Background
Two P was engaged by EnerTribe in mid-2020 to assist in COVID-19 relief efforts to complete wireless ISP deployments across three counties in Northern California.
EnerTribe is a native owned consulting firm that specializes in deploying community broadband networks for tribal communities. EnerTribe has focused on government relations, grant fundraising, communication site deployment, and wireless engineering for these engagements.
The Requirements
The primary community that Two P was working with via Enertribe is the Hoopa Valley Tribe. Eventually this is going to be a Fiber to the Home (FTTH) deployment. As the Fiber build out would take some time, they wanted an interim solution of a core network, and a backhaul of transit and wireless deployment for the initial customers. The initial deployment had to scale to the FTTH requirements.
The deployment timeline was a significant concern due to the need for remote education and work requirements of COVID-19 and winter weather conditions made it difficult to access some sites. Moreover, the reservations are rural, requiring hours of driving to get to them. Planning needs to be extensive as minor missing pieces (ie: the right power plug) can cause a delay in implementation by weeks.
The Deployment
Two P deployed initial ISP infrastructure – including routers, fiber/copper switches, microwave licensed/unlicensed radios, and servers.
The initial deployment focused on getting a functional network up in a quick fashion. Support for growth and sovereign status was important to the tribe, Two P provided guidance on the ARIN process to receive provider independent IP address space. Hoopa was able to receive their own AS number and IPv4 /22 (1024 addresses) allocation.
The Takeaways
Two P worked with Hoopa technical staff to collaborate remotely in a COVID-19 safe manner. This included sending up Raspberry Pi units pre-configured with a serial console, additional ethernet ports, and remote VPN access. This allowed Two P staff to virtually-configure factory default hardware remotely. Industry best practices and procedures were shared with staff that were new to the ISP space. Examples include support ticketing, maintenance window processes, and inventory systems.
“As a native and woman-owned firm, EnerTribe is proud to work with Two P on such critical infrastructure projects for Indigenous communities. We’ve seen firsthand how their level of expertise has saved us and our tribal client’s limited resources. Two P has been at our side since the beginning of the COVID-19 Pandemic and continues to demonstrate a professional presence based on solid principles. We look forward to assisting native American communities in these critical times and are grateful for the Two P team!”
– Forest James, Chief Executive Officer, EnerTribe, Inc.
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