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Latest Update on Mandalay 4 Gates


Update: 11/8/2024


The entrance gate at Mandalay 4 has been open since yesterday. A technician came out today and diagnosed that a critical piece of network equipment has failed. When this happens the entrance gates will automatically open and stay open until connectivity is restored.


The gates and kiosk must maintain Internet connectivity to operate. They constantly monitor that connection by pinging back to base. If they lose Internet connectivity then the gates automatically open. If they didn't, residents would not be able to access the community. Today's issue is not caused by Summit or the Internet circuit itself. That is working. The TEM router/network switch that connects to the Internet circuit has failed. A new router has been ordered and we expect it to be delivered and installed next week.



 

Update: 10/28/2024


All gates are currently closed and working as they should. Thank you for your patience as we worked through the issues


 

Update: 10/26/2024


Summit was out today to replace the ONT device. We are waiting for confirmation that the work has been completed. We are going to continue monitoring the Internet circuit to see if it remains error free for the next 48 hours, and if it does the Board will likely make the decision to close the Mandalay 4 gates again early next week. More to follow


 

Update: 10/24/2026


Maybe a little more explanation is required to dispel rumors about the Mandalay 4 gates.

Summit provides a fiber Internet connection at each gate into a device called an Optical Network Terminal (ONT). The ONT hangs on the wall by the gate and it converts the fiber into ethernet, so it can be used on our private network. It is this ONT device that is failing at the Mandalay gate.



Summit does not have anymore in stock. They replaced the one at the Links/Legends gate last week but they have no more available. We are pushing them hard to get us a replacement but until then the gate has to remain open. Without good strong Internet, the kiosks don't work and there is the potential for a resident to be unable to enter the community.


We have opened multiple support tickets with Summit but they did not find the Internet issue during their troubleshooting. We found it and reported it to them. This is because the circuit is not actually down, the issue is intermittent. Summit's testing found no issues but we were able to show them the issue using testing and monitoring we (residents) set up.


Think of an Internet connection like I-4. At times there is little traffic and cars move quickly to their destination. At other times there is massive congestion and it can take 20-30 minutes to travel 2 miles. A data network works in a similar fashion. The first chart below shows normal internet activity at one of our gates when there is no congestion.


You can see it takes an average of approx. 4-5 milliseconds for roundtrip traffic with a couple of spikes. Now take a look at Mandalay 4's Internet circuit.


When the line is at the bottom, as it has been today, this is normal (4-5 ms) but then you can see for extended periods of time, about 14 hours yesterday, traffic takes about 2,500 to 3,000ms to travel roundtrip. This is about 600x longer than it should causing legitimate traffic (guest talking to Call Center, scanning of Drivers License, printing, remote opening the gate, etc.) to become impossible. To avoid lockouts the gate has to remain open.


The ONT is a specialist piece of network equipment that is not readily available and has to be configured by a Summit technician. Once it is replaced and the Internet issue is resolved we will close the gate and resume normal operation. Please know this remains the #1 priority for the BTCA Board. As soon as we receive an update we will share it with the community.

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