Dual-SIM router provides wireless fail-over
Mobile broadband router connects LANs over redundant cellular links.
By Bryan Betts | Techworld | Published: 07:14, 23 November 2007
Remote or mobile networks can now get a secure wireless connection back to HQ, even if one of the cellular networks fails, claimed Amplicon as it announced a mobile router with slots for two SIM cards.
The dual-SIM device, which comes from South African developer Multenet, automatically fails-over to the back-up network if the first one goes down, said David Evans, Amplicon's datacomms product manager.
Mobile Router also features a NAT firewall - like a home broadband router - and a VPN client that supports both L2TP and PPP. Evans claimed that means that it should be able to set up a tunnelled link on any cellular network - he said some SIM card providers block PPP and IPSec, but that L2TP should still get through.
He said that as well as adding security, a VPN enables the main office to connect to devices on the remote LAN, such as CCTV cameras.
"Tariffs are a minefield, but in general you can use any SIM from the main networks, or a data SIM from one of the various specialist MVNOs (mobile virtual network operators) such as Wyless, Mobius or Stream Communications," he added.
The initial release of Mobile Router supports up to 230kbit/s over EDGE networks, with a dual-SIM version supporting 3G and HSDPA due in December.
"That should be capable of 3.6Mbit/s, but then it's down to what the network supports," said Evans, adding though that the device will not support link aggregation - combining two 3G connections for extra bandwidth. "Unfortunately, that probably won't be a reality for some time, if at all," he said.
