WiFi At The Racetrack
More examples of WiFi turning up in places you might not have expected. HP has built a WiFi system for the BMW WilliamsF1 racing team which they can use at the track. It covers the pit wall, garage, their “data center” truck, and motor homes, and when combined with sensors placed all over the cars, gives the team all sorts of real-time data. With WiFi security still being something of an issue you have to wonder if any other teams are peaking into the data, but HP says that they make sure the system stays locked tight. What’s more interesting to me, is the fact that this whole WiFi infrastructure needs to be portable – so it’s become a “mobile mobile” infrastructure – that they can set up at any racetrack. It’s unclear if there’s any backhaul to the internet – which would present a bigger problem every time they had to set up. However, if it’s just a local network, then it seems pretty straightforward.
