Big Gatherings Often Require Temporary Network Expansion

While most federal organizations will never host a gathering approaching the size of the Democratic National Convention, those that wish to expand an existing network temporarily can learn from what worked for the DNC.

“I think there are a couple of network considerations to keep in mind if you’re planning to stage a major event,” says Brandon Butler, senior research manager with the network infrastructure group at market intelligence firm IDC.

One important question to answer is whether the occasion will require separate public and private networks. A public (guest) network might use technologies such as Wi-Fi 6E or Wi-Fi 7, which offer broad client-device support, he explains.

“In the past, Wi-Fi used only the 2.4 gigahertz and 5GHz bands, but these new standards give you the ability to operate in dense environments where you have a lot of devices connecting at the same time.”

Scaling Up and Down a Network With Ease

The DNC required networks at two separate sites in the Chicago: McCormick Place and the United Center. Existing network equipment at each location had to be recalibrated, and new routers, switches, access points and IP phones had to be installed to the committee’s specifications. A lean-agile process improvement company, AtkCo often partners with other businesses to supplement its resources. For this project, Atkins says, she decided to bring in CDW Government, which is also based in the Chicago metropolitan area.

“We liked that CDW was local, and the biggest thing was, they had experience at both venues,” she says. AtkCo asked the company’s engineers to determine which solutions were needed at each site. CDW would also supply the IT professionals needed on short notice to facilitate the installations, and it would provide the Secret Service with information to conduct background checks.

“Everything had to happen very quickly, and there really wasn’t any room for error,” Atkins says. “Fortunately, between us, we had the people and the expertise to do what had to be done.”

For the DNC, AtkCo ultimately went with a combination of Cisco technologies and Ubiquiti UniFi wireless solutions that came prepackaged in what Atkins describes as “networking kits.”

Once the event ended, all equipment was returned to the original boxes. “And just like that, it was all over,” she recalls. “Within a week, everyone had left and everything was back to normal.”

The Bandwidth to Support a National Convention and City

With 50,000 visitors expected for last July’s Republican National Convention, Milwaukee CIO David Henke was focused on beefing up the network at 5400 South 60th Street. The 165,000-square-foot facility would be the temporary emergency operations center for various state and local public safety agencies.

“We were very fortunate that the building was basically a turnkey operation,” Henke says, explaining how it had previously served as the headquarters for Goodwill Industries of Southeastern Wisconsin. There were already data closets and interior wiring in place, “so we just threw in our own work switches and were able to get a short-term fiber-optic service,” he says.

Milwaukee relies on Extreme Networks for most of its networking infrastructure, and it typically leverages the company’s Fabric Connect solution when it needs to scale up its fiber backbone. The challenge in this case involved extending the city’s network across a leased circuit. Officials also had to determine how much bandwidth the building’s many users would need.

“We knew that a typical police district in Milwaukee used from around 500 megabits to 1 gigabit, so we decided to start with a gigabit circuit,” Henke says. The convention brought in AT&T to do the requisite work, and then organizers learned that law enforcement agencies would be downloading video from 1,200 body cameras at the end of each day.

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“That was kind of a shock — like maybe 1 gig wasn’t enough,” Henke says. They made a call and added another circuit, “and the good thing was, that gave us some diversity if something happened and one circuit went down.”

With the date of the convention fast approaching, the Milwaukee Information and Technology Management Division turned their attention to other tasks. They installed Cisco wireless APs to provide public access to Wi-Fi, and they created a dedicated conference room with a projector and workstations for hosting virtual meetings.

The team provided support to agencies 24 hours a day for the duration of the event, but it also attended to everyday tasks, serving the city as usual.

“That’s something that the mayor made very clear, that even though the RNC was here, that didn’t mean we’d stop what we were doing,” Henke says. It was a really busy week that had the networking team scrambling, “but everything went well, and we stayed open for business.”

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