infoTECH Feature

January 19, 2016

NuScale Again Upgrades Wireless Network With Aruba

About three years ago, NuScale Power, a developer of modular nuclear power units, decided to upgrade the wireless network at its headquarters in Portland, Ore. It chose Aruba, which is owned by Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), as its network services provider and soon upgraded its five other locations.

NuScale is working with Aruba once again to upgrade all those facilities with latest 802.11ac access points, mobility controllers, and access switches to make sure the whole of its wireless infrastructure is on the cutting edge. This development includes the use of Aruba AirWave (News - Alert) for network management and Aruba ClearPass Policy Manager for control over network access of company and guest devices.

Doug Breitmayer, senior network engineer for NuScale, commented on the importance of these upgrades and the crucial role ClearPass plays here:

“A quality-driven design process is a fundamental requirement in our industry,” Breitmayer said. “Being able to pick up your laptop, connect back to the design document repositories and collaborate in that environment is critical and only made possible with our Aruba and HPE network in place.”

He continued by noting that NuScale lives and dies on the proper operation of ClearPass. As the nuclear power developer’s central point of device authentication and controller of all individual employees’ devices, ClearPass acts as the keystone in a system that supports a lot of collaborative endeavors.

NuScale pointed out that as many as 80 percent of its employees work on collaborate documents and spend time inside and outside the office, in various locations, to complete that work. Wireless access inside company facilities, therefore, must operate properly at all times. Downtime at its headquarters or any company branch could damage the completion of any project in progress.

HPE’s adoption of Aruba has also reportedly affected this upgrade for the better. Breitmayer also commented that his company has been happy with the performance of HPE FlexFabric switches that work inside the company data center. It helps handle the load of wireless devices in such a way that it doesn’t bog down speeds for anyone else on the network. Performance has been called consistent and reliable – apparently well worth the continued attention.




Edited by Kyle Piscioniere
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