Why network redundancy is critical for IoT

Ian Marsden

Founder & CTO

LinkedIn

Reliable connectivity is the foundation to IoT success. Network redundancy is critical for IoT because it ensures your devices have backup connectivity options and minimises any device downtime or disruption of service.

This blog delves into the intricate web of network redundancy, exploring two pivotal strategies: over-the-air cellular network switching and multi-RAT (Radio Access Technology) connectivity. Discover how these approaches empower IoT devices to effortlessly pivot between different networks, ensuring uninterrupted connectivity even in the face of network hiccups.

Network redundancy

Ever heard the saying don’t put all your eggs in one basket? The same applies to IoT connectivity. You cannot afford to rely on only one network’s connectivity. What if it fails, loses availability, or rates skyrocket?

For IoT devices to work at optimum levels they must have access to a consistent, secure, and reliable connection always, regardless of location. To achieve this result, additional networks should be available for connecting devices, ensuring redundancy within the network.

Over-the-air cellular network switching

For cellular IoT solutions, a multi-IMSI SIM can be used to store multiple IMSIs, enabling devices to switch to different networks without physically changing the SIM. This offers peace of mind and network redundancy – if something goes wrong with one network due to an outage, for instance, the SIM can switch to another network as a backup to avoid connectivity loss and device downtime.

Connectivity providers offer multi-IMSI solutions with different levels of sophistication, functionality, and security. Some solutions can use eSIMs which provide the capability to store multiple network profiles that can be provisioned and managed over-the-air (OTA).

Multi-RAT connectivity

Multi-RAT connectivity solutions give IoT devices total connectivity freedom to choose which network type they connect to.

IoT devices that support a combination of cellular, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Near Field Communication (NFC), satellite and other protocols are more resilient to changing connectivity environments. This multi-RAT capability enables the device to optimise connectivity and helps to future-proof the IoT initiative and estate.

Infrastructure redundancy

Your cellular IoT connectivity infrastructure should be a robust system that allows your devices to connect seamlessly to the internet or a private network. This typically includes configuring Access Point Names (APNs) and deploying Points of Presence (PoPs).

But equipment can fail, cables break (or get stolen), disasters happen (fires, floods, earthquakes etc) – infrastructure redundancy is essential to prevent interruptions to service. Having redundancy strategies at different levels of the architecture, collectively work to minimise the impact of failures and ensure uninterrupted connectivity.

Points of Presence (PoPs) are strategically positioned within data centres or network facilities to enhance the speed and efficiency of data exchange between different networks. Typically, PoPs are distributed across various geographic locations to reduce latency and improve the performance but this distribution also ensures resilience, allowing for traffic rerouting through alternative PoPs if one experiences issues or is unreachable, to maintain connectivity.

An Access Point Name (APN) is a setting used in mobile networks to identify a specific network or carrier to which an IoT device should connect and is a crucial parameter for cellular IoT connectivity.
APN settings define how a IoT device establishes a data connection with the mobile network. This includes information such as the carrier’s name, the type of connection (e.g., 3G, 4G, or 5G), and the authentication parameters required for connecting to the carrier’s data services.

By configuring multiple APNs for each carrier your IoT devices may use, you can add redundancy at carrier level so if one carrier or APN becomes unavailable or experiences issues, devices can switch to an alternative APN for uninterrupted connectivity.

APNs can also be used to implement load balancing, distributing traffic across multiple APNs to help reduce bottlenecks and optimise network usage.

How Eseye provides infrastructure redundancy

Our AnyNet solution uses multiple data centres worldwide, connected by a global MPLS core, to host PoP (Point of Presence) interfaces for carrier interconnects.

Each network operator has a connection to a primary data centre, which is the most suitable one for their geographic operation. They are also configured to have a secondary data centre for use if the connection to their primary data centre fails.

Within each data centre, equipment is configured to have a spare that can instantly take over if there’s a failure to the main equipment. For example, firewalls in data centres operate in pairs, with the backup firewall running in hot standby so that it can automatically take over if the primary firewall fails.

Ian Marsden

Founder & CTO

LinkedIn

Ian has a passion for developing technology-based solutions that deliver real improvements to businesses, the environment and quality of life.

Previously he co-founded CompXs to deliver the world’s first ZigBee design. Prior to CompXs, Ian held senior software leadership roles at Philips and has since spearheaded the ground-breaking innovation of our global AnyNet Secure cellular solution.