How PD Ports identified the Wi-Fi 'blank spots' that slowed port operations to a halt

Wireless security cameras, a bank of microwave ovens and interference from ships' own Wi-Fi networks identified with NetScout Wireless Performance Management

Middlesbrough-based PD Ports owns and operates ten ports across the UK, including the Ports of Tees and Hartlepool, and Hull Container Terminal, as well as providing logistics and warehousing at the Ports of Felixstowe, Scunthorpe and Billingham.

But shifting some 36 million tons of goods through these various different ports is a logistical challenge - one made all the more acute by the vagaries of 2.4GHz wireless networking.

The organisation had implemented this network to support its new automated Container Terminal Operating System, called NAVIS, built to coordinate and optimise the planning and management of container and equipment movement within terminals, further improving the efficiency of some of the most efficient ports in the world.

But PD Ports found that the 2.4 GHz wireless mesh network suffered random and intermittent disruption at one facility, causing slowdowns in the transmission of operational data between the system and crane operators under pressure to unload ships.

As a result, operations were disrupted as crane operators experienced long time lags or were even forced to reboot when disruption occurred, which had a knock-on effect on the unloading and warehousing of containers.

The slowdown caused by the unreliability of the wireless network was so great that ship turnaround time was affected, triggering penalty clauses costing PD Ports thousands of pounds.

PD Ports therefore called in Full Control Networks, who recommended implementing NetScout's AirMagnet WiFi Analyzer software in order to investigate more thoroughly the cause of the problems.

Full Control Networks reasoned that by better managing the wireless environment around the ports PD Ports operated the quality of the Wi-Fi network could be improved, while also tightening up security.

AirMagnet Enterprise offers wireless intrusion detection and prevention, and cellular security. NetScout's software also enables PD Ports to monitor the 'air space' around the facility for performance and provides remote troubleshooting features. It can even enforce no-wireless zones.

The technology was also able to help the organisation to home-in on the cause of its Wi-Fi networking woes. Four AirMagnet Enterprise sensors were installed at each corner of the port facility, and AirMagnet Spectrum XT professional, a USB-based radio-frequency spectrum analyzer used to pinpoint the source of the intermittent wireless interference, once the general location of the problem had been identified.

Dealing with the problem required IT staff with a head for heights, with staff having to clamber up base station towers in order to properly identify the sources of interference. And this in a container port with well-stacked metal containers that often causing unavoidable ‘not-spots' on the ground.

And the causes of the Wi-Fi-busting interference? A legacy 2.4GHz wireless security camera that was activated when security and other staff wandered by, hence the random and intermittent Wi-Fi problems. NetScout AirMagnet also identified a bank of microwave ovens on-site as a frequent cause of interference, too.

But that wasn't all.

What the technology also highlighted was how visiting container ships, most of which also run powerful 2.4GHz Wi-Fi networks of their own, could also inadvertently wreaking havoc with PD Port's wireless network.

The business case was therefore made for a shift to a less congested 5GHz frequency Wi-Fi network. And PD Ports can now more easily monitor both the everyday performance of that network and its security - and also avoid those nasty penalty clauses caused by an unreliable wireless network.