Hi all, I am looking at cellular-based devices as a higher
speed alternative to dial-up backup access methods for
out of band management during emergencies. I was
wondering if anyone had experiences with such devices
they could share?
Devices I've found include Sierra Wireless AirLink Raven X,
Digi's ConnectWAN 3G or 4G and Opengear's ACM5004-G. I
have no experience with any but they all appear to support
the Sprint network which I assume would be ideal due to
not having usage caps on data (currently). The Opengear
device runs linux and has four serial ports, a usb port
for additional storage and ethernet, so it seems to have
some small advantages over the others since it could double
as an emergency self-contained management station you can
SSH into and run diagnostics from. All appear to have
VPN/gateway support.
What none of them are clear on is how you would connect
to it over cellular since I assume you're just paying for
a typical data plan and it will randomly obtain IP
addresses. Maybe some type of dynamic dns service so you
can easily figure out your device's current IP? How
stable is the access to the device? Any idea if any of
them can do ipv6?
Hi all, I am looking at cellular-based devices as a higher
speed alternative to dial-up backup access methods for
out of band management during emergencies. I was
wondering if anyone had experiences with such devices
they could share?
Devices I've found include Sierra Wireless AirLink Raven X,
Digi's ConnectWAN 3G or 4G and Opengear's ACM5004-G. I
have no experience with any but they all appear to support
the Sprint network which I assume would be ideal due to
not having usage caps on data (currently). The Opengear
device runs linux and has four serial ports, a usb port
for additional storage and ethernet, so it seems to have
some small advantages over the others since it could double
as an emergency self-contained management station you can
SSH into and run diagnostics from. All appear to have
VPN/gateway support.
What none of them are clear on is how you would connect
to it over cellular since I assume you're just paying for
a typical data plan and it will randomly obtain IP
addresses. Maybe some type of dynamic dns service so you
can easily figure out your device's current IP? How
stable is the access to the device? Any idea if any of
them can do ipv6?
Another good question is if the 3g modem is firewalled by the mobile
provider so that incoming connections are blocked.
>
> Hi all, I am looking at cellular-based devices as a higher
> speed alternative to dial-up backup access methods for
> out of band management during emergencies.
I've used the Digi devices for Clearwire site OOB and in many retail
situations where they are use for backup connection and for when the wire
line hasn't been delivered yet. They do come with a static IP address if
you request (and pay?) for it. They can come from the shared mobile IP
range (RFC 2002) so that you can keep the static IP as you move between
tower sites. You can also get them "piped" right in to your net via a VPN,
although I suspect that is only affordable for a very large install base.
Real world 3G bandwidth is about 1Mb/s down and 300Kb/s down. RTT (ping)
is around 185ms to a local IXP (which kinda sucks for terminal support, but
still better than a POTS modem.)
David, a Sprint aircard can be had with a static-ip, so that should ease remote connectivity requirements. Or, you can opt for the Datalink (private VPN) service, which separates your aircard traffic from other customers within a VRF, obviating the need to run a separate VPN client.