Re: Opengear alternatives that support 5g?

[Mark Tinka <mark@tinka.africa>]

On 4/27/24 17:49, Mel Beckman wrote:
> Quite often I’m looking for OOBM at antenna sites or in remote DCs where there is no Plan B carrier. Cellular has 
> always been the goto choice for this, but we keep getting pushed out of contracts by technology upgrades. 2g, then 3g, 
> and  next 4g LTE are being deprecated.
>
> The main reason for network shutdowns is that the carriers have limited spectrum available for expansion. To deliver 
> faster, more cost effective data service to customers, carriers must re-use existing spectrum licenses with newer, more 
> efficient cellular technology. Old 2G/3G infrastructure makes way for new networks, and older cellular devices must be 
> retired. 4g may have a decade left before complete absence, but its footprint is already shrinking where 5G is 
> available.
>
> I’ve seen this first hand with 4g cellular alarm circuits: suddenly they get less reliable or fail completely, and the 
> reason always turns out to be degraded RSSI due to 5G deployment.
>
> So 5G is imperative for cellular OOBM, hence the hunt for COTS drop-in replacements that won’t break the bank. 
> Upgrading, for example, 100 antenna sites is also a major truck roll cost, so we want to get it right the first time.  
> Physical space and power limitations usually rule out 1U rackmount refurb Cisco terminal servers, which is why we need 
> 0U gear. Yes, I can cobble together a raspberry pi and some hats and cables and dingles and dangles and make a science 
> fair solution. But I need something that is commercially supported, won’t have me scratching my head later about what 
> version of the Ubuntu is going to work, and won’t randomly fry its electronics during a power surge.
>
> It’s looking like that solution is firmly priced at ~$500 today.

Fair enough - if the bulk of your OoB use-case is remote (cell) sites, 
your typical options won't work or will be limited.

Oddly, in our parts, we find remote, non-city locations, tend to keep 
their 3G/4G status, or don't even get considered for 5G at all. But I 
guess this will vary by market the world over, so I could see a remote 
site in Norway, for example, having 5G vs. a remote site in, say, Egypt, 
doing the same.

I think what you probably want to consider for the long-term is 
decoupling the device from the network media. If you can attach a MiFi 
router via a USB port to a cheap device (like Mikrotik), this would help 
keep costs down as mobile operators deprecate GSM data technologies in 
the future. I like Mikrotik because in addition to being cheap and 
feature-rich for basic network access, the firmware is regularly 
upgradeable unlike typical consumer-style CPE's.

Mark.