Wireless Networking
Modernizing Wireless Performance and Redundancy for a Pacific Northwest Utility Provider
Client
Utility Industry
Industry
Education
Year
Duration
1.5 weeks
(01)
Project overview.
A leading natural gas utility provider needed to improve wireless performance, strengthen network redundancy, and reduce downtime across four Oregon work sites. The organization’s legacy wireless infrastructure, including outdated controllers and switches, was causing lag, weak failover performance, and operational disruptions for office staff.
PM2 NET assessed the existing wireless environment and identified the outdated Cisco 5508 controller as a key limitation. To improve performance, scalability, redundancy, and management, PM2 NET recommended upgrading to the Cisco 5520 Wireless Controller. The modernization improved wireless speed, reduced lag, strengthened failover capabilities, and gave IT staff better centralized control over access points and business-critical applications.
Client Background
The client is a natural gas distributor headquartered in Portland, Oregon. The company provides natural gas service to more than 730,000 residential, commercial, and industrial customers across Oregon and Southwest Washington.
Founded more than 150 years ago as a small business serving 49 customers within one square mile of Portland, the company has grown into the largest independent natural gas utility provider in the Pacific Northwest. Because its operations depend on reliable connectivity across work sites, the organization required a wireless network capable of supporting daily business functions with minimal interruption.
(02)
Challenge.
Limited Network Redundancy
The organization lacked strong network redundancy and viable disaster recovery capabilities across its four Oregon work sites. When failovers occurred, network connections were lost, uptime was compromised, and recovery was difficult.
The issue was tied to an out-of-date wireless network environment, including legacy controllers and switches. These limitations prevented the organization from maintaining stable network availability during failures and made it harder for IT teams to keep business operations running smoothly.
Wireless Lag and User Complaints
Office staff frequently experienced lag and poor wireless performance. These issues interfered with day-to-day work and created frustration across the organization.
Because internet connectivity was essential to daily operations, slow or unreliable wireless performance impacted productivity and service delivery. Essential tasks could not be completed efficiently, and the company needed a more modern wireless architecture that could support business continuity, speed, and reliability.
(03)
Result.
PM2 NET assessed the company’s existing wireless network environment to determine the source of the performance and redundancy issues. The engineering team found that the organization was operating on an outdated Cisco 5508 Wireless Controller, which was limiting overall network performance and scalability.
PM2 NET recommended upgrading from the Cisco 5508 to the Cisco 5520 Wireless Controller. The Cisco 5520 was selected because it offered stronger performance, improved redundancy, better high-availability capabilities, and the scalability needed to support more access points and users across the organization’s work sites.
The upgrade gave the company a more modern wireless foundation with enhanced network management capabilities and improved support for business-critical applications.
The Result
After the wireless network upgrade, employees experienced noticeable improvements in wireless performance and speed. The modernized wireless environment reduced lag, improved daily productivity, and helped prevent workloads from being compromised by network issues.
The Cisco 5520 Wireless Controller provided high-availability features, including sub-second failover for access points and clients. This helped reduce downtime and improved the company’s ability to maintain connectivity if a controller failed.
The upgraded environment also strengthened redundancy across multiple sites. With high-performance controllers supporting the wireless infrastructure, the organization gained a more resilient network that could better withstand disruptions.
IT staff also benefited from improved network management. The Cisco 5520 provided a single point of management for access points across the network, making it easier to monitor, control, and optimize wireless operations.
Application Visibility and Control also gave the IT team granular classification and prioritization for thousands of business-critical applications, supported by dynamic protocol updates. This helped the organization better manage network traffic and prioritize applications essential to daily operations.
Key Advantages
Improved wireless performance and speed for employees
Reduced lag across office environments
Strengthened network redundancy across four Oregon work sites
Improved disaster recovery and failover capabilities
Upgraded from Cisco 5508 to Cisco 5520 Wireless Controller
Enabled sub-second access point and client failover
Provided centralized management for network access points
Supported scalability for more access points and users
Enabled Application Visibility and Control for business-critical applications
Reduced risk of operational disruption caused by network issues
Wireless Networking
Modernizing Wireless Performance and Redundancy for a Pacific Northwest Utility Provider
Client
Utility Industry
Industry
Education
Year
Duration
1.5 weeks
(01)
Project overview.
