I’m Marty Lamb, Vice President of Technical Development, at Rajant Corporation, exclusive provider of the industry-leading Kinetic Mesh® wireless networks. Our fully mobile, private networks consist of BreadCrumb® wireless nodes powered by our patented InstaMesh® software.
I’ve been involved in the development of our networks since day one. Our focus has always been to provide you with game-changing wireless mesh technology that supports your applications with continuous, mobile connectivity you can depend on.
Now you’re probably thinking what’s so “game changing” about wireless mesh? On the surface, all wireless and mesh networks may appear to deliver the same features and capabilities. But that’s really not the case. All wireless and mesh networks are not created equal. Our technology is truly unique among wireless providers. We “do mesh” differently.
In the next few minutes, I’d like to tell you about five critical capabilities you should look for in a mesh network.
Integration
Today, enterprises have a mix of systems that include both wired and wireless
technologies. Adding or expanding infrastructure requires a solution that can integrate with your overall network – without rip and replace. Kinetic Mesh infrastructure is designed to integrate seamlessly with your existing infrastructure. Our networks support Wi-Fi and use Ethernet for easy integration with satellite, fiber, copper, cellular, LTE, 3G/4G, point-to-point wireless, and point-to-multipoint wireless. While our InstaMesh software utilizes a proprietary routing algorithm, it is fully compatible with 802.11 standards. So, you can protect your network investment while increasing network capacity, mobility and connectivity.
But, our integration advantages don’t stop there because we know that customer environments are constantly changing. Regardless of whether your network operates in an open-pit mine, a bustling seaport, or a remote desert, environments and conditions frequently change. In an open-pit mine, terrain and weather constantly change. In busy ports, ships, containers, equipment, vehicles, and tenants are constantly coming and going. And, battlefield networks often have to deal with shifting sands. To deliver on the promise of ‘everywhere connectivity,’ your applications require a network that can readily adapt to constant change and still perform at peak performance. Our Kinetic Mesh networks are “living” mesh networks that move with and adapt to changing connectivity demands. They don’t just survive changes. They actually thrive in diverse and evolving environments.
Mobility
Mobility is more than having a wireless device on a police car and providing connectivity on way to an incident. While that is certainly vital in a public safety application, today’s mobility encompasses many valuable new technologies – the Internet of Things, autonomous vehicles and equipment, unmanned ground vehicles and unmanned aerial vehicles to name a few. In addition, Industry 4.0 is ushering in the next phase in manufacturing automation. These technologies are rapidly gaining acceptance, and all have one thing in common – they depend on continuous, mobile connectivity.
Our InstaMesh software orchestrates the continuous and virtually instantaneous forwarding of all wired and wireless connections within the network. As nodes move, InstaMesh never has to break connections to form new connections as is the case with traditional wireless networks. And it maintains connections until they’re no longer needed. We call this make-make-make, never break connectivity, or connectivity evolved. In addition, InstaMesh automatically adapts to network changes and establishes new links as you add, move, or remove BreadCrumbs while keeping communications intact and secure.
Redundancy
Many competing wireless solutions depend on controller nodes which introduce a potential point of failure and can result in service interruptions. In contrast, our networks do not use a controller node, and have no single point of failure.
In fact, our networks have built-in redundancy because our multi-radio, multi-frequency BreadCrumbs automatically form connections with numerous neighboring nodes. In a large network, a single node could have hundreds and even thousands of node connections, providing a vast number of potential data pathways and routing options. As a result, InstaMesh can instantly direct traffic across a viable path and always chooses the most efficient path to the destination.
This is “pay-once” redundancy because the multi-radio mesh forms a fully redundant web of connectivity without purchasing backup nodes. For redundancy in a traditional wireless network, extra access points must be purchased to serve as backups which can easily double deployment costs.
Scalability
Today’s network requirements are constantly evolving to support new applications, extend coverage, support emerging technologies, and accommodate massive data volumes. Our BreadCrumb-based networks can scale to hundreds of interconnected mobile nodes. In fact, we have yet to reach the limit of how many nodes a Kinetic Mesh network can support. So, regardless of how many wireless nodes you have today, you can increase capacity and reach to meet future connectivity requirements.
Our BC|Commander and BC|Enterprise applications offer a comprehensive Kinetic Mesh network management solution that makes it easy to diagnose and resolve problems, configure network and security options, and integrate or modify network topology.
Security
Industry experts agree on one thing: cybercrime is an epidemic. It’s not a matter of “if,” it’s a matter of “when.” From day one, we have invested significant resources to provide robust security functions within our Kinetic Mesh networks. Our military-grade security provides multiple cryptographic, encryption, and authentication options. Data flowing through the mesh stays encrypted until it is delivered to its final destination. Authentication capabilities provide protection from packet injection or replay attacks. In addition, you can isolate and separate configuration roles to provide an added layer of security.
If you would like to learn more about our Kinetic Mesh networks, go to our website and view my video titled, Rajant BreadCrumb Wireless Nodes.