Simplify your Wireless WAN deployment with a purpose-built solution integrated with Cellular Intelligence
Wireless WANs are continuing to be adopted at a rapid pace due to the extended reach, greater agility, and enhanced time to service that they provide. However, enabling at scale, business-grade deployments take a level of cellular sophistication that can’t be met by entry-level solutions. What’s required is a purpose-built solution designed to meet the unique demands of cellular networking.
Cellular Intelligence is a new concept that Cradlepoint is announcing that refers to its suite of sophisticated cellular capabilities that enable networking IT teams to uniquely visualize and optimize cellular connections, traffic, and data plans. Cellular Intelligence is the foundation to enabling networking IT teams – even ones approaching cellular networking for the first time – deploy reliable and scalable Wireless WAN networks that are simpler manage.
Learn more about how to build and scale Wireless WAN with ease on our Cellular Intelligence webpage.
Because Cradlepoint has been building Wireless WAN networks for over a decade, we have gained critical experience that has been designed into our current LTE and 5G solutions. The more significant cellular innovations have been captured in our five categories of Cellular Intelligence.
- High-quality connections: Innovations embedded in our modems, such as built-in SLA tools and continuous monitoring of connections, ensure that our products can connect to the cellular network faster and hold those connections longer than industry alternatives.
- Cellular insights: Comprehensive multi-layered dashboards with in-depth cellular health scores and integrated live views of signal strength ensure network administrators have required visibility into the cellular environment as well as the tools required to simplify the lifecycle management functions for Cradlepoint routers and adapters.
- Traffic optimization: Cellular-optimized SD-WAN capabilities allow for granular policies to be defined that match applications to the most appropriate WAN connection based on performance, available bandwidth, signal-strength, and/or data plan usage, ensuring a high quality of experience for critical applications.
- Secure, cellular-optimized management protocol: Cradlepoint routers and adapters communicate with NetCloud Manager through a management protocol (called Cradlepoint Stream protocol) that is 10X more efficient than traditional network protocols such as SNMP. This enables a vast amount of telemetry data to be collected by NetCloud from our routers and adapters, while using minimal amounts of data.
- Integrated SIM management: NetCloud will soon extend Wireless WAN visibility and control to the enterprise’s SIM cards and subscribed data plans through software integrations with Ericsson and other platforms.
Ericsson IoT Accelerator integration with Cradlepoint's NetCloud Service
Ericsson IoT Accelerator (IoTA) makes it possible to activate and manage SIM cards – whether it is 1 or 1 million, simultaneously. It has been adopted by more than 35 cellular service provider partners to enable global cellular connectivity.
To extend Wireless WAN visibility to the SIM cards that an enterprise has ordered from their Cellular Service Provider, Cradlepoint is integrating the Ericsson IoTA, platform with its cloud-based management platform, NetCloud. This functionality is available for demos now and will be generally available in Q2/2022.
This integration provides significant value for both enterprises and partners alike. For enterprises who leverage their cellular connectivity services from one of the carriers that leverages Ericsson IoTA as their connectivity management platform, having this integration will increase operational efficiency. That is because for most enterprises, managing SIMs and data plans is a manual process that can be very time consuming.
Some of the challenges:
- Frequent coordination with the carrier for simple SIM management tasks. For example, activating SIM, and deactivating SIMs and making data plan adjustments (note for some enterprise customers these functions can also be completed through a Connectivity Management Platform with access from their carrier; however, it is completely separate from the router management platform).
- Manual spreadsheet mapping SIMs to routers with assigned data plans so that the networking teams have a record of what SIMs are located where.
- More complex deployments of cellular routers without SIM or data plan visibility. If a connectivity issue comes up during a deployment, cycles can be wasted in trying to determine what is wrong with the modem when really, the issue is with the SIM not being activated or the wrong data plan being applied.
With the Ericsson and Cradlepoint integration we are automating SIM management functions for enterprise customers, allowing them to dramatically increase their operational efficiency.
- SIM management functions (activations, deactivations, suspensions, data plan adjustments and more) can be performed within NetCloud Manager in seconds, eliminating the need to leverage a separate portal or call into the carrier’s call center.
- Correlations of what SIMs are in what routers and what the data plans is are displayed through NetCloud, simplifying on-going management.
- Deployments are simpler and faster because it is possible deploy the router, ensure that the SIM has been activated and confirm that the right data plan has been applied all through a single pane of glass.
Extending visibility to additional carrier SIM connectivity management portals
In addition to integration with Ericsson’s IoTA, Cradlepoint will also be integrating with SIM management aggregators as well. This will be to bring broader visibility across multiple carriers connectivity management portals such as Verizon ThinkSpace, Cisco IoT Control Center, AT&T Telegence and T-Mobile NetCracker, just to name a few. Enterprises and partners that have accounts with these platforms can import their account data into NetCloud to effectively manage everything through a single platform.
Why does Cellular Intelligence matter?
With its extended visibility and comprehensive connection and traffic optimization capabilities, there are three clear reasons why Cellular Intelligence should be included an LTE/ 5G wireless WAN deployment.
- Elevates quality of experience: With advanced cellular capabilities, Cradlepoint routers and adapters are engineered to deliver fast, predictable, and reliable connectivity – even in the most complex RF environments. Furthermore, the ability to view application performance across the Wireless WAN, plus create policies that match applications to the most appropriate WAN connection - elevate quality of experience for the organizations applications.
- Enables massive scale: Cellular Intelligence for 5G solutions embedded within comprehensive centralized management tools is a key requirement for enabling the Wireless WAN network to scale without added complexity. NetCloud is one of the industry’s most comprehensive cloud management platforms for Wireless WANs and it provides lean networking IT teams with the tools that they need to simplify all aspects of the Wireless WAN lifecycle – from deployment to on-going management and troubleshooting.
- Operational efficiency and cost containment: Providing integrated SIM management gives enterprises a true single pane of glass for their end-to-end Wireless WAN. This integration can save enterprise IT teams significant amounts of time by reducing the time it takes to perform certain SIM management functions and by simplifying deployments. It also can help contain costs by being able to not only control data usage through the router but to also change the data plan at a particular site if needed.