What would your neighborhood look like if Cisco wired it from scratch? If you want to get an idea, take a look at Dubai the United Arab Emirates and you might find out.
There, Cisco today said it is collaborating with the local Dubai government, in particular to help wire a showcase town known as Dubai Lifestyle City (DLC) from the ground up. In doing so, the DLC will be interconnected with the Fiber Optic Network infrastructure backbone. Each building within the community will have Fiber to the Home (FTTH) Converged Network, which can deliver ultra-high broadband internet access to each house.
The entire community will have wireless access, letting residents stay connected with the internet anywhere within the community, according to Cisco.
Layered on the network will be a home control (lighting) and monitoring system (energy), a security system, a high definition home theatre system, IP Communication system and Interactive Community Portal. They will be able to access any service any time from any device.
Each resident will be integrated into the Digital Data Center, a round the clock operation that will offer e-concierge services like community assistance and information exchange, facility booking services for restaurants, spas, hotels, sports and recreation facilities, on-line maintenance facilities like preventive maintenance, community announcements through Virtual Notice Board, DLC culture and society services, DLC news and other facilities like on-line shopping and advertisements. DLC also plans to provide on-demand digital entertainment to its residents from the Digital Data Centre, which will include video on demand (VoD) with latest movies and shows, music, gaming, education, and sports on demand.
When completed the development will comprise 68 Tuscan-themed villas and 120 apartments, known as villettes, one four-star 150-room sports hotel, one five-star 170-room hotel with a 20,000 square foot spa, and world-class tennis and golf training facilities. A sports medicine centre and a dedicated "one-of-its kind for Dubai" gymnasium will also be part of the community. T
here will also be a 100,000 square foot shopping mall and eight restaurants. Cisco and Microsoft are partnering with the developers to deliver the technological requirements of the project. An 1100-seat theatre for the performing arts will also be built.
None of this will come cheaply as you might have gathered. The 11,000 square foot villas are priced between $5.4 million and $10.8 million. The whole project is slated for completion by the third quarter of 2009.
By the way if you fly into Dubai airport, Cisco is one of the main contractors there as well providing Dubai Airport is overhauling its network infrastructure and deploying a Cisco converged network to provide new services across its three terminals. The Cisco network will provide wireless coverage across the airport’s three terminals and lay the foundation for the adoption of next-generation network services throughout the facility, Cisco said.