27. Oct 2008 00:00 12. Oct 2009 14:49

Successful Migration of Wireless Network

Migration of the wireless network at St. Olav was highly successful; 633 base stations were transferred to a new program platform in the course of four days.

12. Oct 2009 14:44 12. Oct 2009 14:44

The existing wireless network at St. Olavs Hospital is one of the worlds largest on the ”old” WLSM-platform, and must be upgraded in order to handle a future with 1300 base stations in one comprehensive WiSM-network. At the same time the speed of the wireless network will increase fivefold*, stability will improve, and the number of simultaneous, virtual wireless networks can be increased.  

	ICT Project Manager Tore Indreråk - pleased and a little relieved after the big move.

“Most users will not notice any difference, but users of laptop PCs will perhaps experience a more rapid response,” says ICT Project Manager, Tore Indreråk, with the Hospital Development Project for Central Norway.

Approximately twenty-five people have been involved with the upgrade almost around the clock. The migration has been planned for two years, and also simulated several times at Cisco’s headquarters in the U.S. The next upgrade may be presumed necessary by about the year 2018.

The migration itself has been done by center and in segments of twenty-five stations to ensure greatest possible control. Most effort has gone into testing and verification that all works as it should, including one last simulation with 100 times the limit on total conversations before delivery to the driftsorganisasjonen. The project also had escalation routines in place with so-called TAC-groups in several countries ready in case of problems.

“This has been an outstandingly well planned and implemented migration. At the same time, cooperation between Telenor, HP, Cisco, EDB, St Olav, NTNU, HemIT and the Hospital Development Project has been in a class of its own during this process”, says Indreråk to sum it up.

* For the technically interested: The network shifts from 802.11b to 802.11g - see for example Wikipedia