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ETHDenver 2024 Network Infrastructure Update

Kieran S
February 5, 2024
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2 minute read

Major ETHDenver 2024 IT Update

The IT team for ETHDenver 2024 has performed a comprehensive assessment of the state of the IT infrastructure for the upcoming show, this included 2 site visits, review of internal communications about issues, and collection of explicit feedback from stakeholders. During this assessment the IT team identified the following major pain points and have taken steps to remediate:

  • Undersized core infrastructure which likely resulted in dropped connections when the firewall state table filled up
  • Undersized NAT Pool causing throttling to various services due to an uneven distribution of connections
  • Lack of access point density in the BUIDLHub resulting in dropped connections and overloaded equipment

Firewalls

For core firewalls ETHDenver 2024 is leveraging a platform based on VPP from Netgate called TNSR. This year’s IT Team has used this platform with great success at multiple large scale events and expects it to scale to the load. The IT team has worked with the In-house IT provider to allocate an additional block of IP addresses to enable a larger NAT pool in an effort to resolve service side throttling.

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Throughout the venue the IT team is taking steps to identify wireless dead zones and improve coverage proactively, they have developed reactionary plans to resolve reported dead zones in real time, during the event through tactical deployment of equipment.

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50+ Access Points

In the BUIDLHub they will deploy an additional 50+ access points to achieve a high density with a target of no more than 20-25 clients per access point. After careful consideration, they have decided to deploy network switches at each row to provide optional hardwired connectivity. If you’re interested in connecting directly via hardline into one of our BUIDLHub switches, please bring a 35’ ethernet cable and a dongle, if your device requires one.

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In Conclusion

Overall the IT team feels confident in the planning and equipment changes that have been made. Between the equipment improvements, robust planning, and review of lessons learned they and the ETHDenver leadership feel confident in this year’s infrastructure that any issue that arises can be tackled head on and quickly resolved. 

Kieran S
Creative Steward