Preventing network downtime with multiple broadband connections gives peace of mind to enterprise businesses
The debate surrounding failover is no longer a question of whether it’s important or not: preventing downtime is a key aspect of protecting a company’s bottom line. These days the bigger question regarding business continuity centers on which type of failover solution to utilize for your specific needs.
There are three main ways to set up failover through cellular connectivity — each with its own unique merits in certain circumstances.
Overlay failover
When network downtime is financially and operationally unacceptable — which is always — many companies with hundreds or even thousands of locations use Cradlepoint branch adapters to provide overlay failover. These adapters convert a cellular signal to Ethernet to provide the location’s traditional wired-line router with an additional “wired” WAN connection.
In this scenario, the two WAN connections are always live, with the traditional router determining when failover is necessary. This is a major boon for companies that need reliable failover but don’t have the time, budget, or need to completely overhaul their enterprise network architecture. Overlay failover is a simple, effective solution. Another cost benefit, through Cradlepoint’s NetCloud Manager, is the ability to route Out-of-Band Management (OOBM) through a console cable connected between the adapter and the console port of the primary router.
Primary router multi-WAN failover
In both brick-and-mortar and in-vehicle locations, Cradlepoint routers can prevent downtime by providing a business with a primary source of connectivity that can decide when to fail over on its own. The devices use hybrid WAN, converging cellular broadband, Ethernet (DSL, Cable, T1, MetroE), and Wi-Fi-as-WAN in a single networking solution. And dual-modem (or three or more WAN source) devices allow for failover from one wireless broadband connection to another or from wired line to wireless, then to the second LTE or 5G connection, Wi-Fi, or any configuration the customer desires.
In vehicles, the ruggedized routers facilitate cellular broadband to Wi-Fi failover, too. IT managers can select Wi-Fi as the No. 1 connection priority, which enables Wi-Fi-as-WAN to automatically take over whenever available and mobile broadband to activate while on the road.
Router and cellular broadband failover
Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol (VRRP) enables a network failover solution option: Internet failover and router failover at the same time. VRRP is a layer 3 protocol that provides automatic default gateway selections on an IP network. In other words, if the main wired router fails because of hardware or software, the entire network automatically fails over to the Cradlepoint router — with the LAN and WAN uninterrupted.