Situation
The customer is located in an area with limited network coverage. The smartphone antennas do not provide sufficient signal to work stably. No provider comes with a wired connection near the area. Since the area is completely off-grid, the system must consume as little power as possible. The connection must be active without interruption, all year round, for continuous monitoring of the systems.
Solutions considered
- Implementation of a 4G antenna placed at the best possible coverage location.
- Implementation of a satellite connection.
Implemented solution
In view of the different criteria, the choice was made for a redundant 4G connection. Indeed, this one allows better speeds, a low latency, and a reasonable cost. In comparison, the satellite connection has the disadvantage of high or very high latency.
Operator search
In our case, we have chosen two operators offering so-called “unlimited” connections. These connections usually limit the speed beyond a certain amount of data used. There is never any overcharging when using large volumes.
Choice of hardware
The condition being a low consumption, we opted for a model of the range “Teltonika”. Moreover, these models generally support SIM redundancy by default. To compensate the poor network coverage, it was necessary to use a directional antenna. We worked with “quwireless”.
Additional configuration
Since LTE providers generally do not allow opening ports for direct remote access, it was necessary to configure a constant VPN tunnel with an intermediate server with a fixed IP.
In order to optimize bandwidth usage, both SIMs were configured in load balancing mode.
Conclusion
After installation and analysis, the stabilized signal allowed a stable connection from 15 to 30 Mbps per SIM (load balanced) for a maximum consumption of 7w.