Case Study: Aerea (Sigfox)

 

Aerea is the Sigfox operator in the Netherlands. It maintains Sigfox base stations all over the country to provide Internet access to the Sigfox IoT objects.

The Sigfox base stations connect to DSL, fibre or any kind of landline Internet that the national Internet service providers like KPN or Ziggo have available in the area to provide Internet access to the Sigfox IoT objects.

The problem is when KPN or Ziggo experiences landline Internet outage, all the Sigfox IoT objects will be disconnected because the Sigfox base stations no longer have Internet access.

Aerea needs a solution to maintain Internet connectivity for the Sigfox IoT objects when the KPN or Ziggo landline Internet fails.

Challenges

The Sigfox base stations provide Internet access to the Sigfox IoT objects via the KPN or Ziggo landline Internet connection. The problem is when KPN or Ziggo experiences Internet outage, all the Sigfox IoT objects will be disconnected because the Sigfox base stations no longer have Internet access.

The Sigfox IoT objects such as smart meters, logistic trackers, intelligent sensors, security equipment will not be able to operate at full capacity, when they lose Internet connectivity. This poses a serious problem for Aerea.

Solutions

Instead of connecting the DSL or fibre landline Internet directly to the Sigfox base station, which will lose Internet access when the landline Internet fails, the Sigfox base station connects to the Pepwave MAX BR1 router.

The Pepwave MAX BR1 router features one ethernet WAN port and an embedded 4G LTE/3G modem. It is able to connect to the DSL or fibre landline Internet as well as a mobile Internet provider e.g. Tele2 or T-Mobile for a 4G LTE/3G Internet backup.

When KPN or Ziggo experiences service outage, the MAX BR1 router will detect the connectivity failure and automatically switch to the backup Tele2 or T-Mobile 4G LTE/3G network. The Sigfox base station will remain connected to the Internet, and so do all the Sigfox IoT objects.

Benefits

Pepwave MAX BR1 router leverages the existing Tele2 or T-Mobile 4G LTE/3G network to backup the KPN or Ziggo landline Internet. Smart meters, logistic trackers, intelligent sensors, security equipment, and other Sigfox IoT objects, will maintain Internet connectivity via the Tele2 or T-Mobile 4G LTE/3G network when KPN or Ziggo landline Internet fails.

Peplink InControl2 cloud management service allows Aerea to monitor and manage their 400+ MAX BR1 deployment all over the Netherlands on a single cloud platform. InControl2 provides instant email alert and detailed log on landline Internet failure which help Aerea to assess and maintain the highest level of network availability.

With the MAX BR1, Aerea is able to achieve a network availability higher than that of any individual KPN, Ziggo, Tele2 or T-Mobile network.