Perle IRG5521 LTE Routers provide LTE coverage when WiFi is unavailable
When the power goes down, so does the WiFi. Cellular systems, however, keep working. A Case Study about Winning Strategies’ new stand-alone multi-power-source wireless surveillance system.
PRINCETON, N.J. (Mar. 30, 2021) Establishing a contingency plan to recover IT services after an emergency, or system disruption, is a critical step in the network design process. IT systems are vulnerable to a variety of interruptions that range from short-term power outages to severe natural disasters that can devastate communications for several days. In some cases, critical resources such as electric power or telecommunications might be outside of an organization's ability to control uptime.
When critical network data needs to flow during a system disruption an established fallback network can provide redundancy to keep a business running for the duration of any outage. Recently, a large construction and engineering firm needed to rethink its security contingency plan when damage from Hurricane Laura disabled their video surveillance system.
The construction firm contracted the network engineers at Winning Strategies to design a stand-alone multi-power-source wireless surveillance system to withstand future outages. John Gayeski, Director at Winning Strategies explains, “Installing a reliable security surveillance system is not as simple as buying a bunch of cameras and connecting them to WiFi. When the power goes down, so does the WiFi. Cellular systems, however, keep working when the power is out.”
The location of the installed system is very large. Some areas primarily use WiFi while other areas are remote and rely solely on cellular network connectivity. To ensure captured security footage is reliably transmitted at all times, Winning Strategies sourced Perle IRG5521 LTE Routers.
Gayeski comments, “The Perle Routers fit the bill. Other manufacturers offered either WiFi or cellular routing, but not both, which was critical in this redundant solution design.”
In most locations, the IRG5521 LTE Router would provide primary connectivity over WiFi with automatic failover to back-up LTE coverage during power outages. In the remote locations where WiFi is unavailable, the same IRG55521 LTE Router would provide LTE coverage as the primary connectivity method. The ability to use the same product in both installation scenarios provided flexibility and efficiency.
The solution was rolled out using solar cabinet enclosures with back-up batteries. The IRG5521 Routers were perfect for this environment because they are designed to operate on limited power sources by consuming less than 1 Watt in idle mode. Also, standby mode can be used to protect power sources by dropping power consumption to a target of 53 mW. This can be triggered by timers, low voltage detection, or I/O.
While it may be impossible to eliminate all risks, with proper contingency planning many vulnerabilities can be minimized or eliminated through technical, management, or operational solutions in an organization's risk management effort. With multiple back-up power sources and multiple network connectivity failover paths, the construction firm can now rest assured that their surveillance system should withstand any future system disruptions.
About Winning Strategies: – http://wsits.com/
Founded in 2005 and headquartered in Newark, NJ, Winning Strategies ITS offers a preventive approach to services and support to minimize business disruptions. Our network engineers can function as your in-house technical team, managing your needs through preventive maintenance and upgrades, remote support, and backup of company data.
