WilliamsF1 gets HP wireless environment

Hewlett-Packard has created a wireless mobile environment for BMW.WilliamsF1 Team, which was introduced at the British GP. HP's latest WLAN technology creates an IT infrastructure at each venue, embracing the pit wall, the pit garage, the mobile data centre truck and the various team motorhomes

Jul 21, 2003, 2:50 PM

Using wireless local area network (WLAN) technology, operating within a 2.4GHz frequency range and with 11 megabytes per second (Mbps) of bandwidth, the system speeds up the data capture process.

All the data are centralised, digitised and wirelessly transmitted from the car to the team's servers in the pits. The team's engineers are then able to roam the area after each session, maintaining constant access to the networked data.

By utilising a mobile IT infrastructure, the team has had to address the threat of potential security breaches by anyone in the vicinity. HP is able to provide high standards of data security using 802.11b wireless technology with the correct firmware releases and patches, smart cards, access points, bridges, added encryption data, closed wireless networks and VPN client software.