Re: home router battery backup

[Mark Tinka <mark@tinka.africa>]

On 1/13/22 01:11, Scott T Anderson via NANOG wrote:

> For those individuals with backup battery power for their 
> modem/router, do they maintain Internet access throughout a power 
> outage (as long as their backup power solution works)? I.e., does the 
> rest of the ISP network maintain service throughout a power outage?

In 2016, there was a massive storm in my neighborhood that flooded my 
fibre provider's GPON PoP. That was an outage.

In 2018, there was a neighborhood-wide power outage that caught the 
provider off-guard re: their own backup.

In recent years, the provider has been able to maintain uptime through 
extended and/or multiple daily power outages.

But in the end, your provider will be the weakest link, if you are able 
to keep your devices powered throughout a lengthy or multi-day outage.

The mobile operators don't seem to be able to last more than 8hrs in my 
neck of the woods, and worse if the the day has multiple outages, as the 
battery never gets a chance to fully recharge.


> Are the modems with backup power designed to operate for a specified 
> period of time without power and if so, for how long and how was that 
> duration identified?

All comes down to how large the battery is, and how much the site's 
demand is.


> If those with backup power do maintain Internet access during a power 
> outage, do they lose that access if the power outage extends beyond a 
> certain time? I.e., does the ISP network equipment go offline at some 
> point in time due to batteries being drained and not having power 
> generation capabilities?

Again, down to battery and demand sizing.

The other issue here is if there are multiple outages in the same 24hr 
period, the ability for the operator to sustain uptime decreases, 
because the battery never gets a full charge again.

Mark.