IMPERIUM DATA IN PRACTICE | Case Study
THE QUESTION EVERY MUNICIPAL BROADBAND LEADER CARRIES INTO THIS DECISION
Can a lean public utility run a carrier-grade core with 24x7 coverage, without building a carrier-sized operations team? Holland Board of Public Works answered it with a single partner accountable for the core, from the addressing plan to the phone call at two in the morning.
THE CHALLENGE
Holland BPW has operated fiber infrastructure for three decades. The 2022 millage changed the scale of the job. Construction of the citywide network began in February 2024 across 16 fiberhoods, with service offered at 2 Gbps and 10 Gbps symmetrical, no contracts, and no data caps.
Every fiberhood that lit up put more load on a core designed for the network Holland ran before the citywide build. Three constraints were converging on the broadband team.
Addressing. On an IPv4-only network, every new subscriber consumes a public IPv4 address. New IPv4 space is scarce and costly on the transfer market, so without IPv6 and an address-sharing layer, the subscriber count would eventually be capped by address inventory, not by fiber.
Edge capacity. The existing Cisco ASR1001-X edge routers were specified for the pre-expansion network. A 10 Gbps residential tier and rising subscriber density called for more throughput headroom and a redundant routing design sized for the full citywide footprint.
Operations. The broadband team is lean by design. A public utility does not staff an overnight NOC, and a core outage at 2 a.m. still takes every subscriber offline. Support purchased as a contract line item leaves the utility's own engineers to open the case, work the escalation, and explain their topology to someone seeing it for the first time.
| Before Imperium Data | After Imperium Data |
|---|---|
| IPv4-only addressing; every new subscriber consumes a public address | Dual-stack IPv6 across the Calix and Cisco environment |
| No address-sharing layer to stretch public IPv4 space | A10 carrier-grade NAT with integrated DDoS protection |
| Edge routing sized for the pre-expansion network | Redundant Juniper MX204 pair running BGP and OSPF for high availability |
| No in-house 24x7 NOC coverage for the core | 24x7x365 access to the Imperium Data NOC under Juniper PAR support; Imperium Data owns troubleshooting, JTAC escalation, and RMA |
THE ENGAGEMENT
Holland BPW engaged Imperium Data for the full arc of the core transformation. Each phase was scoped, delivered, documented, and handed over before the next began.
| Phase | Scope | Delivered |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 · Phase 1 Addressing: Dual-Stack IPv6 | Transitioned the service-provider network to dual-stack IPv6 across the Calix and Cisco environment. | Dual-stack IPv6 addressing layout; Calix ONT and Cisco ASR1001-X configuration; off-net validation and documentation |
| 2024 · Phase 2 Scale: A10 Carrier-Grade NAT | Designed and installed an A10 CG-NAT solution to preserve public IPv4 space as the subscriber base grew. | Carrier-grade NAT, ONT to internet; integrated DDoS protection; knowledge transfer and final configuration |
| 2025 · Phase 3 Routing Core: Juniper MX204 Edge | Replaced the existing edge with a redundant pair of Juniper MX204 routers to carry the 10 Gbps tier citywide. | 2x Juniper MX204, BGP and OSPF, HA pair; configured and cut over remotely; backed by three years of Juniper PAR support |
The sequence was deliberate. With IPv6 and CG-NAT in place, the addressing plan was settled before the edge changed. Phase 3 became a routing migration on a stable foundation, and the 2024 addressing work now runs at full scale on a core built to match it. (Imperium Data has run this kind of platform change at a much larger scale too: see the Tier 1 telecom's security-driven F5 to A10 migration.)
THE CUTOVER
Imperium Data designed the MX204 configuration, staged it, and executed the migration entirely remotely. The two routers run BGP and OSPF as a high-availability pair, so a single router or link failure does not take subscribers offline.
For a municipal utility, remote delivery removes travel scheduling from the critical path. The cutover window was set by Holland's operational calendar, and the project moved from kickoff to live service in roughly ten days.
THE SUPPORT MODEL
The failure mode in most support arrangements is context. The operator opens a case, the first responder has never seen the network, and the utility's own engineer spends the early part of an outage walking through the topology while subscribers wait.
Imperium Data Shared Support runs on Juniper's PAR model, which puts Imperium Data on the front line as the Juniper partner. Holland calls one number and reaches the Imperium Data NOC 24x7x365, staffed by the engineers who designed and built its core. Imperium Data owns troubleshooting, opens and manages JTAC escalations when the issue requires Juniper engineering, and handles RMAs on Holland's behalf. Juniper's technical assistance center stays in the escalation path. Holland's team no longer has to be the one working it.
| Support purchased as a line item | Imperium Data Shared Support |
|---|---|
| The customer opens the case and starts at tier one | 24x7x365 access to the Imperium Data NOC through one number |
| First responders have no history with the network | Responders designed and built the core, from IPv6 to the Juniper edge |
| The customer manages the escalation and the RMA | Imperium Data owns JTAC escalation and RMA end to end |
IN THEIR WORDS
"We're a public utility with a lean team. When something goes sideways at two in the morning, I can't be on hold with a global queue explaining our network to a stranger. With Imperium's Shared Support, I call one number and reach engineers who already know our core inside out, because they built it with us, from IPv6 and CG-NAT all the way to our Juniper edge. They don't hand us off. They own the outcome. That's not a vendor. That's an extension of my team."
Mike Bieri, Network Engineer, Holland Board of Public Works
THE OUTCOME
Holland BPW now runs a redundant Juniper MX204 edge engineered to carry symmetrical 10 Gbps service across the city, on an addressing plan that scales with the subscriber base instead of against it. Public IPv4 space is preserved by CG-NAT, and DDoS protection sits in the path.
Calix, Cisco, A10, and Juniper all operate under one accountable relationship. When something breaks, Holland reaches the engineers who built the network, and those engineers own the escalation from first call to resolution.
The broadband team stays lean. The coverage behind it does not.
Most municipal fiber projects budget carefully for glass, conduit, and construction crews. The core gets less attention until subscriber growth exposes it. Before you replace an edge router, confirm your addressing plan can absorb the full buildout, because an edge migration on an unsettled addressing plan doubles the risk of both. Size the edge for the top tier you sell, not the average subscriber. And ask any prospective partner a direct question: when the core fails at 2 a.m., who answers, and have they seen your network before? The same principle of sizing the core to the operator, not the vendor's reference design, runs through Franklin Telephone's rural core migration and our take on why rural ISPs need purpose-built core routing.
Settling the addressing plan first turns the edge replacement into a routing migration on a stable foundation. Holland BPW's IPv6 and CG-NAT work in 2024 meant the 2025 MX204 cutover did not have to change addressing and routing at the same time.
Yes, when the configuration is designed, staged, and validated before the maintenance window. Imperium Data configured and migrated Holland BPW's Juniper MX204 pair remotely, moving from kickoff to live service in about ten days.
Under the PAR model, Imperium Data is the first call through its 24x7x365 NOC. Its engineers troubleshoot, open and manage JTAC escalations when Juniper engineering is needed, and handle RMAs, so the customer's team never has to work the vendor queue directly.
No. Holland BPW's core spans Calix, Cisco, A10, and Juniper, and Imperium Data owns the outcome across all of them. Platform choices follow the operator's requirements.
Building or expanding a community fiber network? Imperium Data brings design authority, relentless execution, and real ownership to service-provider cores, from the addressing plan through 24x7 support. Start the conversation.