Case Study: California State Transportation Agency achieves mobile high-performance Wi‑Fi hotspots for digital‑desert communities with HPE Aruba Networking

Innovative multi-agency Wi-Fi Bus proof of concept delivers connectivity to digital deserts using Aruba SD-Branch Gateways, Wi-Fi and Central

CalSTA, the City of Sacramento and Sacramento Regional Transit District (SacRT) partnered on a 60‑day proof of concept to convert 10 transit buses into free mobile Wi‑Fi super‑hotspots to serve digital‑desert communities during the COVID‑19 pandemic. The initiative aimed to support distance learning, telework and telehealth while maintaining social distancing and creating an easily repeatable model for other agencies.

Aruba provided an SD‑Branch solution—370 Series outdoor APs, 9000 Series gateways, Aruba Central for cloud management and ClearPass for access control—mounted with LTE uplinks to create centrally managed mobile hotspots. The deployment delivered secure, high‑performance Wi‑Fi to schools, parks, libraries and community events, enabled zero‑touch provisioning and granular analytics (about 50% of nearby devices connected; longest observed connection ~300 yards), unified the user experience across buses and produced a Mobile Hotspot Playbook for replication.

California State Transportation Agency

Lori Pepper

Deputy Secretary of Innovative Mobility Solutions