Cellular router feature considerations will vary based on the use case, from sites to vehicles to IoT
As a car buyer assesses fuel efficiency, safety, and comfort, selecting a 5G business internet router involves evaluating speed, security, and compatibility with each unique use case. With the rapid evolution of 5G technology, making an informed decision can significantly impact enterprise productivity and connectivity. Navigating the options for the perfect 5G router will drive business forward.
What is the history of business routers?
The history of routers is essential to understanding the benefits of modern-day 5G business internet routers. Cellular routers emerged to address the limitations of hotspots, which provided internet connectivity in areas that lacked traditional wired infrastructure but often suffered from restricted coverage, slower speeds, and security vulnerabilities. These routers offered more flexible, reliable, and secure connectivity. Initially sought out by enterprises seeking network failover solutions, cellular business routers quickly expanded to various environments, including vehicles, fixed and temporary sites, and IoT.
The demand for faster, more robust connectivity drove the evolution of Wireless WAN technology, leading to the development of routers optimized for 5G, which offers better performance and lower latency. Today, many enterprise routers can also accommodate satellite connections to enhance reliability further. Routers have also evolved to fit unique location needs through ruggedization and updated form factors.
The role of 5G in cellular router trends
5G business internet routers provide high speeds, low latency, and reliable connectivity for various applications. Thanks to their ability to support more demanding tasks and environments, they have a profound impact on business operations. Here’s how 5G has prompted new capabilities in cellular routers.
New form factors
5G technology sparked changes in router design to ensure optimal performance in any environment. Different types of 5G — particularly high-band spectrum — have a shorter signal reach and need a clear line of sight. This means enterprises need more than a cellular router to realize the ultra-low latency and capacity of high-band 5G. The solution? Outdoor 5G adapters, which are often placed on rooftops and buildings for better signal acquisition — a trend that will continue to grow and evolve as 5G standalone networks become more widely accessible.
Product sophistication
As 5G extends its reach across a broad swath of use cases and applications, there's a pressing need for enhanced security and improved performance. Some trending features include:
- Zero trust security, which continuously verifies user and device identity to connect users to specific resources and reduce lateral movement across network segments.
- Secure Access Service Edge (SASE), which combines zero trust principles and wide-area networking to provide secure access to resources no matter where they reside, creating an impenetrable digital fortress via the cellular router.
- 5G SD-WAN which enables flexible network management and link bonding, allowing 5G business internet routers to adapt in real time to changing demands and improve quality of experience (QoE).
- 5G network slicing, which allocates, isolates, and tailors network segments for specific applications, ensuring each slice receives the dedicated resources it needs, enabling the support of service-level agreements.
Choosing the right 5G business internet router for your use case
Informed cellular router selection is crucial for ensuring optimal connectivity and performance. Different use cases, such as fixed and temporary sites, vehicles, and IoT applications, require tailored solutions to meet specific security, performance, and location needs.
Fixed and temporary sites
Minimizing downtime, maintaining stable connections, and providing sufficient bandwidth to support critical operations are major concerns for fixed-site networks, especially when accessing cloud-based services or processing transactions are essential to business continuity.
Many enterprises will rely on the ability to support multiple connections, such as wired, cellular, and satellite, when choosing a cellular router for sites. Diverse connections mean businesses can establish network redundancy through failover and/or improve resiliency and continuity using bandwidth aggregation as part of a supported SD-WAN solution. Choosing the right router also enables access to flow balancing, which allows businesses to balance cost profiles between metered and non-metered data plans.
In the case of temporary sites, cellular routers are non-negotiable, as they provide immediate and flexible internet connectivity without the need for wired infrastructure. Locations such as construction sites, events, or emergency response areas often lack pre-existing network setups. A 5G business internet router allows for quick deployment, ensuring essential communications and operations can proceed immediately. These high-speed connections can also be easily moved or reconfigured as site needs change, making it a practical and cost-effective solution for temporary setups.
Vehicles
Delivery trucks, utility fleets, and emergency service vehicles often operate in disparate coverage areas, creating connectivity challenges for the applications and devices they need to perform their jobs. Dual modem routers in vehicles can accommodate multiple connectivity options, including cellular and satellite. Using two active radio connections, dual modem routers automatically switch from one connection or carrier to another without downtime, creating constant uptime.
A cellular router that supports SD-WAN link bonding features such as flow duplication reinforces critical communications by replicating flows across multiple WAN connections as the vehicle moves between coverage areas. Bandwidth aggregation can create a fatter pipe for video uploads or live streaming.
Not to be understated, durability and ruggedness are critical for cellular vehicle routers because vehicles often operate in challenging environments. These routers must withstand constant vibrations, temperature extremes, moisture, dust, and other harsh conditions that are common on the road. A ruggedized router ensures reliable performance and long-term functionality despite these stresses. Without these qualities, the router could fail, leading to connectivity issues that disrupt communication, navigation, and other vital vehicle operations.
IoT
Cellular routers provide reliable, flexible, and scalable connectivity crucial for IoT. 5G networks supported by these routers offer broad coverage, enabling IoT devices to connect and communicate even in remote areas where wired connections are impractical. 5G business internet routers can support many connected devices, making it easier to scale IoT deployments as needs grow, and cloud management capabilities ensure devices and routers can be quickly deployed and reconfigured without extensive infrastructure, which is especially valuable in dynamic or temporary setups.
Many enterprise businesses seeking IoT connectivity solutions will find value in selecting a router that supports private cellular networks. In manufacturing environments, for example, private network routers can facilitate rapid data collection and processing, quicker response times for automation applications, and the ability to connect a high volume of sensors, trackers, and machines without wired or Wi-Fi coverage limitations.
Zero trust security as part of a SASE solution should be a top priority in all use cases. This combination ensures that sites, fleets, and IoT devices can be managed through remote monitoring, bulk provisioning, streamlined routing, and cloud-based configuration regardless of location, the IT team's size, or the network's expansiveness.