among construction crews on a build. But while this method proved acceptable at first, its efficacy didn’t last. As the tower rose to greater heights, the ability to use the walkie-talkies began to diminish.

“When the building exceeded thirty floors, problems with our communications system surfaced,” Chang Geun Lee, project manager for Samsung Corp, said. “We started to experience delays or no connection between the thirty-first and the ground floors, particularly in the core of building.”

Beyond that point, the administrative team overseeing the construction of the building knew they’d have to turn to a more robust solution in order to maintain vital communications while the build continued. That’s where Firetide enters the story. After trying a number of failed solutions, Samsung SDS eventually found a viable answer in Firetide’s mesh networking solutions.

“Besides the excellent bandwidth and voice quality, we also chose Firetide for its ease of deployment, speed of implementation, flexibility and resiliency,” said Jerry Jang, project manager for Samsung SDS.

Devising a targeted solution
In coming up with various mesh solutions, Firetide realizes that no two projects are alike. Therefore, each individual project requires an individualized solution – and this was certainly the case for Firetide’s solution for the Burj. The Firetide wireless mesh network leveraged in the construction of the Burj centered around a merging of outdoor wireless mesh nodes and HotPoint access points. Ultimately, this created a system of communication far better than one involving walkie-talkies. With a Firetide solution in place, the building project was able to enjoy not only video surveillance, but also voice over IP and radio over IP resources on the sight. These resources played a pivotal role in allowing the building to go up smoothly and experience the success it has today.