Alaska

Network, Wi-Fi and SD-WAN Services in Alaska

We design, build and support switching, Wi-Fi and wide area networks for organizations in Alaska, planned around sites on fiber, microwave and satellite links.

Talk to Us About a Project All Alaska Services

What We Do

Trybus Solutions designs, builds and supports the networks Alaska organizations run on: the switching and Wi-Fi inside each building, the wide area network between sites, and the route out to the internet and cloud services.

Most of our work starts for one of a few reasons. A circuit contract is up for renewal. Switching or wireless is coming up on end of support. A building is being fitted out. A broadband award has changed what a site can buy. Or a calling, video or cloud project has run into a network that cannot carry it.

Wide area networks in Alaska often mix fiber, microwave and satellite, sometimes inside one organization, and satellite now covers both geostationary links with long delay and low-earth-orbit services with far less. Each type of link has its own delay, capacity and cost, and the design has to decide what traffic each site sends over which path, and what gives way when a link fills up.

We work nationwide from Chattanooga, Tennessee. Our clients usually have their own IT team, and we are there for the design, the cutovers and the work that has to happen out of hours. The wider scope of our network design, wireless and SD-WAN work is set out on its own page.

Why Alaska Organizations Bring Us In

We are not tied to one manufacturer.
We carry a range of technology partners, so what ends up in the design is decided by your sites, not by what we happen to sell. If the equipment you have has life in it, we will say so.
We measure the links before we design over them.
Contracted bandwidth and delivered bandwidth are often different, and delay over a satellite path changes what a site can run. We measure delay, jitter and loss on each link over time and set traffic policy around the results.
We look at the building before we design for it.
Closet space, power and cooling, grounding, and how much of the cable plant is worth keeping are established before a design is drawn. At a remote site, finding out on installation day costs a second trip.
We stage everything before it ships.
Switches, access points and edge devices are configured, labeled and tested on a bench before they travel, so time on site is spent racking, patching and verifying. We plan spares for sites where a replacement takes days to arrive.
Design and procurement in one place.
We can design the network and supply the hardware and licensing for it, and our procurement can work with your purchasing system.
We are still there after go-live.
Support is available as a separate agreement, with coverage hours agreed in Alaska time. Plenty of clients keep their own team and use us for the project alone.

What You Get

Scope varies. One wiring closet does not need the documentation thirty sites do. Below is what we produce on a typical mid-size project, and we agree what you need during scoping.

Everything we produce is yours. If you take the design elsewhere to be built, it will be complete enough for somebody else to build it.

Assessment of the current network:
What is running today, taken from the live equipment and the cable plant as well as from whatever documentation exists.
Link survey:
Each wide area link, its type, its contracted and measured capacity, and its delay, jitter and loss through the working day.
Requirements document:
What the network has to carry at each site, how many people and devices it serves, and the budget and timeline it has to fit.
Recommendation and options:
What we suggest, what else was considered, and the reasoning, written so it can be taken to a board or a council without an engineer to translate it.
Design documentation:
A high-level design on most projects, and a low-level design carrying addressing, routing, traffic policy and port allocation where the build warrants one.
Wireless design and survey results:
A predictive design before the build and a validation survey after it, with access point placement and a channel and power plan.
Cabling specification and test results:
Floor plans, closet layouts, pathways and labeling, written as a specification the cabling partner installs against, plus the certification results handed back when the links are in.
Bill of materials:
Hardware, licensing, spares, cable and services itemized, so procurement works from real numbers.
As-built documentation and handover pack:
Diagrams, configurations, addressing and labeling, and what your team needs to run the network without calling us.

The Layers We Work In

Six layers. Most projects touch more than one, and the ones underneath decide what is possible above them.

The Physical Layer

Copper and fiber, closets, racks, power and grounding. We survey what is there and specify what the design needs; the cable itself is installed by the cabling partners we bring in. In older buildings and at remote sites, power and cooling in the closet are the usual surprise.

Switching

Core, distribution and access switching, redundancy, and the power budget for phones, cameras and access points drawing power over the cable. A refresh is usually driven by end of support, or by a power budget that ran out.

