A Municipal Fiber to the Home Network for Charlemont Massacusetts
The fiber towns of Charlemont, Colrain, Heath, Leyden, and Rowe – collectively known as the ‘Northern Ring’- have been awarded a $400,000 Massachusetts Community Compact Cabinet Municipal Fiber Grant to support building an interconnected ‘mesh’ network supporting multiple backhaul paths to significantly improve the resiliency of each participating town!
Comments closedNow that service is available in all areas of town, Charlemont has proactively doubled the backhaul capacity of the municipal network! This will also ensure that there will be plenty of extra capacity as summer residents return and seasonal businesses increase their usage. Increasing the municipal network’s connection to the broader internet will ensure continued exceptional performance in the busy months ahead.
Comments closedCharlemont worked with Whip City fiber to install a backup circuit in early October that provides a redundant path for traffic in the event of an emergency outage on the MBI 1-2-3 network. On October 16, there was such an outage due to hilltown storm damage that caused some of our neighboring towns to be without service. In Charlemont, the network traffic ‘failed over’ giving this new circuit its first test. Some customers noticed a drop in network speed during this time but the network remained operational throughout the MBI remediation.
Comments closedSplicing is complete in Charlemont’s first fiber service area (FSA), the fourth and longest step in the construction process! Splice teams will move from FSA 01 east into FSA 05, where the fiber and MST construction are close to completion awaiting some remedial make-ready, and then onto FSA 04. The network hub is also seeing splicing activity as TriWire prepares for the testing and validation of the fiber connections to each location.
Comments closedOur partners at Westfield Gas & Electric (WG&E) have completed the installation of the active electronics in the Charlemont Network Hub. With this step, Charlemont’s municipal fiber network hub is now lit and connected to the world! The purchase of the active electronics was supported by a USDA Rural Business Development Grant (RBDG) of $36,000.
Comments closedThe Charlemont network hub has been connected to the MBI 123 middle mile network co-located in the basement of Goodnow Town Hall! This work was performed by the MassBroadband 123 network operator Local Lynx. This connection will serve as the Charlemont Connect municipal fiber network ‘backhaul’ that will carry information between Charlemont’s municipal network and the wider world.
Comments closedCharlemont Municipal Fiber Network
Selectboard Status Report
March 7, 2021
Summary
Network construction is underway and the essential work in the village center has been completed to alleviate conflicts with the DOT traffic calming project, which will be resuming soon. The subscription website is operational and we are encouraging all residents to sign up so that WhipCityFiber can plan the installation schedule for the summer. There will be a virtual information session on March 16. Sign-ups are currently at 20%, mostly through word-of-mouth. The project remains on budget. WhipCityFiber is recommending a “safe” schedule with FSA01 (the first fiber service area) lighting up in July and the other FSAs following at two-month intervals. The town is working with WGE and TriWire to try to accelerate this schedule if possible. Currently, the lack of fiber splicing and testing crews seems to be the bottleneck.
TriWire, our distribution construction team, has the fiber for each FSA running into our network equipment room ready to be connected to the installed optical equipment! Because our Network Equipment Hub is in the center of the traffic calming area, having the network backbone run through to the hub is another success for the project staying ahead of the Department of Transportation in the village center.
Comments closedOur partners, WG&E, have completed the installation of the optical network equipment in our network hub! TriWire, our distribution construction team, also has the fiber for each FSA running into our equipment room ready to be connected when service installations begin!
Comments closedWestfield Gas and Electric (WG&E) is making good progress installing the racks and optical equipment for the network hub. To ensure that delays were avoided and our equipment was protected from damage, volunteer Trevor Mackie prepared the enclosure in advance of the installation by running a conduit through the Network Equipment Enclosure (NEE) to the electrical panel in the basement of the town hall. This conduit will be used for connecting the planned Emergency Management Department generator slated to provide backup power to the town hall and to the NEE.
Comments closed
