Re: Opengear alternatives that support 5g?

[Mel Beckman <mel () beckman org>]

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. 

 -mel

> On Apr 27, 2024, at 4:59 AM, Mark Tinka <mark@tinka.africa> wrote:
>
> 
>
> > On 4/27/24 07:56, Saku Ytti wrote:
> >
> >
> >  For me Cisco is great here, because it's something an organisation
> > already knows how to source, turn-up, upgrade, troubleshoot, maintain.
> > And you get a broad set of features you might want, IPSEC, DMVPN, BGP,
> > ISIS, and so forth.
>
> I tend to agree.
>
> Cisco do this very well, and if you are really low on cash and okay with acquiring these on the cheap, the open 
> market has tons of deals and options from Cisco that have matured over the decades.
>
>
>
> > I keep wondering why everyone is so focused on OOB hardware cost, when
> > in my experience the ethernet connection is ~200-300USD (150USD can be
> > just xconn) MRC. So in 10 years, you'll pay 24k to 36k just for the
> > OOB WAN, masking the hardware price. And 10years, to me, doesn't sound
> > even particularly long a time for a console setup.
>
> Is a 10Mbps DIA link going for US$200 - US$300 MRC nowadays, excluding the x-connect? I'd have though it's now in 
> US$100 range at the very worst.
>
> Or are you looking at an OoB link of more than 10Mbps?
>
> Mark.