Wi-Fi

Predictive design, access point placement, channel and power planning, and a validation survey after installation. Clinics, offices, warehouses and lodging each ask something different of the same access points.

Wide Area Network and SD-WAN

Links between sites over fiber, microwave and satellite, path selection and failover, and the traffic policy that decides what gives way. Software-defined WAN can steer voice and video onto the better path at that moment, provided there is more than one path to choose from.

Internet Edge and Cloud Access

Connections to the internet and to cloud services, and where each site's traffic breaks out. Sending cloud traffic the long way round, through another site first, adds delay that calling and video notice.

Monitoring and Visibility

Topology mapping, configuration backup, alerting, and visibility into the carrier links outside your own equipment. Your team should hear about a problem from a dashboard before a user calls.

How a Project Runs in Alaska

Broadly the same shape whether it is one closet or thirty sites. Timescales depend on circuit lead times, hardware availability, freight, and how much of the work has to happen outside business hours.

Scoping and kickoff:
Agree what is in scope, the deliverables, who is involved and how decisions get made, including any funding rules that apply to the circuits or the equipment.
Discovery and link survey:
Configuration pulled from the live equipment, documentation checked against what is plugged in, and measurements taken on each wide area link. Where that changes the scope, we price it and you decide.
Site survey:
Closets, risers and wireless coverage surveyed on site where the project requires it, with visits grouped so one trip covers as many sites as it reasonably can.
Design and review:
Design documented, then walked through with your team. Sign-off is what the build gets measured against.
Procurement and staging:
Hardware and licensing ordered, configured and staged before anyone travels. Lead times and freight are the usual reasons a date moves, so we order as early as the design allows.
Cabling and physical works:
Pathways, cable, terminations and racks, installed by the cabling partner against our specification and checked by us. It keeps its own schedule and needs building access.
Cutover and handover:
Site by site inside agreed change windows, with a way back. Then closer support while the snags come out, as-built documentation, a labeling check and training for your team.

What Is Quoted Separately

Most of what is below is work we do. It is not part of a network project by default, because each piece carries its own scope, its own schedule and its own cost. If you want any of it included, say so at scoping and we will quote it in. The last one is different: it is work we do not do at all.

Structured cabling and pathways.
We do not pull cable ourselves. We survey the building, write the specification and coordinate the cabling partners who install against it, then check the results before the switching goes on top.
Travel and freight.
Site visits and shipping are itemized on their own, because they depend on where the sites are and when the work happens.
Ongoing operation and support.
Monitoring, day-to-day administration and support are a separate agreement with their own service levels.
Security policy and compliance evidence.
Firewall and identity policy, control mapping and audit evidence are engagements our security and compliance teams run in their own right. On a network project we build to the requirements already set.
Internet and wide area circuits.
We specify what each site needs and design around whatever you buy. We do not become your carrier, and circuits stay with whoever bills them.

Who We Work With in Alaska

The technology does not change much between sectors. The order of priorities does, and so does what each site's link will allow.

Tribal Health and Tribal Government →

One network carrying government, health, housing and enterprise operations, with segmentation between them and sovereignty over the data.

Hospitals and Clinics →

Wi-Fi that holds up in clinical areas, medical devices that cannot be patched, and links between hub hospitals and village clinics.

Boroughs, Cities and State Agencies →

Buildings older than the cable in them, public procurement rules, and services with no alternative when the network is down.

Alaska Native Corporations →

Subsidiary networks joined after each acquisition, across offices, job sites and camps in several states.

Technology We Work With

We hold partner relationships across the networking industry, and our engineers also work in platforms we do not sell. A refresh starts on whatever is in the racks now, whoever supplied it.

We do not publish comparisons between manufacturers. Which platform suits an organization is something an assessment works out, not something a website should decide.

See all technology partners →

Talk to Us About a Network in Alaska

Tell us how many sites are involved, how each one connects, and what is driving the date. We will tell you what we think needs doing and what does not, and put a scope and a number against it.