Connected Bus by Wavecom
Episode 4 – Cloud Managed | Reliability and Resilience
The reliability and resilience of the Wavecom Technologies Connected Bus are crucial for Systems Integrators since modular Gateways relies on constant connectivity and data exchange with IoT Manager/Multi-Tenant Platform.
Modular Gateway Software components enable network communication and functionalities of the Connected Bus. Thus, to ensure reliability and resilience for modular Gateways, it is necessary to update and maintain software regularly and properly.
SD-WAN (Software Defined – Wide Area Network) makes the Connected Bus solution more flexible, automatable, resilient, and reliable. It is centrally and cloud managed by IoT Manager/Multi-Tenant Platform, automatable, and supports ZTP (Zero-Touch Provisioning) and VPNs.
In addition, using preventive maintenance, diagnostics, or troubleshooting allows to detect and solve errors before they affect network functionality or availability of Connected Bus.
Introduction
The reliability and resilience of the Wavecom Technologies Connected Bus are crucial for Systems Integrators since modular Gateways relies on constant connectivity and data exchange with IoT Manager/Multi-Tenant Platform.
To ensure network reliability and resilience it is necessary to update and maintain software regularly and properly for modular Gateways.
Additionally, using preventive maintenance, diagnostics, or troubleshooting allows to detect and solve errors before they affect network functionality of the Connected Bus.
In a Connected Bus solution network security is critical for modular Gateways, as they may be exposed to a variety of threats, such as unauthorized access, data theft, malware injection, or denial of service attacks.
To ensure the reliability and resilience of the modular Gateways in a Connected Bus solution, it is necessary to secure network access and data at all levels. On the Connected Bus, a VPN is used to protect network access from unauthorized users or devices.
SD-WAN (Software Defined – Wide Area Network) makes a Connected Bus solution more flexible, automatable, resilient, and reliable. It is cloud managed by IoT Manager/Multi-Tenant Platform (Figure 1) and supports ZTP (Zero-Touch Provisioning) and VPNs.
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Reliability and Resilience
In a Connected Bus solution, to ensure reliability and resilience for modular Gateways there are some best procedures to follow:
- Update and maintenance of software in modular Gateway
Software components of modular Gateway enable network communication and functionality. Thus, to ensure network reliability and resilience for modular Gateways, it is necessary to update and maintain software regularly and properly.
In addition, using preventive maintenance, diagnostics, or troubleshooting enable to detect and solve problems before they affect network functionality or availability of Connected Bus solution.
- Secure network access
In Connected Bus solution network security is essential for modular Gateways, as they may be exposed to various threats, such as unauthorized access, data theft, malware injection, or denial-of-service attacks.
To ensure in Connected Bus solution reliability and resilience in modular Gateways, it is necessary to secure network access and data at all levels. In Connected Bus, it is used a VPN to protect network access from unauthorized or malicious users or devices.
The Connected Bus solution’s components comprise a modular Gateway (5G Native) installed in each bus vehicle, which is cloud managed by the IoT Manager/Multi-Tenant Platform (5G WAN Manager | SD-WAN), as depicted in Figure 2.
IoT Manager/Multi-Tenant Platform
IoT Manager/Multi-Tenant Platform (5G WAN Manager | SD-WAN | Virtual Networks | Link aggregation | Security) provides a cloud managed ZTP system multi-tenant approach, as it allows the System Integrator to manage multiple Connected Bus modular Gateways.
Wavecom Technologies provides a ZTP (Zero-Touch Provisioning) tool cloud managed by IoT Manager/Multi-Tenant Platform that improves the efficiency of provisioning and deploying of a Connected Bus solution.
This platform can provision, update and configure modular Gateways for Systems Integrators wherever the Bus Operator’s fleet is, if it is connected to WAN.
In terms of reliability and resilience issues, tunnel protocols (SD-WAN), security policies and other mechanisms are used to prevent possible attacks to network.
On the other hand, at IoT Manager/Multi-Tenant Platform it is ensured ZTP server is secure and system image software is tested before being deployed, as a vulnerability in a ZTP setup is likely to affect many modular Gateways.
SD-WAN
SD-WAN is a software-based approach to creating and operating a wide area network. It virtualizes network functions so that the network can be used over a variety of heterogeneous physical and logical network connections and protocols, such as Wi-Fi and 5G.
SD-WAN makes Connected Bus solution more flexible, automatable, resilient, and reliable. It is centrally cloud managed by IoT Manager/Multi-Tenant Platform, automatable, and supports ZTP and VPNs.
It provides some benefits for Systems Integrators such as:
- Cost Savings
SD-WAN overlays existing network infrastructure and is transport agnostic. It also allows to freely use any combination of available private or public networks, including Wi-Fi and 5G, to route Connected Bus traffic.
Furthermore, the use of SD-WAN technology allows for multiple VPNs for separate Bus Operator Sites’ networks.
- Easy Setup
With SD-WAN, the Connected Bus solution can be quickly and easily deployed by less-skilled Systems Integrators’ staff. ZTP removes much of the manual work of provisioning network nodes by automating configuration. So, instead of sending a Systems Integrator’s Engineer to the Bus Operator Site, using an SD-WAN can rely on Technician to physically install, power, and cabling modular Gateways.
This adds reliability and security to the Connected Bus SD-WAN network, as ZTP configuration is less prone to misconfigurations caused by errors that occur due to repetitive manual tasks typed in the CLI (Command Line Interface) in the installation Bus Operator Site.
- Cloud Management
In Connected Bus Solution, SD-WAN are provisioned, and cloud managed centrally by IoT Manager/Multi-Tenant Platform, that offer a GUI-based dashboard providing real-time status and performance metrics.
In addition, SD-WAN provides smarter traffic routes based on centralized priorities, security and requirements, managed in the cloud by a platform such as the IoT Manager/Multi-Tenant Platform.
Zero Touch Provisioning
ZTP supports Systems Integrators scale the secure and easy way, thanks to automation provided by system image software installed in modular Gateways. They no longer need to manually configure so many resources, and they can instead count on virtually hands-free provisioning.
While the physical installation, powering, and cabling will continue to require personnel on Bus Operator Site, ZTP enables the remaining tasks, including establishing connectivity, device configuration or software upgrade, to be automated.
The deployment of the Connected Bus solution can be completed by less-skilled System Integrator’s staff.
On Connected Bus, ZTP is implemented on IoT Manager/Multi-Tenant Platform, which is the top tier of SD-WAN service, as shown in Figure 2. The basic ZTP’s requirements include the following:
- Modular Gateway with ZTP
- IoT Manager/Multi-Tenant Platform
In the definition of a Connected Bus Project/Delivery/Purchase, t