A leading natural gas utility provider needed to improve wireless performance, strengthen network redundancy, and reduce downtime across four Oregon work sites. The organization’s legacy wireless infrastructure, including outdated controllers and switches, was causing lag, weak failover performance, and operational disruptions for office staff.
PM2 NET assessed the existing wireless environment and identified the outdated Cisco 5508 controller as a key limitation. To improve performance, scalability, redundancy, and management, PM2 NET recommended upgrading to the Cisco 5520 Wireless Controller. The modernization improved wireless speed, reduced lag, strengthened failover capabilities, and gave IT staff better centralized control over access points and business-critical applications.
Client Background
The client is a natural gas distributor headquartered in Portland, Oregon. The company provides natural gas service to more than 730,000 residential, commercial, and industrial customers across Oregon and Southwest Washington.
Founded more than 150 years ago as a small business serving 49 customers within one square mile of Portland, the company has grown into the largest independent natural gas utility provider in the Pacific Northwest. Because its operations depend on reliable connectivity across work sites, the organization required a wireless network capable of supporting daily business functions with minimal interruption.
(02)
Challenge.
Limited Network Redundancy
The organization lacked strong network redundancy and viable disaster recovery capabilities across its four Oregon work sites. When failovers occurred, network connections were lost, uptime was compromised, and recovery was difficult.
The issue was tied to an out-of-date wireless network environment, including legacy controllers and switches. These limitations prevented the organization from maintaining stable network availability during failures and made it harder for IT teams to keep business operations running smoothly.
Wireless Lag and User Complaints
Office staff frequently experienced lag and poor wireless performance. These issues interfered with day-to-day work and created frustration across the organization.
Because internet connectivity was essential to daily operations, slow or unreliable wireless performance impacted productivity and service delivery. Essential tasks could not be completed efficiently, and the company needed a more modern wireless architecture that could support business continuity, speed, and reliability.
(03)
Result.
PM2 NET assessed the company’s existing wireless network environment to determine the source of the performance and redundancy issues. The engineering team found that the organization was operating on an outdated Cisco 5508 Wireless Controller, which was limiting overall network performance and scalability.
PM2 NET recommended upgrading from the Cisco 5508 to the Cisco 5520 Wireless Controller. The Cisco 5520 was selected because it offered stronger performance, improved redundancy, better high-availability capabilities, and the scalability needed to support more access points and users across the organization’s work sites.
The upgrade gave the company a more modern wireless foundation with enhanced network management capabilities and improved support for business-critical applications.
The Result
After the wireless network upgrade, employees experienced noticeable improvements in wireless performance and speed. The modernized wireless environment reduced lag, improved daily productivity, and helped prevent workloads from being compromised by network issues.
The Cisco 5520 Wireless Controller provided high-availability features, including sub-second failover for access points and clients. This helped reduce downtime and improved the company’s ability to maintain connectivity if a controller failed.
The upgraded environment also strengthened redundancy across multiple sites. With high-performance controllers supporting the wireless infrastructure, the organization gained a more resilient network that could better withstand disruptions.
IT staff also benefited from improved network management. The Cisco 5520 provided a single point of management for access points across the network, making it easier to monitor, control, and optimize wireless operations.
Application Visibility and Control also gave the IT team granular classification and prioritization for thousands of business-critical applications, supported by dynamic protocol updates. This helped the organization better manage network traffic and prioritize applications essential to daily operations.
Key Advantages
Improved wireless performance and speed for employees
Reduced lag across office environments
Strengthened network redundancy across four Oregon work sites
Improved disaster recovery and failover capabilities
Upgraded from Cisco 5508 to Cisco 5520 Wireless Controller
Enabled sub-second access point and client failover
Provided centralized management for network access points
Supported scalability for more access points and users
Enabled Application Visibility and Control for business-critical applications
Reduced risk of operational disruption caused by network issues
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