DVIDS – News – Wi-Fight For Connection

In 2021, everything changed for sailors aboard the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70) as the ship was equipped with a capability new to U.S. Navy ships.

At this time, the Vinson was redeployed to the Western Pacific after an extended maintenance period, and the ship's mission required extended stays at sea.

“The Wi-Fi made everything better,” said Aviation Ordnanceman 1st Class Josiah Feeney. “We weren't able to make many port calls on this deployment. We were at sea for long periods of time, and being able to communicate with friends, family and loved ones back home made everything much more bearable.”

Wi-Fi is an essential resource for most people today to improve their quality of life, allowing Vinson Sailors to check their bank accounts, talk to their families, stay up to date with current world events, and enjoy media on their phones while thousands of miles from home.

Before the introduction of Wi-Fi, seafarers could only use the computers at their workstations for personal matters or to wait until they reached a port with telephone service or Wi-Fi connection.

In a Navy that is constantly changing due to technological advances, great strides have been made in helping Sailors bridge communications gaps between themselves and the rest of the world.

“On my first deployment, we had to use pay phones,” said Lt. Cmdr. Ashley Mannix, Vinson's Combat Systems Information Officer (CSIO). “The only way to talk to people was on the mess decks, where there were phones. You usually had to wait in line and there were rules about how long you could be on the phone.”

Vinson's first Wi-Fi system, O3B, was limited to the mess decks, the library, some bunks, and various locations on the ship. The mess decks were flooded daily with people texting their loved ones and keeping up with what was happening.

Vinson now has a new Wi-Fi system called CATNIP.
At the beginning of June, CATNIP was installed on the ship, significantly extending the range of the Wi-Fi on board; there are now more than 60 routers on the entire ship.

Sailors from the Combat Systems Department, Division CS-3, or Automated Data Processing (ADP), worked hundreds of hours to implement this new system before the ship departs for the Rim of the Pacific in 2024.

According to information systems technician Seaman Shane Wilder, installing wireless routers can take anywhere from 20 minutes to six hours because of the laborious process of connecting the wires to an Ethernet cable. After the wires are crimped, the Ethernet cable is connected to the bottom of the router, which flashes green when it's working and red when it's not.

“Red is never a good sign,” Wilder said. “The longest I've worked on a router was six hours. I've done a lot of routers, and it still takes just as long to get the cables right.”

After installing the routers and setting up the system, ADP faced another major task: creating a unique username and password for each seaman to manage daily bandwidth allocation.

“We've been creating accounts for days now,” said information systems technician Kelli Howarth. “People are knocking on our door 24/7 asking for their accounts. We've set up a new Wi-Fi help desk in addition to our regular help desk.”

Howarth said installing the new Wi-Fi system was a pain, but once the initial rush is over, traffic will subside.

“After that, new check-ins and seafarers will especially need help with their accounts,” said Howarth. “It's been hard work, but I'm glad I can offer my shipmates a way to stay in touch with their families and friends even so far out at sea.”

On the other side of the ship, the sailors enjoy the connection.

“Even though we are now back to normal operations, visiting more ports and preparing for deployment, the improved Wi-Fi has really boosted the morale of many seafarers,” said Feeney. “I see it as a really positive change. It's great, I can talk to my wife and send messages back every day. She sends me pictures of my daughter, our first child. It's really great to be able to stay in touch with them.”

Mannix believes that Wi-Fi has made great strides thanks to ADP and the Navy, which she can see from the number of sailors using the system.

“Since we returned from our deployment, all of the ADP sailors have been upgrading the WiFi to a level where we now have at least 2,500 concurrent users,” said Mannix. “The system we have now is definitely not plug and play. The IT departments have created tens of thousands of lines of code and many scripts to get the WiFi up to speed. As a CSIO, it makes me proud to see our sailors come together to brainstorm ideas and teach each other new skills that aren't necessarily taught in IT schools. We look forward to continuing to improve the WiFi system and making it so that every user gets exactly what they want.”