30 August 2023

Paul McHugh, area director, Cradlepoint

To cope with this increase of data and take advantage of the latest technology, many organisations are looking to improve their connectivity infrastructure to ensure it offers a flexible, fast, and reliable service. In fact, a recent report from Cradlepoint found that 93% of UK firms felt better connectivity would make them more resilient to future economic, societal, and political shocks.

Achieving this relies on implementing next-generation wireless networks. For instance, 5G offers businesses high bandwidth and almost real- time latency, which is needed to truly take advantage of the data being generated by new devices.

However, for a new company looking to begin their journey into the world of wireless connectivity, there are many different factors they need to consider when selecting the wireless router that will enable the connectivity. Navigating this landscape can be daunting at first. By following the guide below IT buyers can be sure they are selecting the best router for their needs.

Connecting your fleet

There are several areas that need to be assessed when purchasing a wireless router for a vehicle fleet. Use cases can range from supporting surveillance, digital signage, payment systems, GPS data, automatic vehicle location, telematics and much more. It can also be deployed in everything from public bus fleets to emergency responders and utility and delivery vans.

For example, when considering 5G for public transit, a company may want to improve experience by integrating on-board payment processing and smart city applications. By placing ruggedised routers throughout a fleet of city buses, those vehicles are now able to provide contactless payment solutions, digital signage, real-time arrival information, guest WiFi, and traffic signal priority communication.

As such, identifying the right router requires teams to consider:

• Reliability: Reliable connectivity is essential for the digital technologies on which fleets now depend. A dual-modem router ensures always-on connectivity through instant failover between multiple carriers. This feature is particularly important for fleets traveling in and out of good signal areas, such as delivery vehicles or patrol cars that frequent rural areas.
• Manageability: Regardless of whether your organization has 1,000 fire support vehicles, 100 rural school buses, or a handful of vans, around-the-clock support and cloud-based network management are mission critical. A proper management platform should be scalable, with the ability to monitor and manage all of your routers — including those in vehicles, locations, and for IoT— from anywhere.
• Security: The transmission of sensitive customer and payment information or public safety data to and from vehicles requires an enterprise-grade wireless edge solution. The best rugged routers include built-in application-aware and zone-based firewalls, VPN options, and threat management and web filtering features.
Purpose-built: To help extend equipment longevity, ruggedised routers can be certified to withstand vibration, shock, dust, splash, humidity, and temperature extremes ranging from -30 degrees Celsius to 70 degrees Celsius. Additionally, ignition sensing routers provide another layer of safety by allowing the user to automatically power the equipment on or off as the vehicle starts or is shut off.

Industrial IoT requires industrial grade routers

Industrial IoT and Industry 4.0 have become a major factor in manufacturers’ and other companies’ network architectures and digital transformation plans. Organisations are using industrial cellular routers and IoT to transform siloed, single-use data into a sea of big data for high-value activities aimed at improving operations by reducing waste and increasing efficiencies.

IT and OT teams need IoT solutions that meet the specific needs of their use case. Each team should be asking a variety of questions:

• How much bandwidth does your IoT network need: When you buy equipment, you’re typically buying for the next 3-5 years, but the cellular broadband environment evolves at a much more rapid pace as new networks and spectrum bands are established. If you’re looking at 5G IoT applications with high bandwidth requirements, it’s vital to think about buying for the future, especially if those devices will be in a 5G area during the lifecycle of the product.
• What does the security framework of your 5G IoT applications look like: Seek out devices and routers with high-quality, enterprise-class security. They should be reliable products with verified testimonials and secure, capable management platforms.
• Who is responsible for the maintenance of your IoT devices: If you have a small team it is vital to look for tools that enable you to manage devices through a single platform. Allowing workers to remotely troubleshoot issues, helping keep costs down and minimising disruption to the network.
• How much growth do you anticipate in the future: Scalability should always be a top consideration when researching new and future solutions. Consider ease of deployment, remote management solutions, and how you’ll manage the increased attack surface as you add new 5G IoT sensors and devices.

By answering these questions, teams can be sure they are implementing the right router for their use case and ensure that it will continue to serve their needs for years to come.

Bringing the branches together

Finally, there are branch use cases. The sheer number of mission-critical applications used by distributed enterprises is staggering. Depending on the industry, the networking needs of a typical branch office can include everything from tablet computing to in-store kiosks and inventory management systems.

In these cases IT teams need to look for routers that fulfil these key criteria:

• Offers complete lifecycle management: From mobile installation applications, to 5G analytics and tools, and out-of-band management. The best routers will support all of these processes, helping reduce pressure on IT teams
• Is compatible with a full range of cellular technologies: From 4G LTE to gigabit-class LTE and 5G, routers that can support this will ensure firms have the capacity to seamlessly migrate sites across generations when new technology becomes available.
• Provides carrier-class connectivity: With tailored software-defined modem versions for each network operator’s requirements and capabilities, firms can predict vulnerable connections and ensure they have the best connection available.

By following these guidelines, firms can ensure they are selecting the right router for their needs, avoiding any potential problems.