Indy 500 team turns to IP wireless for racing edge

It's using the technology to collect data from racing cars doing 219 mph

By Matt Hamblen

May 27, 2005 12:00 PM ET

Computerworld - Wireless IP technology will play a role at Sunday's Indianapolis 500, keeping the Red Bull Cheever Racing team updated with reams of precise data from two cars zipping around the 2.5-mile track at speeds of 219 mph.
Wireless gear from Cisco Systems Inc. will be used to gather hundreds of real-time measurements of variables such as tire temperature to a quarter of a degree, air speed and the weight each car exerts on its suspension when taking corners, said racing veteran Eddie Cheever Jr., owner of the team. The raw data, as well as video and voice communications from inside the cars, will constantly be scanned by race team engineers using laptops and custom software, mainly to enable pit stop crews to make tiny adjustments to the cars.
For instance, the pit stop teams could use the data to adjust the camber of the wheels one-eighth of a degree or change the angle of a spoiler by .1%, Cheever said.
A new 802.11g Wi-Fi network along the Indy 500 track has been installed to eliminate a dead transmission area and offers much more bandwidth, allowing as much as 15 times more data to be streamed during each lap, Cheever said. "More information means we are allowed to make more intelligent adjustments," he said.
Ruggedized mobile access routers are mounted near each car's engine to collect data and send it over the Wi-Fi network to five Cisco access points on the speedway, Cheever said. In addition, the team and its guests can access the data from a guest suite, a garage and an engineering trailer.
The wireless system, which includes Cisco 7920 wireless IP phones being used by the pit crews, is being constantly refined and has been deployed at about 20 races over the past year. But this is the first time it has been used at the Indy 500, he said. Over that time, IP voice quality has "gotten a lot better," Cheever said.
The IP voice data is encrypted to keep other teams from listening in, a capability that the other teams do not have on their own voice communications. Monitoring of a competitor's voice traffic is just another way teams try to gain an edge, Cheever said.
Among the refinements in the past year or so has been the shrinking of car-mounted routers. "We couldn't put a big box in an Indy race car," Cheever said.
Cheever and Cisco consider the wireless project a way of researching future uses for police, fire and homeland security crews. "Cisco

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